Passchendaele (2008)

Passchendaele: Directed by Paul Gross. With Paul Gross, Michael Greyeyes, James Kot, Jesse Frechette. The lives of a troubled veteran, his nurse girlfriend and a naive boy intersect first in Alberta and then in Belgium during the bloody World War I battle of Passchendaele.

“At last a genuine Canadian movie… Calgary is Calgary… The Americans didnu0026#39;t win the battle, didnu0026#39;t even turn up anywhere… There were no Stars and Stripes in every office. Okay, the plot — a sort of WW1 Saving Private Ryan effort set against the bloody Belgian battle — is a little far fetched. But the scenes — both in 1916 Calgary and in the mud and horror of the battlefield — are as good as those in any WW1 movie Iu0026#39;ve seen. There are believable characters well portrayed both in the script and by the actors. The effects are superb. The lighting and cinematography are sensitive and creative. And how very impressive that Paul Gross was a triple threat man. He wrote it, he directed it and he starred in it. That totals 300% This is as good as they come.”