• Rating:
• Genre: War
• Movie Type: Anti-War Film
• Themes: Innocence Lost, Military Life, Great Battles
• Director: Peter Weir
• Main Cast: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Harold Hopkins, Ronny Graham, Stan Green
• Release Year: 1981
• Country: AU
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• MPAA Rating: PG

Plot

The first of two consecutive films to see director Peter Weir team with Mel Gibson (the other being The Year of Living Dangerously), Gallipoli follows two idealistic young friends, Frank (Gibson) and Archy (Mark Lee), who join the Australian army during World War I and fight the doomed Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. The first half of the film documents the lives of the young men in Australia, detailing their personalities and beliefs. The second half of the movie chronicles the ill-fated and ill-planned battle, where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps is hopelessly outmatched by the enemy forces. Gallipoli was the recipient of eight prizes at the 1981 Australian Film Institute Awards. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Review

Full of unforgettable imagery and stirring adventure, Gallipoli is both one of the cinema's best anti-war tracts and a poignant meditation on the nature of friendship. Beneath the film's war-is-hell message lies the simple tale of a young man who yearns to break away from the isolated life he has known since birth. A golden-skinned athlete, he radiates promise and naivete, and he symbolizes the generation lost to World War I. But wisely, director Peter Weir refrains from exploiting such symbolism to its treacly maximum. Instead, he makes Mark Lee's Archy a foil for Mel Gibson's more ironic, world-weary Frank, using them to fashion a parable about the loss of innocence and the vindication of cynicism. Some of the film's most stunning aspects lie in its images. Weir's landscapes appear simultaneously stark and lush, with the blinding sands of the Australian outback underscoring both geographical and existential isolation; the chaotic, lively setting of the film's battles makes the specter of death even more surreal and terrible. Perhaps the film's most striking image is that of Australian soldiers swimming underwater during a daytime air attack; the sight of their nude bodies silently thrashing through reddening water is one of troubling beauty. Preferring to take a somber rather than accusatory standpoint on the battle of Gallipoli, the film nonetheless manages to be a profound indictment of the stupidity and misjudgment that defined the catastrophic battle. Taken with its compelling portrait of the friendship of its two leads, Gallipoli makes its subject a highly personal one, giving a human face to the statistical cost of human failings. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Mel Gibson - Frank Dunne
• Mark Lee - Archy
• Harold Hopkins - Les McCann
• Ronny Graham - Wallace Hamilton
• Stan Green - Sgt. Major

Robert Grubb - Billy; Heath Harris - Stockman; Graham Dow - Gen. Gardner; David Argue - Snowy; Bill Hunter - Maj. Barton; Bill Kerr - Jack; Jenny Lovell - Waitress; Tim McKenzie - Barney; John Morris - Col. Robinson; Gerda Nicolson - Rose Hamilton; Paul Sonkkila - Sniper; Max Wearing - Col. White; Charles Yunupingu - Zac; Harold Baigent - Camel Driver; Don Barker - N.C.O. at Ball; Steve Dodd - Billy Snakeskin; Reg Evans - Official; Peter Ford - Lieutenant Gray; Jack Giddy - Official; Moshe Kedem - Egyptian Shopkeeper; Paul Linkson - Recruiting Officer; Geoff Parry - Sgt. Sayers; Dane Peterson - Announcer; Phyllis Burford - Laura; Brian Anderson - Railway Foreman; John Murphy - Dan Dunne

Credit

Su Armstrong - Production Manager; Russell Boyd - Cinematographer; Steven Richard Courtley - Special Effects; Mark Egerton - First Assistant Director; Ben Gannon - Producer; Judy Lovell - Makeup; Patricia Lovell - Producer; Brian May - Composer (Music Score); Chris Murray - Special Effects; Herbert Pinter - Art Director; Terry Ryan - Costume Designer; John Seale - Camera Operator; Wendy Stites - Production Designer; Peter Weir - Director; Peter Weir - Screen Story; Peter Weir - Screenwriter; David Williamson - Screenwriter; Robert Stigwood - Producer; Alison Barrett - Casting; Wendy Weir - Production Designer; William M. Anderson - Editor; Mont Fieguth - Special Effects; Ernest Raymond - Book Author

Similar Movies

All Quiet on the Western Front; The Big Red One; Breaker Morant; Chariots of Fire; Grand Illusion; A Midnight Clear; Paths of Glory; Westfront 1918; Zulu; The Charge of the Light Brigade; Journey's End; The Story of G.I. Joe; Tell England; Queimada!; Capitaine Conan; All the King's Men; The Desert Rats; Lion of the Desert

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