I watched "Gallipoli" on a whim one night when it aired on TCM as part of a tribute to Australian cinema, and found it to be a moving film about the ultimate horror and waste of World War I.
Mark Lee and Mel Gibson play two young sprinters who meet as competitors, become friends, and then enlist together in the war. Not taking much seriously, they both think serving will be a bit of a lark, and indeed it begins that way, with a lot of carousing, drinking, whoring and some goofball antics during combat training. But then they arrive at their destination, and the reality of what war actually looks and sounds like begins to sink in.
This movie does a great job of showing that transition from young man bluster and naive belief in the good of a cause to scared everyman, being sent out to certain death for reasons he can no longer comprehend. The film is paced very well, and the trench warfare scenes at the film's end are so expertly juxtaposed with the buddy movie that precedes them, that the effect on the audience is that of a punch to the groin. The very end is devastating and haunting in a way few movies anymore would have the guts to be.
Peter Weir directed this before he became known for more popular and Oscar-baity films like "Witness" and "Dead Poets Society."
Grade: A
