Before he made Witness, The Truman Show and other classics, Peter Weir created a war movie with Mel Gibson that you can catch on TV today.
Peter Weir is one of the great directors of Australian cinema, who has thrilled audiences with films like Dead Poets Society and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World during his long career. Before he set out for Hollywood, Weir made an unusual war film about Australia’s experiences in the First World War. The young Mel Gibson played one of the leading roles in Gallipoli. Tonight you can watch the film about a friendship in the throes of war on TV.
Gallipoli sheds light on a rarely seen episode of the First World War
The two Australians Frank Dunne (Mel Gibson) and Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee) have their whole lives ahead of them. The talented runners meet in 1915 at a sprint competition that Archy wins, but instead of a rivalry, a friendship develops. Together they decide to sign up for the army. And so the First World War takes them across North Africa to what is now Turkey. There they quickly realize that war is not the romantic adventure they know from stories.
Anyone who associates cinematic depictions of the First World War primarily with Western European trench warfare à la All Quiet on the Western Front will see a different, global side of the war in Gallipoli. The fictional characters Frank and Archy serve alongside 50,000 other Australians in the Gallipoli campaign, the devastating landing attempt on the Gallipoli peninsula. For the British Empire and its allies, this offensive against the Ottoman Empire ended in failure.
Why this war film is worth watching
Don’t expect a mindless battle of attrition. As in his later seafaring adventure Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, Weir is most interested in the friendship at the center of the story. For the young men, joining the military is just another expression of their sense of adventure and boundless energy, which Weir traces against a backdrop of majestic landscapes.
Janet Maslin wrote in her review of the 1981 theatrical release in the New York Times :
It is more beautiful than any war movie before it, which makes its emotional power surprising. Weir’s work has a tenderness, gentleness, even an unobtrusiveness that doesn’t seem to fit with this subject matter. And yet his film has an unusual beauty, warmth and immediacy, and also an air of mystery.
So it’s worth catching up on!
