Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43108 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-03
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Collector's Edition, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Synopsis
An Australian film which centres on two young men caught up in the murderous battle for Gallipoli during World War I. Winner of nine AFI awards. Based on a story by Peter Weir.

Customer Reviews

moving and vivid
This is a film I have seen several times since it was first issued, and it has always packed a considerable emotional punch. It tells of the accidental friendship of two young Australians, one from a comfortable farming background, the other rather from the other side of the tracks, brought together by their talent as sprinters. Both join up and are transported first to Egypt and then to the Dardanelles. There, at Gallipoli, they play out the last stage of their friendship in the inferno of bullet and shellfire which met the Anzac troops. The film is amusing in places, very characterful, visually very beautiful. The soundtrack seems to me appropriate ; I don't find it dated at all, and the classical pieces fit the sometimes sombre mood and the touching portrayal of the Australian officer who celebrates his wedding anniversary by playing old records of the famous Pearl Fishers' duet. I used to use this film a bit in a film studies course in the school in which I taught and it always left the teenagers silent and thoughtful ; it certainly touched them. Highly recommended.

Flawed but very powerful anti-war film
Uneven but powerful film about the First World War atrocity at Gallipoli where appalling incompetence by the generals lead to thousands of Australian soldiers being ordered above the trenches into direct Turkish gunfire. Gallipoli the film is also largely about the development of the unlikely friendship between country boy Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee) and the more streetwise Frank Dunne (Mel Gibson). United as outstanding, competing, athletic prospects Archy leads the more questioning Frank into joining up after they undertake an unscheduled desert trek to Perth.

Like most of the other rookie volunteers, the geographically isolated Archy is incredibly naïve about the war, seeing it as little more than a foreign adventure. After clearly inadequate training in Egypt, the two friends and their comrades land amidst spectacular gunfire in Turkey and are soon disgracefully ordered forward with sudden catastrophic results.

Made by renowned Australian director Peter Weir, the pointless waste of these young lives packs a very powerful punch. Less impressive is the film's development towards this climax with Archy and Frank's burgeoning friendship being under-developed on-screen. Gallipoli's lack of cohesiveness is also not helped by it already feeling dated, not least due to its horrible early 80s music interludes. Still it's a very powerful indictment of a terrible episode of army incompetence and despite its flaws, is well worth seeing.