On Friday, I was lucky enough to miss school to spend a day on the battlefield of Passchendaele. I arrived at 7:30 in the morning to the set with my Dad and Thom Pretak, the Line Producer. Before shooting started we drove up to take a look at the set of a destroyed village and church that the art department is building. It’s huge and is looking really amazing. We then drove back down to the muddy cold battlefield. I wasn’t sure what to expect but this was bigger then I thought it would be. There are at least a hundred craters on this muddy field, most of them filled with freezing cold water. It looks great.
After a couple hours of watching the filming I was taken down to wardrobe to get suited up as a young German soldier for some of the hand to hand combat scenes. My Dad was telling everyone “We’re going to put Jack in a uniform and kill him!” I got on a wetsuit, and then the ridiculously heavy uniform over top of that. I was taken to makeup and got a few scrapes and some blood put on my face, and a bunch of dirt. It was pretty cool if I do say so myself. After I was all ready, I made my way back up to the battlefield where I was seated in one of the muddy craters, surrounded by the other soldiers that are fighting in the shot. Then I heard the call of “rain up!” which was followed by groaning from the soldiers around me. Shortly after, freezing cold rain was falling down from the rain machines, my hands got instantly frozen. It was exciting and exhausting. I have no idea how the Canadian Forces guys can do that every single day. It’s pretty amazing and terrifying stuff that they do. I missed a day of school but I learned a lot.
The motion picture Passchendaele, an epic set amidst the horror of war, was shot in Alberta from August 20th to October 23rd 2007, directed and written by Paul Gross. The film is now in post production and will premiere in Theatres fall 2008, thus culminating a lifelong dream of Paul's, who learned of this extraordinary period in Canadian history from his Grandfather, Michael Joseph Dunne. The Battle of Passchendaele represents a story of determination, commitment and triumph, and this defining chapter in the forging of a nation shall never be forgotten.
