Rating: 
Summary: Good historical drama
Review: The Gallipoli Campaign was an attempt by the Imperial forces to put Turkey out of the war in 1915. What was involved was an invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula by the combined forces of Britain, Australia, New Zealand and France. The Gallipoli Peninsula is south of Istanbul and the aim of the operation was to seize the Turkish capital and to cut of their land route to Germany and Austria. In fact the operation was a disaster. The Turks were able to concentrate their forces and to contain the Imperial army. Eventually they had to withdraw after suffering considerable casualties. The campaign is of importance in the history of Turkey as it made the career of Mustafa Kemal. It is also important in the history of Australia and New Zealand as it was seen as forging their national character. In Australia it is still celebrated by a national day of mourning. The film tells the story from the perspective of two Australian soldiers who fought at Anzac cove. They are country lads who are talented sprinters and who volunteer to join the Australian Light Horse. (Cavalry) The first part of the film deals with their meeting and the development of their friendship. The later part of the film deals with their training and the actual fighting. The film has a mild anti war feel to it. Considering the nature of the campaign this is not a total surprise. The Australian forces were landed by mistake in a cove area which had steep cliffs going to the sea. The Australian troops became stalled on these hills and for the life of the campaign were at the mercy of Turkish troops on higher ground, who were able to continually snipe at them and roll hand grenades into their positions. Any Australian attacks had to be up hill against well prepared positions. The climax of the film is a poorly organised attack. The bombardment which was to mask the attacking infantry ended before the time scheduled for the attack. This enabled the Turks to man their positions and to mow down the attacking infantry forces. This was in fact based on a true event and it led to media pressure to end the campaign. For a person who has grown up in Australia or New Zealand the film is a moving account of an important event in one's history. Others who are not familiar with the events around the film may perhaps not enjoy it as much.
Rating:
Summary: Weir's Best Film
Review: This excellent film is probably the best movie made by the talented Australian director Peter Weir. While Weir has a made a number of very good films, notably The Year of Living Dangerously and the recent Master and Commander, the subject matter of Gallipoli is the most serious of any of Weir's films. Gallipoli is the general title for the series of WWI battles in which the Western Allies attempted to force the Dardanelles and knock Turkey out of the war. Some, including Winston Churchill, himslef one of the prime movers behind the campaign, argued that Allied success at Gallipoli would have been decisive. This has been disputed by recent historians. The Gallipoli campaigns were the first large scale attempt at amphibious assault and were an organizational and tactical disaster. The Allied commanders flubbed several chances to beat the Turks. The Turkish defense was tenacious and much of the action became the trench warfare characteristic of much of WWI. The Allies failed, at great cost, though Turkish casulties were also quite high.
Gallipoli holds a special resonance for Australians. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was the first major overseas participation of Australian and New Zealand troops fighting as national formations. The ANZACs fought courageously, prefiguring the outstanding performance of Australian and New Zealand infantry in both World Wars. Gallipoli appears to occupy the place in Australian history that the Civil War occupies in American life. Australia (possibly also New Zealand) is the only country that regularly celebrates a major military defeat.
Weir's movie is a powerful depiction of the Australian experience at Gallipoli. The story is simple. A pair of friends from Western Australia enlist, are sent to Gallipoli, and one of them dies in one of the famous and bungled attacks characteristic of the campaign, indeed of the whole war. Weir uses this conventional war movie formula in particularly creative ways. A good deal of the movie takes place prior to enlistment. Weir uses these scenes to convey his image of Australia as rural, provincial, starkly beautiful, and in important ways, profoundly innocent. The war scenes are beautifully prepared and photographed. Weir and his team apparently used a careful study of photographs from Gallipoli to construct scenes in the movie. I recognized parts of scenes as being almost identical to some famous photos of trench life in Gallipoli. The scenes before and during the climactic assault are devastatingly powerful.
This film was made in Australia, by Australians, and for Australians. Some important aspects of the story are simply assumed. These are things that would be known by Australians but not by Americans. The infantry assault depicted in the film were diversions and part of the Battle of Suvla Bay, an attempt to break out of the limited beachheads established in the initial landings. Had the Suvla Bay attacks been successful, the Allies would have beaten Turkey in 1915. Suvla Bay almost succeeded and failed largely because of poor leadership and communications. Because of the latter, the sacrifice of the ANZACs was entirely wasted. Australian audiences would know this and this fact gives the ending of the film a particularly bitter flavor. The end of the movie shows the suicidal attack of the Light Horse on entrenched Turkish positions. The Light Horse suffered 50% casulties that morning.
