Calgary Herald
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Paul Gross fulfils a dream
Filmmaker has wanted to make a film about Passchendaele for years

Alexandra Burroughs
Calgary Herald

Sunday, September 30, 2007

CALGARY - In the foothills west of Calgary, a herd of wild horses grazes in a meadow under the sun, creating an unmissable juxtaposition with a harrowing scene nearby.

Nearly 100 soldiers have taken position in a burned-out forest of birch and pine.

Pummelled by hundreds of gallons of cold water, the troops take cover in muddy, smoke-filled trenches,where they will remain for the better part of the next 10 hours.

This is the set of Passchendaele, a movie based on the famous First World War battle heroically fought by 50,000 Canadians in the bloodied fields of Ypres, Belgium. The film set is a stunning replica of a 1917 war zone, complete with bayonets, barbered wire and a menacing battlefield.

This week, Paul Gross, the man behind the film, was orchestrating this chaos to capture a climactic moment in this film. The sunshine was playing havoc with the film's gritty mood, his cast was cold despite the wet suits beneath their uniforms, and every moment lost was costing money. But no matter how bad it got, Gross managed to keep his perspective.

"Just spending a little bit of time in this mud -- and we're pampered since no one is actually shooting at us --

I have to say it is miserable," said Paul Gross, the filmmaker behind this $20-million war epic.

In a way, the making of Passchendaele has been Gross's own war. As the writer, director, producer and star of Passchendaele, Gross is shouldering nearly all of the risk, but is also living an emotional lifelong dream of capturing a seminal moment in Canadian history.

"I keep catching myself, wondering how (the soldiers) actually did it. I get knocked sideways, at least a few times a day. Just looking at these guys is very moving, it's heartbreaking. They were a breed of men that's now lost."

Gross represents his own unique breed of Canadian talent. His success as a director, writer and producer has enabled him to mount a production the size of Passchendaele, the largest homegrown, Canadian-financed war movie ever made.

As a self-proclaimed army brat, who was born in Calgary and grew up on various bases throughout Canada and Europe, Gross remembers being enthralled with stories from his grandfather, who fought in the First World War. Historical references, film footage and personal diaries continued to fuel his passion for the Canadian military throughout the years, until he sat down to write the script for Passchendaele.

"As long as I can remember he's been talking about making it," says Alberta director Francis Damberger, who went to theatre school with Gross and co-produces Passchendaele.

"I've known him long enough to know how passionate he can be about something, and he was particularly excited about this movie." In addition, Gross has gone to extreme lengths to achieve historical accuracy by employing Norman Leach, a Canadian military expert.

"This movie can go toe-to-toe with the great, big-budget military movies like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers," says Leach. "It's breathtaking to watch." With Passchendaele, both Gross and Leach seem to have a higher mission. Leach wonders if the average Canadian really appreciates the impact Canada had on the Great War.

"I know this sounds corny in 2007," says Leach. "But we made a difference to the war. Some say we made the difference. When they were in trouble, they'd call in the Canadians." According to historians, Canadians possessed several strengths that aided the war. Canadian soldiers were known for their mettle, earned growing up as farmers, loggers and ranchers.

"The British prime minister Lloyd George summed it up when he said, 'Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line, they prepared for the worst,' " says Gross.

Financially, the movie got a surprising $5.5-million kick-start from former Alberta premier Ralph Klein during Alberta's 2005 centennial celebrations, stunning the province's film community long accustomed to applying for limited film grants through the province's bureaucracy. The federal government added $3.5 million.

But the bulk of the movie's budget --up to $11 million -- has been acquired through private donators, investors and corporate sponsorship. It's a new way of doing business in Canadian film.

Many have said Gross exercised his innate "Albertan ingenuity" by going outside standard guidelines for funding, but the pressure that comes from spending private money is undoubtedly adding to the filmmaker's burden.

Watching the 46-year-old manoeuvre dirt piles and mingle with extras in period uniform, however, you'd think he was having the time of his life.

