Now this is what I call a good mini-series. It is interesting, realistic, believable and touching. Very well directed, filmed and acted.Above all, it also gives the viewer an insight into one of the great battles of the first world war, which, especially for the Australians, has legendary status. It is also very interesting how the movie vividly depicts the divide between the classes present at the time. The film's portrayal of the generals is phenomenal... The generals and their staffs where so distant and alienated from their troops that most of the time, they had no clear idea of what was really going on on the battlefield!All in all, mini-series very well made. Highly recommended.

I am a military pedant. I was all set to be hating on this program.I have to say I was amazed by the attention to detail showed. Both at ANZAC and also in the home scenes back in Australia.I'd commend this to anyone wanting to know more about the period and the ANZACs.As a student of history I would have liked the Senior Officers, especially the Australians, to be more readily identifiable. Bridges, Monash, Elliot etc.Nice touch to show General Bridges being evacuated (later to die) after being shot by a sniper. Really enjoying this and hoping it becomes available to people outside of Australia.

One powerful memory I have of growing up was a photograph on the mantelpiece in my Grandmother's house of her brother who was killed on the second day at Gallipoli. He was a signaller; it would have been hard to get insurance for a man whose job was to stand up in full view and wave a couple of brightly coloured flags. Inevitably his luck ran out - he was 21 years old.Even without that family connection, I have always found the Gallipoli campaign fascinating, not just for the battle, but for what it means to Australians, and how our collective memory about it has changed over the decades. Each generation reinterprets it to fit the times we live in.And that is the big problem for any filmmaker: which Gallipoli do you make? The one with the Anzacs as exceptional warriors who showed the British, Turks, and the world a thing or two - more or less the memory that existed between the two world wars and into the 1950's - or do you go for the Anzacs as tragic victims, sacrificial lambs to the incompetence of senior officers and politicians; the image that has been finely-honed over the last couple of decades.The filmmakers have gone for something between the two. Getting the tone right was the critical thing. There is no glorification of war here. The series is built around pale-looking Thomas 'Tolly' Johnson played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, although hardly the epitome of the Bronzed Anzac, he nonetheless demonstrates inner strength as the campaign progresses.And as for the first day of battle, which occupies the whole of the first episode, I think the filmmakers caught a feeling for the event as described in the many histories, however there are two things worth pointing out.The first could be put down to artistic licence. Although real shots of the terrain are married with recreations shot in Australia, the hills beyond Anzac Cove were actually more densely covered in underbrush in the beginning of the campaign than shown in this depiction. Of course it would have been just as hard to film in dense brush as it was to fight a battle in it.My other point is more critical. What about the Kiwis? New Zealanders have often felt that Australians have hi-jacked the whole of the Anzac story - not so if you read C.E.W. Bean - but they may have a point here. Although the filmmakers have gone for an impression of the landing, with an amalgam of actions fought by various units, it seems to take place mainly on the left of Anzac. New Zealanders do appear in later episodes, but the scriptwriters could easily have included them on the day of the landing because in reality they arrived with fresh troops in the afternoon to reinforce the exhausted Australians on the left - it was a decisive moment.That aside, this is a brave attempt to tell a complex story. Although some budget limitations do show - the big Turkish counter-attack needed a bigger canvas - the aftermath with the armistice and the burial of the bodies really hits home.It's more polished than the "Anzacs" mini-series, but does not eclipse Weir's "Gallipoli" that 'buddy movie' par excellence set against one momentous event in a big campaign. Instead, this "Gallipoli" covers that big campaign including the Diggers on the beach, the Turks in the hills facing them, the High Command at sea sipping scotch and sodas, the journalists trying to expose the whole mess, and even a few flashbacks showing happier times before the war. It was a lot to cram in, but it all works once you get a feel for it, and there are touches of brilliance; John Bach's General Hamilton in particular.There are more episodes to come, but the tone has been set. On one level, the filmmakers have made an affecting drama, while on the other, they have given those who know little of the story a better understanding about what happened in that terrible place one hundred years ago.

It brings to home the tragedy and futility of Gallipoli. Four Aussie men from our ancestor families fought at Gallipoli. One man from Orange NSW was injured on landing on the 25th April - witnesses said it looked like his neck was severed, he survived after 30 days in hospital, he was in the 2nd battalion, later wounded on the 7th August at the battle of Lone Pine sadly he died on the 9th buried at sea from the Delta along with his commanding officer.His cousin, also born in Orange NSW, was a Sergeant Farrier in the 4th Field Ambulance, he would have witnessed the shocking injuries of the Anzacs. Perhaps he was able to comfort his younger cousin? Two brothers from Leichardt Sydney NSW, 2nd battalion reinforcements, survived Gallipoli but died later in France and Belgium. I see their faces in this film. The realty and emotion is overwhelming almost too difficult watch. But so well done.