Canadian Military History

Volume 19 Issue 3 Article 6

2010

New Theatres of War An Analysis of Paul Gross’ Passchendaele

Tim Cook

Christopher Schultz

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Recommended Citation Tim Cook and Christopher Schultz "New Theatres of War An Analysis of Paul Gross’ Passchendaele." Canadian Military History 19, 3 (2010)

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New Theatres of War An Analysis of Paul Gross’ Passchendaele

Tim Cook and Christopher Schultz

asschendaele (2008) is the first Michael Dunne, the name also given Seventy years later, Passchendaele Pmajor Canadian motion picture to the protagonist in the film, served was less of a lightning rod in over 25 years to explore the subject in the Canadian Expeditionary Force for controversy, although a few of Canada’s Great War. Paul Gross, with the 10th Battalion and fought at critics tried to link Gross’s film to one of the country’s leading actors, the 1917 . Paul Canada’s long-term commitment spent nearly a decade trying to raise Gross has spoken widely about this in Afghanistan. The film received the necessary funds to make the film. family connection, one of the reasons mixed reviews, which were generally Gross was most famous for his role that impelled him to make this film. restrained but tried to be positive. as an iconic Mountie in , a In a Herculean effort, Gross One got a sense that reviewers television series that ran for five years raised nearly $20 million, making wanted to like the movie, even in the mid-1990s; in Passchendaele, Passchendaele the most expensive though the narrative is burdened by which Gross wrote, directed and movie in Canadian history. It was an agonizing love story that detracts produced, he takes on another high also the highest grossing Canadian from the film, and leaves us with far profile Canadian subject wrapped in film of 2008, earning $4.45 million on too much “passion” and not enough myth, legend, and layers of memory a mere 202 screens, sold an estimated “Passchendaele.” But this article – the role of the Canadians in the 500,000 tickets, won six Genies and is less interested in the form and Great War. opened the prestigious narrative of the film, although that Like hundreds of thousands of International Film Festival in 2008. Canadians, Gross has a personal link For the record, there are a few Résumé : Réalisé par Paul Gross, to the Great War. Gross’s grandfather, other Canadian Great War major Passchendaele est le film canadien qui a connu le plus de succès au pays en motion pictures. The short list 2008, attirant des centaines de milliers Abstract: Paul Gross’ Passchendaele includes Guy Maddin’s surrealistic de spectateurs. L’un des rares films sur was the most successful Canadian film art film, Archangel (1990) and a la Première Guerre mondiale produits of 2008, reaching hundreds of thousands 1981 film adaptation of Timothy au pays, et diffusé au moment où on est of viewers. As one of Canada’s only Findley’s 1977 novel, The Wars. The particulièrement préoccupé par la guerre, Great War films, and released during a la mémoire et le souvenir, il importe period of heightened awareness about only other major film was Bruce que les historiens se livrent à l’analyse war, memory, and remembrance, it is Bairnsfather’s Carry on Sergeant des messages véhiculés par l’oeuvre. important for historians to analyse the (1928), an expensive flop that nearly Le présent article ne se veut pas une messages presented in the film. This destroyed the emerging Canadian recension du film, mais une étude sur la article is not a review, but a critique film industry. There was also an manière dont les historiens pourraient of how the film might be used by l’utiliser, car quelques-uns d’entre eux ont historians, at least some of whom official film, Lest We Forget (1935), souligné le fait que la validité historique have suggested the film’s historical which employed Canadian, Allied, du film avait été compromisée par le validity has been compromised in and German film footage, authentic caractère romantique de l’intrigue choisie favour of Gross’s romantic narrative. and reproduced, but it is what we par Gross. Ces jugements soulèvent la Such accusations beg the question of now think of as a documentary. question de savoir si l’on peut utiliser, whether or not big-budget films can be ou non, les superproductions comme employed as historical documents and Its release date of 1935 shaped the des documents historiques et si celles-ci what they might contribute to historical messages presented in the film, and peuvent contribuer à des échanges sur discussions. sparked a lively debate in Canada. l’histoire.