"If you watch me, you'll see I have no control over this at all," joked Gross, looking out a mischievously from beneath muddied and bloodied makeup.

Taking his place as director behind a TV monitor, inside a tent safe from the man-made rainstorm, it's clear Gross is very sure of what's going on around him. Looking in the monitor at a scene shot of soldiers in trenches, the sight of his dream come to life makes Gross giddy.

"Can someone get my wife, please? This is so cool. She'll want to see it," he says. A crew member scuttles off to find Canadian actress Martha Burns in Gross's trailer.

If Gross wins this war, there will be many other Canadians who want to see it as well.

CanWest News Service
© The Edmonton Journal 2007

CALGARY - It was one of the key battles of the First World War and a time of both loss and valour for Canadian soldiers. For Canadian actor and director Paul Gross, its re-enactment is also personal-a chance to go back to 1917 and relive events experienced by his grandfather.

The $20-million Canadian film "Passchendaele" focuses on the experiences of Gross's grandfather, Michael Dunne, a soldier who served in the 10th Battalion, CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) at the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres). The film is tentatively set for release on Remembrance Day next year.

The set's battlefield in a remote area southwest of Calgary is a swirl of mudpits, trenches and dead trees denuded of foliage - a scene right out of the First World War. Machines that simulate almost constant rain and fog and mimic the sound of mortars exploding add to the experience.

"With all of that I can tell you there's really no acting required," Gross said during a break Thursday. "When you're soaked to the bone, you get a sense of what it must have been like and I don't understand the breed of men who could survive this thing.

"We're wearing wetsuits and no one's shooting at us and we're all whining and complaining," Gross said. "The principle is we're going to see it more or less how the soldier would see it, so it's pretty close.

"My grandfather said he didn't know what the hell was going on except for what was going on for 30 feet on either side of him. The intention is to draw the audience right inside the scene, so it's very visceral."

Gross's grandfather, who was wounded three times before being "invalided out" in 1918, never talked about the war to his five daughters. But after repeated questioning from his grandson, he finally opened up while the two were on a fishing trip when Gross was 15.

Dunne was the only survivor after a day-long battle against a German machine gun nest in northern France. When there were no further shots fired from the German position, he went to investigate.

"All of the German crew was dead with the exception of one really young German gunner. He was quite badly wounded. My grandfather said he had these eyes that were a water blue and the German boy lifted his hand to my grandfather, smiled and said, 'Comrade,' " Gross reflected.

"My grandfather bayoneted him in the forehead and he lived with that till the end of his days. I was never quite the same after that and for years I've wanted to do something about his story."

The set includes a replica of a bombed-out village. A church spire is just visible over the next hill.

The movie is striving to be as completely authentic as possible and has military historian Norman Leach on-site keeping track of every minute detail.

"We don't have 15,000 men charging the hills, but in terms of uniforms, backdrops and props, all of that is 100 per cent authentic," said Leach.

"If what we're seeing during filming translates on the screen, it'll be like those openings of great movies that suck you in and keep you for the next 90 to 120 minutes, and what I'm seeing daily is it has the potential to do that."

It's taken 10 years to get the project off the ground, which is long even by industry standards, said executive producer Niv Fichman. "This one has brewed for a long time and the longer it brews, the better it gets. It's like a fine wine."
Financing for the film includes $5.5 million from the Alberta government.

The battle began at the end of July in 1917 and continued to November. The aim of the campaign was to break through enemy lines and destroy German submarine bases on the Belgian coast. But the heaviest rains in 30 years turned the region into a swamp. Veterans would come to refer to it as "The Battle of Mud."

Gross hopes the film will succeed financially and educate the public on the bravery of Canada's military at the time.

"What's amazing about the Canadian soldiers is the term 'shock troops' was invented by the Germans to refer to us. We were the most feared in the British Order in battle. We were the most terrifying and that continued into the Second World War.

"We've sort of lost that ... in how we teach our history. That doesn't mean because we were good warriors, let's go off and fight wars, but we should at least acknowledge what our history is."

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