| "We took more casualties than America took in Vietnam when we were one-tenth the size," says filmmaker, journalist and historian Brian McKenna of Canada’s participation in the First World War. Three years ago he put out a call to young people whose ancestors had served with the Canadian military during the war to serve as extras in The Great War, a four-hour Galafilm, CBC and Radio-Canada co-production marking the 90th anniversary of Canada’s involvement in the war. The gravelly voiced, seasoned storyteller explains that the massive response – 6500 applications – wasn’t such a surprise given the number of Canadians who served, fought and who were killed or injured. Of approximately the 350,000 Canadians who went overseas, roughly two-thirds were killed or wounded. "Anyone that had family alive then, if your great-grandfather or great-grandmother was alive then, you have a connection to the Great War."
A combination of dramatic re-creation and reality television, the production enlisted 150 Canadian men and women from across the country to act as extras in reliving the battles and the stories of their great-grandparents’ war and to take part in a meticulously re-created boot camp experience. For an additional 15 participants, this re-creation extended to the European sites and monuments of the war.
The idea of using descendants came to McKenna while tracking his own family history. His great-uncle finished the war as a colonel. A winner of the Military Cross, he was decorated by the King, while his younger brother bled to death in no man’s land in 1916. "I remember finding his grave for the first time," says McKenna. "And I remember the shock that went through my body. I realized that it was like receiving a telegram that he had just died. Seeing the family name on that stone with the maple leaf – it just brought it home with such force."
It was the filmmaker’s hope that this profound personal connection would take hold of his band of recruits. His pride is palpable as he recalls witnessing just this. In St. Bruno, Quebec, while filming the re-creation of the first German gas attack against Canadian troops, McKenna yelled for a cut. He noticed one extra’s eyes were wet despite the fact that the gas cloud floating across the scene was harmless smoke. The young man explained that he wasn’t having a reaction to the prop gas but rather was crying. His grandfather had fought during this attack and for four days was left for dead on the battlefield. When the Germans found him, his putrified eye was removed sans anesthetic in a battlefield operation. "Tears were just streaming down his face," recalls McKenna. "He looked around and the gas was still lingering in the air, and he said ‘I’m there.’"
Serendipity added further punch. On the battlefield where the actual gas attack occurred the second group of extras was having a game of soccer. The Belgian farmer whose land the site is on had just finished plowing his field and uncovered a brass belt buckle that he handed to McKenna. Historian Roman Jarymowycz on hand for filming, explained that it was from a Sam Brown belt worn by one of the Canadians buried in the field’s 2000 unmarked graves. McKenna paraphrases Jarymowycz’s reaction. "‘The gods of war have offered this up to you today to connect you with what happened then on that day.’"
In filming The Great War, McKenna says he witnessed his descendant participants experience a real connection, physical and emotional, with the past. "I’d say it changed all of the kids. It changed their lives profoundly. Some said that they realized part of that story is in them. It’s in the genes. That’s what came pouring out in the number of people who not only applied but who were willing to endure horrible conditions."
The film re-creates major Canadian battles with the aid of computer-generated imagery (CGI). While this convincingly paints the hell-on-earth of the frontline, the heart of the film’s production was appropriately low-tech. "I was determined this was not going to look cheesy," McKenna explains. "The trenches were going to look and feel (authentic), because they would be trenches. The training would be exact." A team of Brits (The Khaki Chums) specializing in First World War training ensured every detail was perfect.
Geoff McKenzie is a 31-year-old Calgary ad copywriter. His great-great-uncle, William Mundell, a Scottish expat and Boer War veteran enlisted in Calgary in 1914. Serving as a sergeant, he died on the frontline in April 1915. Prior to applying to participate in The Great War, McKenzie knew something of his ancestor’s story. A memorial plaque or dead-man’s penny, a large coin-like medallion issued to the families of fallen Commonwealth soldiers after the war, was a treasured family heirloom. As well, a letter from a man whose life Mundell saved was reprinted in recent years in the Calgary Herald. Under fire, sergeant Mundell and another man had bandaged the man’s wounded knee and carried him to safety. The letter concluded "May God look after him, dear, old fearless Billie."
"I certainly got a sense of what life was like for him," says McKenzie. He attests to the genuine harshness of the film’s boot camp. "The set was fantastic. It was utterly convincing. They’d also had a lot of rain so it was mucky and dirty. We had to live in our uniforms for two weeks, so we certainly got the experience from that perspective."
McKenzie and 11 others assumed the uniforms of the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry (PPCLI), as his great-uncle had. After getting kitted out in Montreal, it was off to the re-enactment site. "The moment we got on the bus it got insanely intense," he explains. "There were corporals yelling at us, and it was hot – plus 30 and muggy the whole time." The re-enactment site was also swampy and mosquito infested. His first night was spent curled up on the ground with 21 other men in a period-appropriate eight-man tent. "We were all kind of spooning in the tent, and someone pointed out that the average height in the Second World War was something like 5’3". We were all making plans to walk out to the highway and hitchhike back to the airport." Despite this, for the next three days the group learned how to be soldiers, enduring marching and rifle drills and even hygiene training. They spent a hard night and day in a muddy trench and participated in filmed re-enactments including a trench raid led by Justin Trudeau playing the movie’s central figure, Canadian war hero Maj. Talbot Papineau.
The Great War also realistically addresses the wartime experience of women on the homefront through Papineau’s correspondence with his mother and Beatrice Fox, the woman he loved yet would never meet. In a novel departure from the authentic, women were further included in the production’s boot camp training, not only as nurses but as soldiers.
McKenna’s daughter, filmmaker Robin McKenna documented the re-enactors’ experience. Her footage makes up the hour-long The Great War Experience. "The camp had its own drama, its own rebellion," explains the elder McKenna. "It had some Lord of the Flies kind of stuff unfolding."
"It was too much for some people," McKenzie concurs. "A lot of people went home over the course of the shoot." Though some went AWOL, McKenzie bonded closely with his comrades over the two-week shoot. By the end of it, he found his group very protective even of its "wingnuts," he says. "It’s the sort of thing where I do feel like I have war buddies."
"That’s exactly what happened to their great-grandparents," says McKenna. "The people who went AWOL in fact came back." A mutiny occurred amongst one group of descendant soldiers – the French Canadian Van Doos. "They had to make a decision whether they were going to leave because they committed a major offence in military terms. They met and they decided to stay. Robyn asked one of them on camera ‘why?’ and he said ‘well, I couldn’t leave. My great-uncle died at Vimy Ridge.’"
In McKenna’s research for The Great War, he came across a story about a group of Canadian soldiers seen marching back from no man’s land, singing. He repeats in a trudging hush, "‘We are the tough guys, tough guys, tough guys. We are the tough guys, tough guys, tough guys.’ We don’t know those Canadians," he says. "It’s another world and I want people to meet their great-grandfather’s generation through the experience of watching this film – the ones who won these battles, who took Vimy, who took Passchendaele and (created) a country."
The Great War, Part 1 airs Sunday, April 8 at 8 p.m. on CBC Television. The Great War Experience airs Monday, April 9 (the 90th anniversary of Vimy) at 7 p.m. prior to The Great War Part 2. |
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