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is important, than in examining mercy, whispering “Kamerad.” how it can be viewed as an Dunne’s exhausted expression historical document. hardly changes as he drives his B e f o r e a d d r e s s i n g bayonet through the boy’s skull. the challenges of assessing As one reviewer has noted Passchendaele as an historical already, this unflinching record, one cannot help but be approach to the horrors of war struck by the film’s title and and the brutality of person-on- focal point. It is not Vimy Ridge. person violence is precisely With Vimy having become a where the film remains effective mythologized space, one linked as a cinematic piece. Though intimately to the war, ingrained arguably not breaking a lot in the nation’s consciousness, of new ground in the popular and even fused to aspects of and contemporary First World Canadian self identity, Gross War meta-narrative of tragedy, resisted the temptation of Gross should be credited with placing the better recognized showing that our protagonist, Vimy as the hinge battle of a Canadian, is capable of such the film. One is certainly not actions. Of course there are surprised that the Hundred consequences to such behaviour Days campaign in 1918 is in cinematic logic: protagonists ignored, since it is virtually committing wrongdoings must unknown to Canadians despite be punished according to a long the work of some historians in tradition of Hollywood-style pleading for its importance over filmmaking. Dunne’s ultimate that of Vimy or Passchendaele. With in the middle of Passchendaele are punishment comes much later in the the on the Battle of Passchendaele, given no other choice but to recognize story when he returns to the Western which raged from the end of July to the futility of the war. Front for the titular battle; in the November 1917, the film, and to some The narrative supports this meantime, however, Dunne’s actions extent the viewer, are left drowning message of futility, or at least of leave him psychologically scarred. in the muck and filth of the shattered brutality. The viewer’s first encounter The next incarnation of Dunne Western Front battlefield that is with the protagonist, Sergeant is a shivering, sweat-covered man synonymous with failure. Michael Dunne (Paul Gross), is in a having nightmares about the war, as Even though the Canadians French town near Vimy, sometime in he convalesces in a hospital. succeeded in capturing their the aftermath of the April 1917 battle. It is a fairly stern departure from objectives at Passchendaele, they Dunne and his fellow Canadian the confident and calm section were left floundering in the swill section members are inexplicably commander the viewer encountered and forced to engage in brutal hand- separated from the rest of their in , even if his alleged shell to-hand combat with an equally unit and have the misfortune of shock appears to be a minor case at slime-splattered enemy. The battle encountering a German machine best, and one that would not have as portrayed in the film is shorn of gun post amidst the ruins. A firefight had him released from England. It much of its contextualization within ensues and losses are taken on both should be observed here, though, the greater scope of the war effort sides. Dunne and his surviving mates that shell shock is forever linked and, through the necessity of budgets try to surrender to the Germans, to the Great War, though soldiers and even of creating a link with the but the mixed signals from a scared have always succumbed to the strain viewer, Passchendaele is reduced to and shellshocked Canadian leads to of service and the brutality of the a company fighting for its survival. his death by the German machine battlefield, even if it was rarely While it may be too much to ask for gunners, who riddle his body with recognized in the past. Sustained a Hollywood-style film to place the bullets. Dunne barely survives, combat drove even heroes to mental story of the Canadians into a larger finds cover, and tosses a grenade ruin, and captured the imagination context of the war – although there that destroys the machine gun of a transfixed and horrified public, are some attempts to do this in the emplacement. A lone German soldier, continuing to do so to this day. But film through clumsy dialogue and a severely-wounded teenager, feebly in the film, Michael Dunne does throw-away lines – viewers plopped extends a hand to Dunne in search of not really seem shell shocked. A

