How much of Mel Gibson's success as a director does he owe to Peter Weir? He must have had a wonderful experience working with him on this movie. Perfect depiction of innocents at war - the young soldiers who didn't know how cruel the world (and their officers) could be. Has a better depiction of the Australian character ever been put on a screen? Screenplay by David Williamson is spot-on. (He is the "long streak of pelican s**t" who has to be "sorted out" while playing football near the Sphinx!) (viewed 10/16)

This movie showed a brutally honest depiction of the tragedy that was the fateful Gallipoli campaign. The futility of trench warfare, the grim conditions that the soldiers unfortunate enough to be there had to endure and the sheer ferocity of the Turkish defence were some of the more accurate I've seen in war movies. The fateful Battle of the Nek was a faithful depiction, it shows an Australian Colonel, not a British officer as some think, ordering the the ill-fated attack to continue despite the first waves being massacred within seconds of going over the top which sadly is what happened. The only real issue I had with the movie was the absence of the Royal Welch Fusiliers who also suffered heavy losses at the Nek on that fateful day. The story is compelling and although the two main protagonists are fictional, their story is not too far from the truth, the naive romantic ideals young men at the time had of the war, it would be over by Christmas, it would be a picnic etc, then when the nightmare of reality hit home was again excellently done. The ending is one of the saddest and emotional I've seen when the soldiers know what's coming. All in all this movie is such an honest depiction of a period which some have tried to forget and one to own if your into history and war movies.

Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.Peter Weir has made some great films and has been the key contributor to Australian cinema. In fact, it is hard to imagine anyone who has done more. Nicolas Roeg may have helped, and Peter Jackson has pushed New Zealand (which probably overflows to Australia), but Weir seems to be largely the sole force.Mel Gibson appears in the film, more or less before he went big. Definitely before he reclaimed his American status (something he is still trying to do today, actually). Not his finest role, and certainly not his most memorable, but oh well. This is also, by the way, not among Weir's best films. But even a bad Weir is a good film.

Seemed to be a very promising WWI movie about Western Aussies in the terrible battle of Galliopoli in 1915. Yup, and then there is a very young, handsome, energetic Mel Gibson. Aha. And then, a deadly dry (as dry as Aussie wind) boredom creeps in, you feel that dryness in every angle and this horrific Aussie sun heat in every moment and that heat kills every possible entertaining moment the movie could have delivered but failed. The battle? Nope, we saw better films. The characters? Too syrupy and too shallow. The setting? Boring fly-ridden Aussie landscape with nothing to look st. Terribly dry and very dull. This is a waste of time of 120 minutes. Ni redeeming feature in this slow vapid untasty drag.