The Lesson of Paul Gross's Passchendaele

It might not be a great movie, but that's not the point: *Passchendaele's* success proves that Canadians have an appetite for big-budget homegrown movies.

Love it or loathe it, and most opinions seem that polarized, Paul Gross’s film Passchendaele merits praise. Most critics panned it, and for what it’s worth, I found the story mediocre and the project an uninspired commemoration of Canadians’ WWI soldiering. To pick at this film in creative terms, however, is beside the point. It deserves our respect, even admiration. Passchendaele won six Genie awards (Canada’s Oscars) in 2009: one for most money earned at the domestic box office, one each for design and costumes, two for sound and, finally, the best picture. This is as it should be. The scale of this production and its reception at Canadian theatres is cause enough for honour and celebration.

Produced for about $20 million, Gross’s budget roughly tripled what Canadian movies can normally expect to raise here. At 40-plus days on set to shoot the film, again Gross was operating at twice the scale for the average domestic movie. Nobody has ever raised comparable resources for a Canadian film from entirely Canadian sources. It means Gross could spend on essential details like period sets and costumes, shooting at multiple locations, special effects and lush cinematography. It may be unconscious to many of us, but there’s a minimal standard for the visual quality of movies we pay to see in theatres. This quality is how many people first distinguish a Hollywood film from one made in Canada. Passchendaele, though, met audience expectations of a cinematic experience; it looks like a "real" movie.

It helps, of course, that Paul Gross invested "star" status in the project too. Banking on his notoriety, Alliance Films, Canada’s largest distributor, opened Passchendaele on 202 screens, with a marketing budget of at least $2 million (likely much more). A pittance by Hollywood’s standards, the cost alone of 202 copies of the movie on 35mm film is far more than most Canadian movies’ total marketing budgets. The net result: Passchendaele made $4.5 million in Canadian theatres. It’s a small take for multiplex blockbusters, but that is a huge sum among its Canadian movie peers.

Money and fame aside, Passchendaele has proven a bigger point all Canadians should note. This film has shown that we are not as bored by, or indifferent about, our own history as we’re led to believe. Investor-donors like the Dominion Institute suddenly look quite savvy. Even a mediocre story with a decent budget, a star and reasonable marketing support can actually connect with Canadians and do decent business in our theatres. Paul Gross’s story is based on his grandfather's, and many likely went to see it because of similar familial connections. Yet, one doesn’t have to be a third or eighth generation Canadian to appreciate a story of heroism, sacrifice and love. How we tell these stories and how we inform Canadians about them is what really counts.

Like me, many people were disappointed that the movie wasn’t better. It may be ages before we see another Canadian movie about WWI, and I wish it were a more compelling story on the screen. Nonetheless, the Best Picture Genie is no surprise. Gross brought an ocean-going yacht to a boat-building contest known for beautifully crafted dinghies. Of course his project overshadowed the others. It doesn’t even matter that his investors won’t make their money back in Canada, and probably won’t make up the difference internationally. However much a financial washout, we need more movies like this to be produced in Canada - more movies, with bigger budgets, in more genres.

Gross has proven Canadians have an appetite for locally made movies when we raise the standard and scale of the productions and their commercial release. Of course it will take more financing, public and private, but it’s time we invest in our cultural industries and stop relying so much on resource extraction as our nation’s economic engine. We export too many talented and creative Canadians to work in Hollywood. We can get more Canadians telling our own stories by spending more at home on production. We will enjoy the product of this investment, economically and creatively, and many of these movies will also do us proud artistically and commercially around the globe.