Gallipoli (1981)

Directed by Peter Weir. Starring Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Robert Grubb, David Argue, Tim McKenzie, Bill Hunter, Bill Kerr, John Morris, Harold Hopkins, Charles Yunupingu. [PG]

Two Australian runners, first rivals and later friends, enlist in the military after Australia enters the Great War. Split into three sections: first, the economical establishment of the background and friendship of the two protagonists before joining the war effort; next, the soldiering life in a foreign land with hints of Gunga Din-style mischief and mayhem; finally, the disastrous battle on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey where the fate of one of the young men is sealed by pig-headed patriotism, incompetent leadership, and bad timing. An anti-war companion piece with fellow Australian New Wave gem Breaker Morant (by Bruce Beresford in 1980), but it’s more a story of endurance, fraternity, “mateship,” and loss of innocence, centering on the bond between two young Australians who sign up to fight for different reasons—one’s an idealist (Lee), the other is a skeptic (Gibson)—and end up cogs in a fool’s machine. Sags in the middle with the trivial misadventures of Lee and his mates in a Turkish bazaar (including one episode that becomes tasteless once the punchline arrives), but the gripping final act rescues the picture and then some. Handsomely photographed by Russell Boyd in South Australia and Egypt.

84/100