History Film / Passchendaele

* VictoryThroughIntimidation: When a group of men gathers in front of Sarah's house, Michael is obviously outnumbered. But when he brutally beats the first of them, the rest instantly backs down, not really having the stomach for fight or getting in trouble for attacking a soldier.

* UriahGambit: Cassie father, a local doctor, grants David a medical certificat stating he no longer suffers from asthma, solely to get him enlisted and most likely killed. It's so blatant no amount of PatrioticFervour can cover it, and yet [[WideEyedIdealist both Cassie and David]] think he really blessed their relationship.

* VictoryThroughIntimidation: When a group of men gathers in front of Sarah's house, Michael is obviously outnumbered. But when he brutaly beats the first of them, the rest instantly backs down, not really having the stomach for fight or getting in trouble for attacking a soldier.

''Passcheandaele (2008)'' is a [[CanadaEh Canadian]] war film chronicling the events of the Battle of Passcheandaele during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Written, produced and directed by ''Series/DueSouth'' actor Creator/PaulGross (who also stars in the lead role), the film follows a war veteran who heads back into the war to protect a young boy from harm.

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''Passcheandaele (2008)'' is a [[CanadaEh Canadian]] war film chronicling the events of the Battle of Passcheandaele during WorldWarOne. Written, produced and directed by ''Series/DueSouth'' actor Creator/PaulGross (who also stars in the lead role), the film follows a war veteran who heads back into the war to protect a young boy from harm.

At a budget of $20 million dollars (CAD), it is the most expensive film ever made in Canada to date. ''Passcheandaele'' was [[RealLifeWritesThePlot inspired by the experiences of Gross' grandfather]], who fought in WorldWarOne. The film received mixed reviews when it premiered in Canada.

* WarIsHell: WorldWarOne is portrayed very unglamorously not only in scenes set at the frontline, but even in those that are set on the Canadian home front (which is the majority of the film, really). One of the major plot points is the propaganda-fueled xenophobia towards people with ethnic ancestry in the nations of the Central Powers, particularly Germany. David and Sarah Mann's father is suspected by the authorities to have been a German collaborator and they receive a lot of unfair ridicule and insults because of this. They're actually Canadian-born, so the accusations are really little more than paranoia-mongering [[PatrioticFervour to get the populace into a genuine anti-German mood]].

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/passchendaele_667.jpg

* [[spoiler:PyrrhicVictory]]

''Passcheandaele (2008)'' is a [[CanadaEh Canadian]] war film chronicling the events of the Battle of Passcheandaele during WorldWarOne. Written, produced and directed by ''Series/DueSouth'' actor [[PaulGross Paul Gross]] (who also stars in the lead role), the film follows a war veteran who heads back into the war to protect a young boy from harm.

''Passcheandaele (2008)'' is a [[CanadaEh Canadian]] war film chronicling the events of the Battle of Passcheandaele during WorldWarOne. Written, produced and directed by ''Series/DueSouth'' actor Paul Gross (who also stars in the lead role), the film follows a war veteran who heads back into the war to protect a young boy from harm.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Dunne comes down with post-traumatic stress disorder after stabbing a (possibly) unarmed teenage soldier in the head with a bayonet during the Battle of Dieppe.

* VeteranInstructor: Dunne is brought back to Alberta to be an instructor after he's wounded at Dieppe.

Set during the height of the war, the film tells the story of Sergeant Michael Dunne (Gross), a Canadian soldier who is wounded during the Battle of Dieppe and is nursed back to health by a woman named Sarah. He is diagnosed as neurasthenic (what is now known as [[ShellShockedVeteran post-traumatic stress disorder]]) and returns to his hometown of Calgary, Alberta to work as a war recruiter. Sarah's asthmatic brother, David, enlists in the war effort and demands that he is recognized by the father of his girlfriend, Cassie. Sarah believes that Michael is responsible for David's enlistment, and blames him for getting her brother involved in the army. To save David's life, Michael re-enlists with him (using a cover name), and they are sent to the frontline during the Battle of Passchendaele - one of the bloodiest military battles in Canadian history.

''Passcheandaele (2008)'' is a [[CanadaEh Canadian]] war film chronicling the events of the Battle of Passcheandaele during WorldWarOne. Written, produced and directed by ''DueSouth'' actor Paul Gross (who also stars in the lead role), the film follows a war veteran who heads back into the war to protect a young boy from harm.

* WarIsHell: WorldWarOne is portrayed very unglamorously not only in scenes set at the frontline, but even in those that are set on the Canadian home front (which is the majority of the film, really). One of the major plot points is the propaganda-fueled xenophobia towards people with ethnic ancestry in the nations of the Central Powers, particularly Germany. David and Sarah Mann's father is suspected by the authorities to have been a German collaborator and they receive a lot of unfair ridicule and insults because of this. They're actually Canadian-born, so the accusations are really little more than paranoia-mongering [[PatrioticFervour to get the populace in a genuine anti-German mood]].

* ActionMovieQuietDramaScene: Lots.

* FlorenceNightingaleSyndrome : The attraction between Mike and Sarah is obvious from the get-go (to the point of [[LampshadeHanging getting lampshaded]]).

* AntiHero: Michael Dunne is somewhere between Type II and III. He became

* WarIsHell

* AFatherToHisMen
* ArmorIsUseless
* BattleInTheRain

* CanadaEh
* CanucksWithChinooks
* FieldPromotion
* InstantDeathBullet
* MelodramaticPause

* PatrioticFervour
* PinnedDown
* SceneryPorn: The foothills of Alberta.

* TryNotToDie
* VeteranInstructor

* WorldWarOne

* {{Anvilicious}}: David is [[spoiler:thrown onto a massive cross made out of timber thrown out of the trenches]] when an artillery shell explodes near him. Dunne has to [[spoiler:carry the cross (and David) across the battlefield, like Jesus]].

* FridgeLogic: Why would a military recruiter leave his job and travel all the way to Europe to apprehend a single soldier?
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Blood, gore and rats crawling out of the mouths of soldiers are just the beginning.

* MoodWhiplash: A scene where a presentation describing the effects of mustard gas is shown to Canadian soldiers (complete with their horrified reactions) is intercut with a scene where two horny teenagers joke around and lose their virginity together.

* Narm: The sex scene in the bombed-out building. Out of place and poorly acted, yet so funny.

* TearJerker: The end credits, which play over footage from the actual Battle of Passcheandale and an appropriately stirring track by Sarah Slean and Sarah Harmer.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Instead on concentrating on the actual war, battle, and soldiers' psychology, it is a melodramatic romance between a [[strike: shellshocked]] soldier and a nurse. And a sappy one at that. It spends little more than the last half an hour on the actual battlefield, but the whole rest of the movie telling the relationships between the four main characters (''exceptionally especially'' between Dunne and Nurse Mann), ''3000 miles away from Passchendaele''. When he finally is drafted, and about to be shipped to France, the film simply skips forward ''three months'' (therefore skipping the training, the shipping, the arrival, every battle before that, etc). At this point of time, Dunne already found his brother-in-law, and the battle being already nearly over. And the movie, too.