GALLIPOLI Movie Review

1981 Peter Weir

Before Platoon, before Saving Private Ryan, Peter Weir established the key themes and tone of the contemporary war film with Gallipoli. His approach is unflinchingly anti-war. In the end, he says, appeals to duty and glory are empty; destruction, waste, and futility are real. That understanding comes at a hard cost.

The entire story takes place between May and July, 1915. It begins in Western Australia—stunningly photographed (even on video) by Russell Boyd—where 18-year-old Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee) is the son of a prosperous farm family. He's also a runner, a sprinter who trains under his stern Uncle Jack (Bill Kerr). At night, Archy reads about the war in newspaper articles he has squirreled away, and he believes the breathless headlines: “Baptism of Fire,” “Splendid Gallantry,” “Magnificent Achievement.” Though he knows his parents will never allow it, he wants to leave the bucolic countryside, and to find his own adventures in the larger world.

At the same time, Frank Dunne (Mel Gibson) and his mates Billy (Robert Grubb), Barney (Tim McKenzie), and Snowy (David Argue) read the same papers and are tempted to play “The Greatest Game of Them All” in ANZAC, the Australian-New Zealand Army Corps. Frank goes along with his pals, but he never really intends to enlist. “It's an English war, got nothing to do with us,” he says, despite considerable peer pressure.

Eventually, Frank meets Archy and they become close friends. (Think Tom and Huck down under.) After a series of episodic encounters, they find themselves in the service and training in Egypt to fight in the Dardanelles against the Ottoman Turks.

The first two-thirds of the film celebrate the heady joys of youth and discovery. Structurally, it's a classic quest story, with the green heroes undergoing various tests and experiences—from a trek across a desert to the teeming back alleys of Cairo—that prepare them for a descent into hell. That hell is the poorly planned and poorly executed engagement at Gallipoli, where the Australians cling to a beachhead beneath entrenched Turkish mortars and machine guns.

In its simplification of the details of the battle and its relative importance to the larger engagement, the film is open to criticism, but writer-director Weir is interested in characters, not tactics or history. In that respect, the film works beautifully. He gets first rate performances from his young cast. This is one of the early roles that made Mel Gibson an international star. The grace notes added by the older supporting cast are just as important.

At the end of the first act, for example, Uncle Jack reads to Archy's younger siblings from Kipling's The Jungle Book. It's the scene where Mowgli cries for the first time and decides to leave the jungle, ending with the line “'Now,’ he said, ‘Now I will go to men.’” The moment could easily be heavy-handed and obvious, but it's delicately, sadly understated. Later, Maj. Barton (played by familiar character actor Bill Hunter) takes much the same role as the only officer who realizes what he and his men are undertaking.

Throughout, the background is filled with period details that seem absolutely authentic. In the soundtrack, Wier's use of Tomaso Albinoni's “Adagio in C” strikes precisely the right emotional chord (as Oliver Stone realized when he chose Barber's “Adagio for Strings” in Platoon). In fact, the only incongruous note is the occasional use of electronic music, a touch borrowed from Chariots of Fire, the Best Picture Oscar-winner released the same year. Other than that, the film is absolutely absorbing straight through to the frozen conclusion that mirrors one of Robert Capa's most famous photographs from the Spanish Civil War.

Seen as popular entertainment, Gallipoli is still a fine crowd pleaser. Its influences on the war films of the late ‘80s and ‘90s are equally important, most noticeably in its heartfelt anti-war attitudes and subtle ironies.

Cast: Mel Gibson (Frank Dunne), Mark Lee (Archy), Bill Kerr (Uncle Jack), David Argue (Snowy), Tim McKenzie (Barney), Robert Grubb (Billy), Graham Dow (Gen. Gardner), Stan Green (Sgt. Major), Heath Harris (Stockman), Harold Hopkins (Les McCann), Charles Yunupingu (Zac), Ronny Graham (Wallace Hamilton), Gerda Nicolson (Rose Hamilton), Bill Hunter (Maj. Barton); Written by: Peter Weir, David Williamson; Cinematography by: Russell Boyd; Music by: Brian May; Technical Advisor: Bill Gammage. Producer: Paramount Pictures, Robert Stigwood, Ben Gannon, Patricia Lovell. Australian. Awards: Australian Film Institute ‘81: Best Actor (Gibson), Best Film. MPAA Rating: PG. Running Time: 111 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV.