Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

A collection of hackneyed war movie clichés...Gross' ultimate cash grab. I left the theatre after hurling Coke and popcorn at the screen. God what a disgusting waste of time. The problem with many Canadian films is, they seem to try too hard to emulate Hollywood. Give up! And: Gross..... Stop trying to tell us you have talent! The idea of having a guy dying on a cross of barbed wire. Jeeezus...... pathetic. . What a ludicrous idea! What were you thinking?? The idea of a romance being relevant to a war movie..ridiculous! You should have stuck to a theme more realistic than what you put out...like, showing men and mules knee deep in mud, sleeping in foul trenches for weeks at a time, and enduring meat - headed tactics dictated by senescent British generals who lived in relative luxury 20 miles away from the fighting.

Passchendaele was shown in my Socials 11 class and is suppose to be accurate to what actually happened at what I like to call 'The Pointless Battle' as the Germans took back their land. I had no problems with the war scenes. But, this movie is a dull clichéd mess. The characters are super irritating especially the guy who played David. He is like the Hayden Christintian of war films. But where you felt Anakin's pain in Episode II of Star Wars, This guy is a irritating brat who can't make up his mind on what he wants to do. The scenes in Calgary are super dull. We have all seen this before. The romance is too similar to many other films. The war scenes I didn't have a problem but this movie is such a mess it seems to make fun of what life in 1917 was like. It doesn't work.54/100 C

Some of the less 'glorious' aspects of life on the home front during WWI are better captured in this film than in any other drama I've seen to date. The ritual humiliation of anyone of age who hadn't joined up and the vilification of anyone one with German parentage were day-to-day occurrences that are rarely mentioned. A fairly good opening battle scene is bought almost to a close with a very curious coup de grace inflicted by Michael Dunne on a young German soldier. This action was so peculiar that I'm sure it must be based on something Paul Gross's grandfather had mentioned to him when recollecting the events of his service during WW1 upon which this film is based. Unfortunately, like several other critical action points in the film, the way it is staged jars as unrealistic and unnecessary. Though it was perhaps significant as a memory, in the context of this film it distracts us from an otherwise interesting narrative and ultimately reduces the overall impact. Later, an iconic photograph of Passchendale - of shattered trees with duckboards crossing an impassible quagmire - is wonderfully recreated. Only to be wrecked a few moments later by out of scale soldiers strolling through the impassable mud alongside the duckboard track. Later still the scene with the faux crucifixion and finally the ranks of tombstones (a very poor CGI substitute for the final scene of 'Oh what a Lovely War'). There was a lot of great material in this film, and the overview of the battlefront and the scenes of hand to hand combat in the shell holes are second to none, but the inexperience of Paul Gross as both writer and director gets the better of him and this is definitely a case where less artifice and symbolism would have produced a better film.

This movie affected me emotionally in a way that very few movies ever have. I believe that the battle scenes are very realistic based upon my research of the Great War, and more importantly input from my father and others who actually fought in it. I do not care to comment on the technical aspects or romantic interludes. I will leave that to the 'experts' of which there seems to be an abundance. I am encouraged that this movie acknowledges Canada's contribution to the allied cause in the Great War. I think that very few people realize the sacrifices that were made by Canadians in both of the World Wars. Lastly, if anyone ever thinks of making a movie to show the futility of war as a method of solving differences, then some of the battle scenes could be used as is.