How many milsurp nuts have seen Passchendaele?

TYLER...yeah it is a bit of a stretch with the cartridge though it made the point there was little to find wrong in the equipment etc.

I was just happy they managed to use a .303 round...

JP said:
I was hoping for Band of Brothers and I got Legends of the Fall with Brad Pitt instead!

That's a good way of summing up the movie for those who have seen all three. Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
I was hoping for Band of Brothers and I got Legends of the Fall with Brad Pitt instead!

That's good. Only a few people actually saw BoB- mostly us gunnutz, everybody saw LoF. This movie can appeal to all audiences and get the ball rolling on interest to Canada's past. If it was just another kill, gore movie set in WW1 nobody but us gunnutz would care.
 
I was shocked today that not only some in the school where I work have not only not heard of the movie, but they have not heard of the battle!!!
 
Did anyone else want to back-hand that smart mouthed little kid?

That Sgt. should have left him hanging up with the Germans... serves him right.
 
I liked the mud and the battlefield scenes. A very few very minor technical niggles.

The audience reaction at the end was interesting. Very quiet. I don't think a lot of people realized how truely aweful it must have been. Lets be honest a lot of us Gunnutz do tend to glorify conflict a bit and have no idea what it was really like.

Afterwards I found myself thinking about my grandfather. He was in France at 17 (he lied about his age to get in) during the last year of the war. He was in the Canadian field artillery. I can't imagine what his life was like during those months in those conditions. He would have been moving guns thru the muck, driving ammo wagons up to the guns, loading guns during barrages, etc.

I guess most of us are the lucky generation that hasn't had to go thru total war.
 
Saw it today. Knowing what to expect I wasn't disappointed but it's not a hardcore war movie. I don't think that's what they tried to make though, and it's a good Canadian story that that tells a bit of history. The battle scenes, while I wish there were more of, are very well done and the milsurps seemed to be pretty spot on but I saw some incorrect Enfield cocking pieces and I think I saw some K98s. Some of the scenes were overdone, like the "I have to go" scene near the end which spawned quite a bit of laughter and the final cross scene was out of place but I enjoyed the rest.
 
I saw it last week. I knew it wasn't the history of the battle. It was a good Canadiana film. Not great, but good. Not bad for 20M. Good effort by Paul; who else has done more to bring our military history to the silver screen?

Cheers,

O'Kelly's Boys
 
### on the battlefield and men flying through the air were a couple of really cheesy moments. It's hard to hate a Canadian war movie though, and I think it will be successful in giving a bit of a history lesson to those who otherwise might not be interested. Paul Gross could use some braces, too:D
 
saw it
loved it

quotable quote

"Is that a hawk?"
No its a Kestrel
"Whats a Kestrel"
a Hawk
 
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Saw it, liked it. I think it covered a lot of ground, ie. town politics, home life, reality of our ethnic diversity during that time. Kit and gun stuff, very well done. Of course it would have been nice for more 'action'.
We were kind of chuckling though, with the distance they would have had to ride the horses to go from town to the foothills where the scenery shots were done. It wouldn't have been a quick ride for a picnic, then back home, like you do today with with the SUV. It's movie magic, and the terrain was beautiful that highlited the area around here, so it was good to see.

I would like him to do Vimy next... I think he did himself and everyone involved, proud.
 
We saw it!

:dancingbanana:Louthepou and I saw it last Sunday night.:dancingbanana:

Both of us felt that the symbolism was a bit much. The love story was OK but the scene where Gross makes it with the nurse behind the lines was too much and Lou's comment was, "what ever happened to foreplay?";)

The recruiting scenes in Calgary I thought were very well done and totally believable.

When Gross takes the platoon forward and pauses his men in a bunch, I thought WTF!:eek:

I was surpried with a number of other things. The fact that in many battle scenes, the close-ups of the SMLEs showed them uncocked. I wondered how much time was given to the soldier-actors in rifle bolt manipulation, I saw no rapid fire.But as someone said above, it was not made for us milsurp nuts.:slap: Perhaps Archery Nut who acted it in could comment on this point.

I was not happy at the end when Gross is playing Christ bearing the wounded kid on his back. And when they showed the triage unit's staff, all out of the tents looking towards (apparently) Gross, with the battle on hold, I was miffed. In reality, I doubt that the triage unit was that close to the action.

And the scenes supposedly close enough to ride to from Calgary where the Dunne abandoned house on the edge of the bluff, was I thought was far into the foothills for the mountains to show so prominently.

The lighting for the battle scenes with all of the rain coming down appeared to have been filmed under lights, and in the sky behind the rain could be see white cumulus clouds. On exiting the film, I heard a older vet say to me that they did not know enough to sling the rifles muzzle down in the rain.

IMHO the acting was good.

The film certainly is up there with "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Das Boot" as an anti-war film.

I hope that none of these comments put anyone off from seeing it as Gross did an excellent job in bringing it to the screen.
 
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??????????

Saw the movie last night.





The singular error that stood out was the 303 cartridge which was placed on the map to emphasize Paachendaele village. The Canadians used the MkII through MKII cartridge with the Cupro-nickel plated 200/220 gr round nose bullet...the cartridge used in the movie was a MkVII cartridge with a 174 gr spire point FMJ.



Cheers

Huh? Maybe with the Ross they used the Mk.VI cartridge, but I have Canadian Mk.VII rounds from 1916-17-19, and an original bandolier from 1915, stamped for MkVII SAA, 10-15. I also have Mk.VI from 1905-12, but have never seen any newer than that.
 
I took my wife to the movie on the weekend, and we both really liked it. Yes, there were a few minor inaccuracies, but far fewer than I have come to expect in today's films. I did think the "cross" scene was maybe a wee bit over the top, and it would have been nice to have a few more battle scenes, but keep in mind they are making a movie that they would like more than just Milsurp Gunnutz to come out to. Overall, I thought it was a great CANADIAN movie, unlike most of the crap put out by CBC; it didn't have Trudeau Jr. in it with a cheesy fake moustache! Paul Gross' performance impressed me as I've never been a fan of his before, he really comes across as a believable character. I was also happy to see that, unlike most American flicks, the Canadians did more than carry water and shine shoes for the American troops while they won the battles.
 
My wife and I saw this movie tonight. We were both impressed with the show. Having heard some of the concerns I was prepared and could see where the thoughts of some where coming from!!

Overall I enjoyed the show. Ok some inaccurcies were shown but these could be overlooked. It is a film, not a docomentry.

One thing I was disappointed in was the adult content. I did not mind it myself but I would like to have seen this movie being shown in every junior and senior high in Canada. The nudity and ### unfortunitly make this impossible! Only pg films allowed.

Best line, during her farthers talk to a bunch of docters, Cassie Walker to David Mann, "Do you want to inject some foreign matter into me?":eek::D

I really hope that the film gets a lot of exposure.
 
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What's wrong with it? - aside from some purist's complaints, nothing. I liked the part at the very end where they made a point to state that all the mass casualties they took during the battle were for nothing when the Germans took it over again later. Aside from a few minor points, history was not completely butchered. Outstanding for a Canadian movie, I thought, which usually have the cheesiest production values possible. Thank you Mr. Paul Gross! I much appreciated your nice movie! :)
 
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