Passchendaele movie

[wongskc]

Alberta funds Paul Gross's Passchendaele movie

By GAYLE MACDONALD

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 Page R3


Toronto -- Just before dawn on Nov. 6, 1917, the final battle began for the tiny Belgian village of Passchendaele.

Yesterday, Alberta's cash-flush premier Ralph Klein announced his province would commit $5.5-million for a Paul Gross-directed feature film about the recapture of this embattled town -- a victory that was largely due to the efforts of thousands of Canadian soldiers. Alberta-born Gross will also star.

Four Alberta regiments were among 20,000 Canadians who successfully took Passchendaele following a 16-day offensive, after almost three months of Allied fighting failed to make any progress. The $16-million film is to be shot around Calgary and in Europe and released next Remembrance Day.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051109/NOTE09-4/TPEntertainment/Film

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Bit more info in the Calgary Sun on this too - thanks for posting, I had no idea til I looked back at the paper.

Looks like it may focus on the 10th Battalion - forerunners of the Calgary Highlanders.   When they filmed Legends of the Fall here a few years ago, several local military guys helped train the extras; the Calgary Highlanders on the cadre managed to get the 10th Battalion insignia onto Henry Thomas' uniform and the C over 10 is conspicuous on many of the extras in the movie.

Will be neat to see the regiment represented again on film.

Barry Pepper used to talk about doing a WW I flying movie from a Canadian perspective; maybe this will stir his creative juices some more.

Hopefully it will not be another Canadian 'disaster movie' like Dieppe or The Valor and The Horror.  If they stick to the actual historical events, it won't be:

Passchendaele - Named for a village located on a low rise in the Ypres Salient, the very word Passchendaele has become synonymous with suffering and waste.  Strong German defences in this area, developed over the course of more than two years, gave the British extremely hard going.

The Tenth Battalion were called out of reserve to assist an attack on Hill 52, part of the same low rise Passchendaele itself was situated on.  The Battalion was not scheduled to attack, but the CO wisely prepared his soldiers as if they would be making the main assault - a decision that paid dividends when the unit was called out of reserve. On 10 November 1917, the Tenth Battalion took the feature with light casualties.

 

[jmackenzie_15]

I still say a big budget vimy ridge movie would be much better and much more compelling.
Hopefully this one is good though.

 

[Pte_Martin]

I'm just glad that after all these American movies that are out or comming out. That's there's finally something that looks like it's going to be a good Canadian movie

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I still say a big budget vimy ridge movie would be much better and much more compelling.
Hopefully this one is good though.

It's about the characters not the names of the battles.  Gross is playing his own grandfather so I'm willing to bet there will be some good characterizations here.  Band of Brothers took place largely in unheard of places - Bastogne notwithstanding - but what made the film was the characters.

 

[jmackenzie_15]

It's about the characters not the names of the battles.  Gross is playing his own grandfather so I'm willing to bet there will be some good characterizations here.  Band of Brothers took place largely in unheard of places - Bastogne notwithstanding - but what made the film was the characters.

I see your point, I just mean because vimy ridge was also a gigantic battle and turning point of world war one, canada won the battle, and is what many consider to be the birth of the nation out of the ashes of that battle.

Again though, hopefully this is really, really good.

 

[Infanteer]

Cool - I've liked Paul Gross' work to date; hopefully we can get a Canadian addition to the war film genre which has been quite popular of late.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I see your point, I just mean because vimy ridge was also a gigantic battle and turning point of world war one, canada won the battle, and is what many consider to be the birth of the nation out of the ashes of that battle.

Again though, hopefully this is really, really good.

Yeah, I hope it doesn't suck either.   I like Paul Gross too; cute Mountie show that was.

Vimy as birth of the nation is a given; I doubt it was a turning point of World War One; I think that came in late 1917 when the Russians collapsed and the Americans entered the war.   We still have a good chance of losing in early 1918 when the spring offensives broke upon us; the Germans had more troops thanks to the Russian collapse, but luckily the Americans were fresh and did a fair share of the fighting.   The Canadians and Australians did good work in 1918 also.   Vimy as impressive, but it didn't change much really, except give us a reputation as troops that got the job done.

Kind of a mixed blessing; it just meant we were asked to bleed that much more often...which is where Passchendaele comes in...

 

[Infanteer]

Vimy as impressive, but it didn't change much really, except give us a reputation as troops that got the job done.

That's for sure - isn't Vimy the battle that nobody talks about except us?  It certainly doesn't seem to be a highlight in general histories of the First World War.

 

[SHELLDRAKE!!]

I think we could make a pretty good vimy movie....after all we still use the same guns. On a lighter note, Paul Gross just finished his recce of the Suffield ranges and lets just say it was an eye opener.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Paul Gross just finished his recce of the Suffield ranges and lets just say it was an eye opener.

How so?

