Directed by Peter Weir - 1981 Poster
I approached this movie with caution. I had watched it years ago and remembered there was some bias against the English. This was reinforced by the 'write-up' I read recently. It didn't help that Mel Gibson, whose travesty Braveheart I have never felt inclined to watch, was a major player. However, I found I quite enjoyed the film! Let's get the anti-English bits out of the way first. It is flagged up is early on, when one hears that the English murdered your own grandfather five miles from Dublin - whoops; add an Irish element and we are done for, Another comment follows: I'm not going to fight for the British Empire, I'm going to keep my head down. On the other hand, the attitude of the others in the group, with the background of patriotic Australian/British flag-waving, cancels that out. The two bits which can stick in the craw occur much later on: first in Egypt, when two British officers, one with a mandatory monocle, ride by on horses, with dialogue such as this: Yeah, or we could go and join Dickie and the chaps at 7.00...Are you going to the Governor-General's Ball? Admittedly, the Aussies following on donkeys, turn the scene into a comic one. The main charge against the movie is not it's Australian patriotism - that is not blameworthy - but the accusation that their attack was but a diversion whilst the British soldiers were drinking tea on the beach. That was simply not true. Both scenes could have been cut from the film without ill effect. The fact that more Frenchmen died in the fighting at Gallipoli than Australians is actually neither here nor there; it was a film about Australian pride and helped to develop such feelings in what was still a relatively 'new' country.
Australia at War
I thought the themes Peter Weir set out to emphasise - loss of innocence in war, mateship and the coming of age of both the soldiers and Australia itself - were well marked out I liked the first half hour in particular: the training of the 18 year-old Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee) by his uncle Jack for the sprint race; his race in barefoot against the yob Les McCann, bareback on a horse; the victory against the worldly, unemployed Frank Dunne (Mel Gibson) in the Kimberley Gift Race; the illegal hopping aboard a freight train; the subsequent trek across a dry lake-bed to a cattle station; all these episodes seemed true to the spirit of pre Great War Australia.
Although Frank fails to get into the glamorous Light Horse, as Archy does, they meet up again at the Training camp in Egypt and Frank is able to join up after all. His fellow infantrymen - three well-played parts, especially 'Snowy' - scoff, but the mateship between the five lasts until the end of the film. The Cairo market scenes are well shot and good fun. Another actor who seemed true-to-life and 'solid' was their officer Major Barton - playing operatic music in his tent while gunshots are heard all around. The Battle of Lone Pine on 6 August 1915, leads to Barney's death and Snowy's almost certain end, lying in hospital in a bad way. If it was true that the Australian were forced to charge the well-defended Turkish lines - fixed bayonets against machine guns - then the ensuing carnage was not only horrific but reprehensible. In reality, it was as much the Australian High Command's incompetence as the British.
I found the symbolic scene of the crosses on the cliff above the bay, with the sun rising on the horizon a little bit too theatrical; the death of Archy, fleet of foot as he charged, then in slow motion, then as a still picture when he was shot, was effective but perhaps too staged. It reminded me of Robert Capa's famous 1936 photograph, The Falling Soldier.
The Australian Falling Soldier
Comments from the accompanying Entrenched: The Making of Gallipoli, which stayed with me, included: The facts make it easy to demonstrate an anti-war theme...naive loyalty...sporting adventure...beginning of an age of cynicism...Mel Gibson described the film as not really a war movie. That's just the backdrop. It's really the story of two young men.
The movie was a Box Office success in Australia but not as successful financially in the international market. Irrespective of the generally positive critical reception, the historical accuracy of the film still engenders historical cultural debates.
2006 DVD
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