Rating: 
Summary: The Anzacs Led By Great Britain To a War in Gallipoli
Review: Very touching movie. The Anzacs fought a courages war against the Turks and the Turkish army defended their country well. Kemal Ataturk who commanded the Turkish army wrote to the Anzacs;- Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives..you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.. You,the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; Your sons are in peace.After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well. Kemal Ataturk... This movie hounors the heroism and self-sacrifice that distinguished both the Anzacs and Turkish troops who took part in that bitterly fought campaign. We should learn from history and protect the human race, not destroy it. Peace and Love, Not War and Hatred.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, Heart wrenching
Review: Incredible effort by director Peter Weir and a very young Mel Gibson. A powerful statement on the futility of war and the terrilbe toll it takes on youth and innocence. Stunning cinematography and great acting, highlight this tale of the ill-fated Austrialian attack against the Turks during WWI. Two friends enlist hoping for adventure and glory, but learn first hand the horrors and helpless of war. If you liked Saving Private Ryan, you will love this film. A epic movie that that is hard to forget, with a gut wrenching finale. See it!
Rating:
Summary: Gallipoli
Review: Story is Australian Patriots in WWI. Who gave there lives largely a result of there British Officers Error. I saw this on the History Channel and wanted a copy for myself. I understand that when this movie was shown in Australia for the first time. The audience sat in silence for 20 or 30 minutes contemplating. Mel Gibson and Mark Lee are tops.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful movie - a very touching story & lovely soundtrack
Review: One of my ten all-time favourites. I've seen it many times, and I always find it wonderful - how it shows some young, idealistic persons, their thoughts, their relationships... and then the fim confront these people with the cruelty of war - This film conveys very deep feelings, and the music of Jean Michel Jarre and the Adagio of Albinoni both help a lot to make the film so moving (after watching the film for the first time, I hurried up to find those pieces of music, also among my all-time favourites). I've read some reviews in Amazon in which Australian and British reviewers argue about the role of the aussies in the WWI, or about the historical correctness of the film. I guess that if my country -Spain- was portrayed in a film in a way that I found unfair, I would also complain; but for me, those discussions are meaningless in this case: for me, this film is refering to wars in general - that's why my mother (a history teacher) shows this film to her students every year. This film is a must; once you see it, you'll wonder why it is not as well known as it deserves.
Rating:
Summary: Credit where it's due
Review: As an English woman (I hate the term Brit - surely it's racist, isn't it? A bit like Paki or Frog?) I have the utmost respect for the ANZAC's. However - after reading a few of the reviews posted here, I'm not going to sit by and allow my own country to be denigrated. There were thousands of British troops at Gallipoli as well as a smaller French contingent - under the command of Sir Ian Hamilton, a man acknowledged for his excellent bravery, but lacking the decisive qualities needed for the leadership of such an expedition. In fact - despite the well-known WW1 poem about the Australian buried at Suvla Bay, there were mainly British forces put ashore there, (the famous 'Lost Battalion' of 1/5th Norfolk Reg. being one of them.) Most of the ANZAC forces landed further south at Anzac Cove. Australia and New Zealand both entered the war behind Britain on an upsurge of patriotism - not surprising given that the then population of Australia who were of European descent was 96% British. ANZAC recruiting remained entirely voluntary throughout the whole of the war and the response from both the Australian and NZ populus was magnificent. Some 332,000 troops served overseas, of whom 212,000 were wounded and 60,000 were killed, a casualty rate of more than 82%. There is no doubt the ANZAC's suffered terrifically during the Dardanelles campaign. The whole campaign was badly timed and hugely underestimated the Turks and their reorganisation by the German general Otto Liman Van Sanders. However, the British suffered too - a fact that is often forgotten. As regards the film itself - it's a lesson in why war is futile, a study of loss of innocence, a moving demonstration of comradeship and love between men under the most execrable of conditions. Harrowing and intensely compelling. Peter Weir evokes atmosphere unlike any other. If you're English - try to forget Mel's pathological hatred of us for a couple of hours and remember why our own fathers/grandfathers who fought in that terrible war had such tremendous respect for the ANZAC troops they encountered. And of course . . . we can always think of the Rugby!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but could Be Better
Review: I really don't have much to say about this movie other than the fact that it is extremely well put together and I think that the director really captured the futility of the first World War and the terrible mistakes made by the ANZAC forces and the British. I loved the movie but the ending really did kind of suck because it was so terrible and so very quick.
Rating:
Summary: In the trenches.
Review: A touching drama about the futility of war and the power of male friendship. "Gallipoli" stars a young Mel Gibson as a champion runner and reluctant soldier in the World War I battle of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. The story of his friendship with another runner (Mark Lee) and the idealistic dreams both men have of glory and adventure in the war develops into a ghastly look at the horror of a suicide mission and the waste that Australians experienced, as hundreds of their young men were slaughtered. Gibson was just another working actor at this point, not yet the megastar he is today, and he blends in with the fine ensemble cast and delivers a poignant performance, while Mark Lee steals the show as the naive boy who dreams of adventure and winds up in the horrific experience of trench warfare. A strong, emotionally wrenching war film, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is an outstanding movie. A must see, especially for war movie buffs.
| 
