Çanakkale Arslanlari

THE LIONS OF CANAKKALE is a film about the Gallipoli campaign from the Turkish perspective. Thus the aggressors are the Anzacs and the British and the heroes of the hour are the Turks themselves, staunchly defending their homeland against the foreign oppressors and often fighting it out until the last man. It's a tale of courage under fire and heroism on the battlefield.

What's most impressive about this production is the scope of it. The battle scenes are lavish and convincing with hundreds of extras utilised to give the film a ring of authenticity. I'm not sure if stock footage was incorporated to make the battles more realistic but they certainly impress here.

The main problem with the film is the lack of a decent script offering the kind of characterisation that's a necessity in these movies. There are no real characters here, just one-dimensional figures going through the motions. The film is about spectacle and bombast and the Turkish director is more interested in depictions of machismo than in real living and breathing figures. This saps the film of involvement on the viewer's part. The direction is also very standard with a stand-back-and-shoot approach to the cinematography which means that for all the extras and explosions it's a very ordinary war film regardless.