Film Review for "Gallipoli".

Film Review for “Gallipoli”

Peter Weir’s Gallipoli follows two idealistic young friends, Frank (Mel Gibson) and Archy (Mark Lee), who join the Australian army during the First World War to fight in the ill-fated Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. Through the first half of the film you are introduced to the main characters. You learn of their personalities and beliefs as the film follows their lives leading up to their deployment. The second half of the film chronicles life, and death, in Gallipoli as the two young men adapt to life in the trenches on the Turkish peninsular. Here they find nothing was as they anticipated it to be.

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Strong imagery and the stirring sense of adventure in Gallipoli assist in expressing the main themes of the film. One of the themes is heroism tied in with courage which is seen in the actions of the Australian soldiers. Not obliged to enlist these men did so to fight in a war which was in no way their own. When there they continued to display persistence and courage in the face of sure and imminent death. Another theme is the film is the comradeship between the soldiers. Although this theme is not limited to the pair, in the film this is best expressed through the friendship between Frank and Archy. Remaining the best of friends to the very end the pair were constantly looking out for each other. This was the nature of comradeship. Also expressed through the film is the nature of war. Weir has created a reconstruction of the front lines of Gallipoli. Through this we can learn what life involved in the trenches of the war front. The lively setting of the films battles makes the spectre of death even more surreal and terrible. All the mentioned themes are expressed successfully.

The main strength of the film is that although the story of Frank and Archy is not true it easily could be. The film stresses authenticity while at the same time telling a good story. This is important to students of Australian history because is accurately recounts important aspects of the war such as, the motivation to enlist, the mindset of the soldiers, their opinions of the war and how they change as well as the atmosphere at Gallipoli. These factors are important to know when studying history because, as with all things, the key to understanding the present is knowledge of the past.

This saying of knowledge of the past is also relevant when evaluating the films relevance to Australian citizens today. Gallipoli is remembered for the heroics of the men fighting there. Also there is the factor that they were fighting someone else’s war; we were there for the British as we were part of the empire. History shows this was not the last time we have fought for someone else. In Vietnam we fought for the Americans, Iraq has been another example of this. As well the personality of the Australian soldiers has been one characterised of Australians in general. The ANZAC legend is one that will always be remembered in Australian history. Although the battle was lost, it is remembered as a victory of courage and mateship.

In conclusion, Gallipoli is a worthy film which I would recommend to anyone interested in Australian history or simply in search of a good story.