Anzac Day seemed an appropriate day to bring out my World War one movies, and so I arrived home from the Dawn Service, and stuck the first episode of Anzacs starring Andrew Clarke, Paul Hogan, and Jon Blake, into the VCR.It was an excellent mini-series - or movie, depending on where you live - when I first watched it three years ago, and I was pleased to know that it hasn't lost any of it's filmic brilliance. Excellent performances from perennial Australian actor Andrew Clarke (playing Martin Barrington), legend Paul Hogan (cocky Pat Cleary) and Jon Blake (Flanagan) combined with great special effects, and much attention to historical detail, make this mini series an excellent thing to watch. It's certainly one of the best Australian productions ever.The thing that sets Anzacs apart from anything else is the way the film begins in Victoria, just before war is declared, and takes the viewer on a journey from the boot camps, to the Gallipoli Peninsula, and on to the hellish battlefields across France and Belgium. The series follows a small platoon, originating in Victoria, and their trials and tribulations throughout the four years of World War One.Key Australian actions from Lone Pine to the battle at Villers-Bretonneux are depicted with amazing attention to detail, and with great, sweeping battle sequences. The series is also remarkable in the way that it focuses on both the battlefield events, as well as events behind the lines. I like this, especially considering that infantry spent on 30% of their time in the line.Gallipoli and The Lighthorseman are unfairly compared to Anzacs but shouldn't be, because these two movies focus on only a small campaign, where as Anzacs is long enough to show the whole war.This is an excellent production, and is a good education into the way things happened during World War One, and is well worth the price of the video rental.Andrew

This was an excellent mini-series, packed with sub-plots, all revolving around the story of an Aussie platoon during the First World War. Comic relief is provided by the brilliant Paul Hogan as the wheeling-dealing private Pat Cleary, and a sense of realism is maintained through the narrative character of Roly Collins (excellently played by Christopher Cummins). The story never dips in interest and, I'm pleased to say, strives to keep an actuate journal of real events during the Great War from all battles; violent and political.And if you want to know why the world has to thank Australia and New Zealand for their part in history, I advise you look out for ANZACS. 10/10

This is an interesting chronicle of the ANZACs, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.One reason my fellow reviewer here might not have enjoyed this film is that it was created for an entirely different culture (Australia). To brand it as "bad" simply because it isn't American is patently unfair.This made-for-TV production is really aimed squarely at the Australian audience, who still revere the memory of the ANZACs, the troops who suffered horrendous losses at Gallipoli in WWI. The heroism of the ANZACs, who fought so bravely and with such determination, was such that the Turkish enemy erected a monument to them.While it is true that the film (culled from a five-part mini-series), is not riveting entertainment compared to something like "Centennial" or "War and Rememberance", it does outline the feelings, views, and politics of the day faced by the ANZAC forces.The Australian and New Zealand viewpoints of the Great War are rarely on display, and here we have all of the various sentiments played out before us. The overall feeling (still is tangible today), is that the incompetence and arrogance of British officers (under whom the ANZAC force operated), were directly responsible for the waste of lives in pointless charges against the heavily entrenched Turkish forces.The mini-series is positively anti-colonial in regards to the portrayal of the British as uncaring, and more interested in saving British lives than that of the Aussies or New Zealanders.Paul Hogan will most likely be the only familliar face for American viewers. I would recommend the Mel Gibson film "Gallipoli" for those looking for a familliar cast and a relatively big budget look. That film also has more weight to it, and is more stylized.While "ANZACs" does come off as a bit like "light drama", or perhaps almost a glorified soap opera, if someone is interested in the topic of WWI, and the Australian and New Zealand participation in particular, the mini-series is worth a viewing. For scholars studying the events in this theater of the war, is a must see to examine both the attitudes of the day, and at the time the mini-series was made.

The best war movie or series (on a par with Saving Private Ryan) I have ever seen. This gives a true account of how I imagine the Australians were at war - the camaraderie, the bravery, the humour - just as I imagine it would have been. And, what a great Australian cast !!!To the lady who gave this a terrible rating - you wouldn't know a good movie if it bit you.