 

[Glorified Ape]

Cool - I've liked Paul Gross' work to date; hopefully we can get a Canadian addition to the war film genre which has been quite popular of late.

Indeed - a Canadian feature war film would be great. I like the fact that it's based in WWI, as it seems to be a largely neglected war where contemporary film production is concerned.

 

[SHELLDRAKE!!]

Paul and the director were very happy with the bleakness of Suffield and will be returning in january to look at set locations etc. The only problem foreseen is with set construction, the winds at Suffield might be a problem. Apparently shooting is scheduled for May/June timeframe.

 

[Kirkhill]

Perhaps (wishful thinking) this can do for Canada and Canadians what "Gallipoli" and "Breaker Morant" did for the Aussies.  I loved those movies - even with their anti-Brit bias  .

 

[54/102 CEF]

Yeah, I hope it doesn't suck either.   I like Paul Gross too; cute Mountie show that was.

Vimy as birth of the nation is a given; I doubt it was a turning point of World War One; I think that came in late 1917 when the Russians collapsed and the Americans entered the war.   We still have a good chance of losing in early 1918 when the spring offensives broke upon us; the Germans had more troops thanks to the Russian collapse, but luckily the Americans were fresh and did a fair share of the fighting.   The Canadians and Australians did good work in 1918 also.   Vimy as impressive, but it didn't change much really, except give us a reputation as troops that got the job done.

Kind of a mixed blessing; it just meant we were asked to bleed that much more often...which is where Passchendaele comes in...

Its common to state it as you have above.

We should not forget that pre fall 1917 there were 3 Armies and 3 wars French / Brit / Italy BEFORE the Italians were defeated at the Isonzo River / Caporetto battles. Then the Allies adopted a unified command under the French. Brit PM to the US Defence Minister - why we didn't do that before? We'd lose the government of course (sources on request after 21  ..... a small oversight that can lead to the 3 Armies descendants saying they did more that they did -

 

[54/102 CEF]

Perhaps (wishful thinking) this can do for Canada and Canadians what "Gallipoli" and "Breaker Morant" did for the Aussies.   I loved those movies - even with their anti-Brit bias   .

I would make a movie out of CEF Books "50th Bn in No Man's Land" by Victor Wheeler or "Only This" by James Pedley. Each book far exceeds the human interactions found in Saving Private Ryan or other famous War films.

Can we do it? No problem.

Should we do it? Well you see there are things know as Sitcoms or S_ITCOMS as I call them - pablum for your brain - but they make a ton of money for the major networks - so I guess we shouldn't do it.

Show a young soldier how to find these books and you've done your bit for Nov 11.

 

[Whiskey_Dan]

Awesome!! I look forward to seeing it.

Dan

 

[zeff]

While I applaud any and all films/documentaries/books/articles that enlighten Canadians on the valour and sacrifices made by our veterans, I cannot support a $5.5 million grant to this film. My reasons are twofold.

As a taxpayer I have to ask how this came about. The Alberta Government has a film program in place which has a maximum grant level of $1.5 million for Alberta filmmakers. How then does Paul Gross get $5.5 million? What was the selection process? How many other Alberta filmmakers applied for these funds? How many other film ideas were put forward? Is this the best project out there?

I feel that Veterans, to a large degree have been forgotten. Is a $5.5 million grant for a movie the best way to look after them and are there greater needs and issues that should be addressed? Why don't we ask the Veterans?

 

[onecat]

5.5 million for a movie that brings to light a forgetten war to most Canadians in which Canadians played a major, is nothing.  Zeff as a tax payer you should be happy that your money is actually being used for something good instead of the crap governments normally spend our money on.  Any film Paul Gross has made other movies work, look at men with brooms.. the first canadian made movie to actually get a wide theater release in canada.  It allows canadian actors to work in canada and play Canadians...  I very fitting very to show canadian what our veterns went though, in a war that was more butal than anything Canadians have been in since and at being almost a 100 years in the past is becoming more and more forgetten.  Zeff you need to re-think your stand on this.

 

[jimb]

My Dad was at Vimy, as a part of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps.

He made it very clear that if it had not been for the fact that the British Generals did not PLAN for a breakthru at Vimy, the Canadian Coprs could have "marched all the way to Berlin".

He and his Vickers guns crew were standing on top of the ridge, at the end of  day one of the 3 day battle, looking at the open ground that lay ahead of them. No German defenses, no trenches, just lots of guys running as hard as they could, to get out of there. IF there had been a follow-up plan to exploite the victory at Vimy, the whole war might have turned out quite diifferently, and a lot shorter too.

On the subject of the planned film by Paul Gross......................I have hopes that it will be authentic, and not subject to the kinds of revisions that some CBC productions have been. Unfortunayely, the kinds of people who make films tend to be leftists, and have a huge agenda to grind on. It seems to me that Mr Gross is not one of those guys.

Jim Bunting. Toronto.