Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell
I'm eager to see tonight's documentary Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell, airing on the History Channel tonight at 8:00 p.m.
Whether our modern sensibilities are willing to acknowledge it or not, the truth is that a significant portion of Canada's national identity was forged in war. Hopefully that narrative, as well as the stories of individual soldiers, will be told by this documentary.
After screenings at war museums in both Canada and the U.K., Halpern’s 90-minute documentary is now considered an authoritative look at how Canadian soldiers wrested France’s pivotal Vimy Ridge from the Germans during the First World War — a stunning military triumph that’s considered a seminal moment in the birth of Canadian nationalism.
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“We’ve been told two things: that the Queen is going to the recommemoration of the Vimy Monument and for the 90th anniversary in France on April 9, and that Buckingham Palace has requested a copy of the film before she goes,” Halpern said in a recent interview.
“And actually, so has the PMO (in Ottawa) and so has the Governor General. So that’s pretty neat and very gratifying — they’re all going, so I guess they want to see it to help them prepare for the day.”
Whether our modern sensibilities are willing to acknowledge it or not, the truth is that a significant portion of Canada's national identity was forged in war. Hopefully that narrative, as well as the stories of individual soldiers, will be told by this documentary.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 10:30 a.m.
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