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severely shell shocked soldier would on the Western Front, but with the enemy. Michael makes two promises have been reduced to a gibbering Germans, and he is later reported to Sarah: that he won’t die and that invalid, with shaking, palsied hands, killed defending Vimy Ridge, an he will return David home safely. suffering nightmares and bed- interesting twist on the sacrificial cost Gross depicts the Western Front wetting, and perhaps even plagued of the battle. in all its squalid brutality, which by hallucinations, uncontrollable Without running through he brilliantly recreated at Canadian tears, and paralyzed limbs. All of the entire narrative, Gross offers Forces Base Suffield, Alberta, the this would have been hard to see on some non-traditional views of the site of much weapons testing and film, and Gross evidently felt that he home front, and hints at how the training over the last century. The could not confront the viewer with an crusade for victory both galvanizes fighting at the front is shattering and emasculated hero, though one might and sharpens the patriotic to push chaotic. No war movie can ever be wonder why he did not provide the forward at almost any cost, but also the same after the first 20 minutes of viewer with a proxy portrayal of the to find the enemies in the midst, Saving Private Ryan (1998), with the condition – perhaps a new arrival, deserving or not in the case of Nurse breath-taking violence captured in still in full thrall of his disorder? Mann, who loses her job because of the D-Day landing, and Gross offers Speculation aside, we receive a gentle her German heritage. Her younger similar devastating treatment, which version of the war’s horror which is brother, David Mann (Joe Dinicol), at times verges on pornographic more of a plot device to get the soldier has externalized his inner conflict violence in its stabbing, shooting, and home than an exploration into the in contradistinction with his sister’s; face-smashing cruelty. madness of battle. in his rage against his father, and to While the combat captures the The home front scenes are among prove his own manhood, David wants cruelty of war, notably absent are any the highlights of the film. Calgary to enlist in order to kill Germans. generals – although there is a quick is festooned with war posters and The malevolent recruiting colonel, shot of a fat staff officer riding in a wartime era imagery. Gross presents a more-British-than-the-British type car as the troops march in the mud, the war as a crusade, but reminds us of blimpish officer, Dobson-Hughes and Canadian Corps commander that some of the crusading Canadians, (Jim Mezon), is only too happy to Sir Arthur Currie is mentioned in turning freely to their anti-German ignore the boy’s severe asthma in positively, if briefly. It is intriguing bias, are little more than vicious order to fill the ranks and punish that Gross did not take the easy shots thugs. Dunne’s love interest, a nurse Dunne for his burgeoning affection at Sir Douglas Haig, the architect of born to a German father, Sarah for Sarah, neither of whom he likes. the mad battle in the mud. The lack of Mann (Caroline Dhavernas), is also As an aside, the so-named Dobson- generals is due, no doubt, to Gross’s conflicted, having been driven to Hughes must also be a shot at Sir focus on the fighting men, but rare is morphine addiction, likely through Sam Hughes, the Canadian minister a Great War film since the 1960s that the stress of having to work on the of militia defence from 1911 to 1916, refrains from hammering the already broken survivors from the front, but who has been much maligned – often shattered reputation of the generals equally likely stemming from the for good reason – by historians. In building to the battle’s climax, conflicting nationalisms in her family Pursuant to these various plot Gross offers us two conflicting tree. The drug abuse, again, seems an twists, Dunne and the Mann siblings views on the war and its constructed unlikely plot twist, and one that seems all return to the Western Front in meaning. Before the battle, Dunne derivative of Joseph Boyden’s award- time for the Canadian phase of the gives a disillusioned speech to David, winning novel, Three Day Road, where Passchendaele battle in October remarking on man’s ostensibly his protagonists are also morphine- 1917. With the ground reduced natural cruelty toward man: addicted. Both film and novel offer to a bog, Michael and David have a reading of the Great War through improbably ended up in the same [Forests] burn because they have to. the lens of the 1960s, and especially platoon, while Sarah has somehow Oceans go up and down because the drug-abuse by American soldiers been commissioned again as a nurse they have to. We’re no different. If in Vietnam rather than a grounding and found her way to a field hospital you want to get through this you in the early 20th century combatant in the same sector of the front. Amidst better start seeing it for what it is: and non-combatant experience. the carnage and destruction, Michael it’s something we do all the time While Nurse Mann is a conflicted and and Sarah finally consummate because we’re good at it and we’re damaged character, she is of course their love in a strange, verging on good at it because we’re used to it redeemable, as all must be in films absurd, sex scene accompanied and we’re used to it because we do like this. But there is an added twist. by the 18-pounders, visible in the it all the time. Her father has left Canada to serve background, banging away at the

