This colossal 1987 production - believe it or not - from RKO PICTURES is an Australian film closely resembling LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in its intent and rightly compared to ZULU. With a huge cast of Oz actors and directed by PHAR LAP (look it up) warhorse Simon Wincer it is basically about the last massive charge in the Middle East desert during World War One....an event still on the yearly Australian military forces roster of "Anzac" celebrations. Many other comments on this site will give you details of the history of the event and rightly applaud this lavish spectacular film. RKO Pictures had reformed with some co financing in the 80s and this is one of their few productions. BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE and THE BORDER are two others that spring to mind produced with Universal Pictures. With a $7 million budget and all of it on screen THE LIGHTHORSE became the last of the truly international films from Australia in the 80s. Others of this time are GALLIPOLI and CAREFUL HE MIGHT HEAR YOU and THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER and WE OF THE NEVER NEVER...each are films made with a lavish widescreen cinema release in mind and each huge Oz successes. THE LIGHTHORSEMEN is well worth the 140 minutes or so of carefully paced storytelling, all laced with Aussie humor and superb design and photography. The charge in the last two reels is truly breathtaking and on a cinema screen was particularly overwhelming, rivaling the battle charge in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA for sheer thrilling visuals. No CGI in this film... it is all real and scary and played and filmed for keeps. One thrill for cinema owners of the day was to have the film commence with the original cinema scope RKO logo...beeping away from the tower on top of the world. Wonderful!
