Battle of Gallipoli

Gallipoli - An analysis of the 1981 film

Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian film, which follows a few young gentlemen from rural Western Australia enlisting into the army, attending training in Cairo, Egypt and attending the Battle of Gallipoli and in particular, the Battle of the Nek. Overall the film is accurate in approximately 95% of aspects. It portrayal of why the men enlisted and the conditions at Gallipoli seemed quite realistic, and it also followed the historical timeline. The film does alter events to be dramatic, but this is normally encouraged in any film.

The Battle of Gallipoli was part of World War I. The battle took place at Gallipoli, a peninsula in northwestern Turkey, from April until December, 1915. Australia was only one of the countries fighting against the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Russia was threatened by a Turkish attack through a region called the Caucasus and asked their allies for some help. Taking over the Dardanelles, a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey, would establish better communications with Russia and it would also release wheat and other shipping locked in the Black Sea due to Turkey’s refusal.

Gallipoli has three main parts. The first part is set in Western Australia in May, 1915 where we meet the two main characters Frank and Archie, and where they enlist into the army. The second part is set in Cairo, where they train near the Pyramids of Giza. The third part set in Gallipoli, where we witness some of The Battle of the Nek (a small battle part of the Battle of Gallipoli). There is very little battle until the final minutes of the film, and actually, the film ends before the Battle of the Nek ends.

- Gallipoli (1981)

Gallipoli was accurate in its depiction of why men enlisted. There are many different reasons why people decided to enlist in the army. For some people, the lure of war and adventure was not to be missed. It was an opportunity for “a chap to make a man of himself”. Others just wanted the pay of 60 cents a day, which was much more than British soldiers were paid at the time. But most men enlisted because they felt they needed to fight for their country, and this is probably what Frank and Archie were thinking.

There is very little writing on the training at Cairo, and most information probably comes from letters or diaries. It was up to director Peter Weir to come up with how the training may taken place. At Cairo, people rose in the morning to the call of a bugle, and had to obey without question any orders they got. Most letters say and imply that the soldiers were tired of training and just wanted to be there.

I am sick and tired of wasting leather on the gritty paving stones of Cairo. Egypt is all right for a week, but soon everything becomes a drag, so now I am going to a place where monotony is unknown, and a year seems like one crowded hour of glorious life. I am on the eve of entering the firing line and rejoicing.

Captain W Gamble, 15 Light Trench Mortar.

The Battle of the Nek is depicted in the climax of Gallipoli. The Battle of the Nek was tragic and futile attack on the Turkish trenches. The purpose of the attack according to the film was to ensure that the British were not attacked when they were landing at Suvla, a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula, although it has been debated that the attack was actually a diversion for the New Zealanders' attack on Sari Bair. The terrain was in the shape of a bottleneck (as inspiration for the name Nek) and therefore was easy to defend for the Turkish as they were on the high ground.

- The charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek, 7 August 1915 by George Lambert, 1924.

Before the battle begins, Frank is picked as a runner while Archie is in the attack. The first wave was timed to go over the trenches at the end of an artillery bombardment so that the Turkish were not prepared. But due to a mix-up concerning the commanders’ watches the Turkish were given several minutes to regroup. About 150 men went over the top of the trenches in the first wave. The soldiers ran into machine gun and rifle fire. The second wave had the task of climbing over the bodies of their comrades only to be killed anyway. General Gardiner gives Frank the message that he’s “reconsidering the whole situation”, which in other words means “cancelling the attack”. Frank rushes back, but is too late to stop the third wave, and it is assumed that the fourth wave is stopped. Archie runs in the third wave, which meets the same fate as the last two waves and he is killed. The frame freezes as he is shot, and the film ends. In the film, the fictional General Gardiner called off the attack, but actually, the attack didn’t continue when half of the fourth wave charged over the trenches on their own. Only then, did the surviving commander in the trenches, Lieutenant Colonel Noel Brazier, order for the attack to stop.

he result of the Nek battle was a decisive Turkish victory with 372 Australian casualties and no Turkish casualties. The great tragedy of the Battle of the Nek was that the attack was not stopped after the first wave didn’t make it.

The film actually portrays the British rather unfairly. Contrary to what the film displays, there was very little British involvement the Nek. Australian historian Les Carlyon agrees that the film incorrectly portrays the English, but that "the scale of the tragedy of the Nek was mostly the work of two Australian incompetents”, Australian Light Horse Brigade commander Brigadier General Frederic Hughes and the brigade-major of the 3rd Brigade, Colonel J. M. Antill.

The British were said to be “drinking tea on the beach” while Australia were getting killed at Nek for no apparent reason. In fact, two British companies suffered heavy losses trying to save the Australians at Nek once they found out that the attack was unsuccessful.

- Satellite image of the Gallipoli peninsula and surrounding area

Overall, Gallipoli is a good representation of history. Although there are some aspects in the film which could be improved upon, most of the information in the film is sound. The enlistment process was covered well, and the training was hard to get through because there was very little information about it. The Battle of the Nek was a tragic battle for the Australian forces. Despite the loss of the Battle of Gallipoli (and the Battle of the Nek), Australian and New Zealand soldiers "displayed great courage, endurance, initiative, discipline, and mateship" on the battlefield.

Bibliography

Gallipoli. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr. DVD. Paramount Pictures, 1981.

Carlyon, Les. Gallipoli. Pan Macmillan Australia, 2001. pp.408-410.

James, Robert Rhodes. Gallipoli. Pimlico, 1999. pp.274-276.

Smith, Joshua. "Gallipoli (1981)." OZ CINEMA.com. Nov. 1997. 19 Aug. 2007 <http://www.ozcinema.com/reviews/g/gallipoli.html 19/08>.

Heilman, Jeremy. "Gallipoli." MovieMartyr.com. Oct. 2001. 19 Aug. 2007 <http://www.moviemartyr.com/1981/gallipoli.htm>.

"Gallipoli (1981 film)." Wikipedia. 2007. 19 Aug. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_(1981_film)>.

"Battle of the Nek." Wikipedia. 2007. 19 Aug. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Nek>.

"Why did the Anzacs land at Gallipoli?" Information Services Branch of the Board of Studies NSW. 2007. 26 Aug. 2007 <http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/1landing/why.html>.

"Conflict and War: the Battle for the Nek." English Online. Mar. 2004. 26 Aug. 2007 <http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/conflict_war/battle.html>.

"Gallipoli." Wikipedia. 2007. 27 Aug. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli>.

Posted by Proabffmm on Friday, June 6, 2008.