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His speech, in the driving rain, Mann, Dunne races across the shell- them – about the soldiers who had powerfully strips away the glory of cratered, wasteland to save him, good wars. The clerks, or forestry war, although surely the viewer has driven forward by his love for Sarah, corps, or bayonet instructors, and the already come to this conclusion at this the promise of keeping her brother tens of thousands of other soldiers point in the war and the film. safe, his desire to reduce the suffering who were not in a front line fighting Yet Dunne’s disillusionment is of all soldiers, and perhaps even unit have had their stories hidden qualified by the actions in the film’s redemption for his earlier execution under a sea of mud and death. climax, which are about redemption of the German soldier who was no In the end, this is a work of instead of disenchantment. Central older than David. The dramatic fiction, or perhaps more accurately to the battle and the film is the motif crossing of no-man’s-land is followed a re-imagination of the Canadian of the crucified Canadian. The story by a far more emotional scene, experience of war. Can it be used of the crucified Canadian circulated verging on the ludicrous, whereby as an historical document? Is it throughout the Canadian forces from Dunne carries his crucified comrade dangerous for non-experts to view 1915 to 1918, and centred on how across the battlefield, cross on his the film and receive a misconstrued German soldiers caught and crucified back, with the Germans watching in view of the war with some of the a Canadian during the Second Battle awe, and eventually downing arms in flaws mentioned above? In short, of Ypres in April 1915. Subsequent a replay of the Christmas 1914 Truce. how should historians assess this investigation by Canadian authorities The cross-carrying scene is straight work? could not verify the act, with multiple out of the Passion of the Christ: the Historians are critical of history witnesses offering conflicting soldiers died for our sins, or in this books and even primary source versions of what they saw and case died to give us a better Canada. material, seeking out errors of fact and, where they saw it. The rumour was Dunne, of course, dies too. We equally important, of interpretation, nonetheless codified in bronze in a write “of course” because it is nearly but we generally understand that postwar sculpture, Canada’s Golgotha, inconceivable that the protagonist in novels and films are artistic pieces. now on display at the CWM, and a Great War film would survive. The Most Canadians will never care, and the story has periodically resurfaced war is a tragedy and no one gets out will certainly not lose sleep over over the last 90 years, with several alive, unless you are lucky enough the impossible time line of having investigations or references in radio to be crippled for life or to be driven Dunne fighting at Vimy, being shell- programs, television documentaries, insane. No one makes films – and shocked, convalescing, presumably and novels. no one would want to watch training, and then arriving back The rumour plays a key at the front for Passchendaele. role in the film, where Dunne Should anyone worry that the 10th is continually telling frothing Battalion, from the Calgary area, did Canadian patriots on the home not recruit in Calgary after the unit front that the act did not happen. had gone overseas? Should we be Despite Dunne’s front-line concerned that it is highly unlikely experience, the patriots do not for a commissioned nurse to cavort seem to care, as the crucifixion and have sexual relations with a non- is one more example of why the commissioned officer? crusade against the Hun needs to be pressed forward with vigour. But in the climatic battle Canada’s Golgotha scene, Gross presents for the by Francis Derwent Wood viewer a crucified Canadian, During the , David Mann, Sarah’s rumours circulated that a Canadian younger brother who has soldier had been crucified on a Belgian somehow been blown up barn door, a story the Germans denounced as propaganda. Whether truth or fiction, by a shell and thrown Canada’s Golgotha illustrates the intensity into a crucified position, of wartime myths and imagery. The lashed with barbed crucifixion remains unproven. wire to duckboards Canadian War Museum 19710261-0797 fused together in the form of a cross. Upon seeing the vulnerable

