Barnes & Noble

This ambitious 1981 Australian epic boosted the international stock of leading man Mel Gibson -- already a cult favorite as a result of his work in Mad Max (1979) -- and helped make him a legitimate movie star. An intelligently written, finely calibrated story focusing on the relationship of two men enveloped by war, it also tagged director Peter Weir (Witness) as a filmmaker to be reckoned with. The 1915 Battle of Gallipoli, a signal event in the first World War, is to Australians what the siege of the Alamo is to Americans: a heartbreaking defeat rationalized over the years into a tremendous moral victory. It began when a modest army of Australian and New Zealand troops attempted to capture Istanbul and thus control the Dardanelles waterway. When Allied generals bungled the assault, the defending Turks rallied and subsequently inflicted heavy losses on the would-be invaders. In this movie, Weir more than adequately covers the historical record, but he never allows the siege to overwhelm the story of Frank Dunne (Gibson) and Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee), whose unlikely friendship is forged on the battlefield in the midst of bitter fighting and much bloodshed. The conflict is dramatized in Weir’s skillful depiction of battle scenes but also on a more intimate scale, seen through the eyes of the men embroiled in it. Gibson, playing the up-and-coming track star who abandons a promising career to enlist in the Australian Army Corps, exhibits a sensitivity that at this time had not yet been manifest in his acting. He makes Frank thoroughly believable, helping turn what might have been a routine war movie into a profoundly moving drama. In this he admirably serves Weir’s vision, which encompasses the human aspects of the war as well as the “big picture” details of the siege itself. Gallipoli triumphs at several levels, but its greatest accomplishment was establishing Gibson as a serious leading man, and it remains one of his finest motion pictures. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The first of two consecutive films to see director Peter Weir team with Mel Gibson (the other being The Year of Living Dangerously), Gallipoli follows two idealistic young friends, Frank (Gibson) and Archy (Mark Lee), who join the Australian army during World War I and fight the doomed battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. The first half of the film documents the lives of the young men in Australia, detailing their personalities and beliefs. The second half of the movie chronicles the ill-fated and ill-planned battle, where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps is hopelessly outmatched by the enemy forces. Gallipoli was the recipient of eight prizes at the 1981 Australian Film Institute Awards. Matthew Tobey

Product Details

• UPC: 097360361049
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Editions: Special Edition
• Time: 1:51:00
• Sales Rank: 8,835

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