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There are other historical on them to convey key messages. This enormous challenges, some of which problems and anomalies, but they is a dialogue that the profession must are how to appeal to a broad section would surely not resonate with have, especially with more and more of the population. Someday Gross any but the most serious scholars Canadians accessing their history will reveal the compromises that he of the Great War. While students of through History Television and had to make, and we’ll have a better film studies will no doubt engage films likePasschendaele . Increasingly, understanding of the hidden context differently with the film, one historians are having less of a voice behind this cultural product. wonders, in a journal for military in defining the present, as they Passchendaele will remain the historians and the historically- are content to unearth the past but iconic Canadian war film for this minded, at what level should then hand that knowledge over to generation, and likely the next. It is historical accuracy be important in a journalists, novelists, television and exceedingly difficult to make big- film? And, more importantly, should film-makers, with whom they have budget films in Canada and one can the historian simply be willing to little engagement or influence. imagine few other celebrities than allow inaccuracies under the broad In critiques like these, one is often Gross who would have the clout to rubric of artistic licence? To what drawn to what is wrong or lacking raise $20 million. But this begs the point are we comfortable in letting in a cultural product. Let it be said, question: when will Canada get a the history slide, and possibly slide then, that there is much to admire proper Second World War film? If far down the slippery slope? No one about the film, from its depictions we leave it to the Americans and is suggesting that Gross will arm of the home front to the stunning the British to tell the story of the Germans with laser guns or that the brutality of the battlefield. This is Second World War, we should not Canadians will ride dragons into not a movie of the week – Gross had be surprised that Canada has little battle, but artistic licence, from how an enormous budget and he put it to more than a walk-on part. The story soldiers spoke and acted to the nature good use. The story is gripping and of Canada’s Great War is intensely of tactics and weapons, have an compellingly told, and even if the focused on the Western Front, even impact on how the war is constructed romantic engagement detracts from though Canadians served in the 90 years later. There are problems the message, it provides another Mediterranean and the Middle East, with all of these issues in the film. element of character development. on the oceans, and of course in However, this is not to suggest that And while the authors here refrain the British army, navy, and flying Gross fails entirely here, as there are from passing judgement on why services. Yet the Great War for most some very fine scenes about how almost all war movies in the last Canadians is that of the muddy soldiers coped on the Western Front. decade require a love story to run as trenches with their unending strain For example, when the decorated a supporting narrative to the war- and horror. But what is the fulcrum hero Dunne stands before a crowd fighting, the developing relationship upon which Canada’s Second in Calgary and is expected to deliver between Michael Dunne and Sarah World War turns? To focus solely a patriotic or revealing speech, he Mann reminds us that in times of war, on the ground-pounders in Italy instead talks about the importance ordinary Canadians that serve and or Northwest Europe would leave of keeping matches dry, so that the sacrifice overseas leave behind loved out the enormous contributions of soldier can turn to his all-important ones, have lives interrupted, and the Royal Canadian Navy and the cigarettes when in need. This rings never return. That is not a mawkish Merchant Marine, of Canadians true, even as there are other scenes message, and it is one that needs to flying in bombers and fighters, of and plot lines listed above, that are be highlighted, something that Gross women in the three services, and more difficult to square with the has done and achieved, if in perhaps a of course the enormous exertions historical record. more traditional, romantic interlude. on the home front, such as the While acknowledging that a film Moreover, we wonder if perhaps British Commonwealth Air Training is different than an academic book, the historical profession may not Program, war production, and home in the end, if the historians do not have the tools to critique the decisions defence. Surely one narrative strand care about accuracy, will anyone? made by an experienced actor and – no matter the number of contrived Surely it is the role of the historian film producer. Even historians must romances – would not be sufficient. to highlight difficulties with fictional make compromises in their books and But to unleash historians on this pieces of history, especially when articles – from reacting to reader’s project would likely result in a jumble they begin to find their way into reports to the demands of publishers of multiple characters and story classrooms and are employed by – and the world of filmmaking, lines, intersecting, standing alone, teachers who may be relying heavily especially in Canada, is fraught with and ultimately leaving the viewer

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confused and unsatisfied. A film is To return to Passchendaele, ways that Canadians have accessed not a 20 chapter book. Narrative arc, whatever the film’s strengths or their shared past. It is an important compelling characters, and emotions weaknesses, Gross has brought the pillar in our ongoing, shifting, and all come together to push the story to history of the Great War to hundreds constructed memory of Canada’s a climax, rather than a documentary of thousands of people. Canadians Great War. More than 90 years on, style coverage of all aspects of the who would never have picked up Canadians still care about the war, war. That said, historians have an academic history book, might and this, at the most basic level, much to bring to the director’s table, have been intrigued enough after should fortify historians. Now, with and one hopes that when a brave seeing the film to push further the loss of all Canadian Great War film company, director or producer into the past. Certainly 2007 and veterans, the torch of memory has not attempts to tackle this complex story, 2008 were a high water mark for gone out but has been passed to new that he or she is ably supported by the Canadians and the Great War, with generations of artists, filmmakers, 2165 Canada PA Library and Archives historical profession, which can bring the 90th anniversary years marked documentarists, and historians. And to bear knowledge and authenticity by the re-unveiling of the Vimy these memory-makers will continue in terms of understanding everything Memorial and the pilgrimage of to fight and refight the old battles in from the mores and mentalité of the several thousand Canadians to the new theatres of war. time, to key questions of equipment, site, but also an avalanche of novels, Dr. Tim Cook is the author of several kit, weapons and tactics, while new history books, and ongoing books, including The Madman and the providing important balance between media interest in the last of the Great Butcher: The Sensational Wars of Sam the intensely personal and the larger, War veterans. Some of this interest Hughes and General Arthur Currie (Allen Lane, 2010). strategic scope of the war. But again, must be attributed to the popularity Passchendaele Christopher Schultz has degrees in if a Canadian does not take on this of . History and Film Studies from Carleton project, we will be consigning our Passchendaele has become and will University, and is presently working on stories to others, and they are under remain an important tool for future his PhD in History at The University of Western Ontario. no obligation to tell them. historians in assessing one of the

A lone Canadian solder walks across the desolate landscape of the Passchendaele battlefield.

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