Gallipoli (1981) on Netflix
PG19811h 50mAdventureDramaHistory
In Western Australia, prize-winning sprinter Archy Hamilton wants to enlist. He talks fellow runner Frank Dunne into joining him, and the two ship out for Egypt and the campaign at Gallipoli.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.4/1045,065 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
Archy Hamilton, a young stockman in Western Australia and a prize-winning sprinter, is trained by his uncle Jack and wants to join the Australian Imperial Force. At an athletics carnival he beats Frank Dunne, an out-of-work former railway laborer who had bet on himself to win, and Archy decides to enlist. Penniless, the two ride a freight train toward Perth; when it stops at a remote desert station, they cross a dry lake bed on foot to a cattle station. In Perth they stay with Frank's father, an Irish migrant, and Frank, who has little reason to fight for the British Empire, is persuaded by Archy to try for the Light Horse. Frank cannot ride, so he enlists in the infantry with his railway mates Bill, Barney and Snowy. The soldiers board a transport ship for Cairo.
Cast
- Charles Lathalu Yunipinguas Zac (as Charles Yunupingu)
- Ron Grahamas Wallace Hamilton
- Brian Andersonas Railway Foreman
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gallipoli (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Peter Weir had wanted to make a film about the Gallipoli campaign ever since visiting Gallipoli in 1976 and finding an empty Eno bottle on the beach. He wrote an outline of the script and gave it to David Williamson to turn into a screenplay.
- Critics including Carlyon have pointed out that the Australian attack at the Nek was a diversion for the New Zealand attack at Sari Bair, not the British landing at Suvla, and that the British were not drinking tea on the beach while Australians died; two companies of the Royal Welch Fusiliers took many losses trying to support the attack.
- Colonel Robinson is often mistaken for an Englishman because of his clipped accent, typical of an upper class Australian of the period. The character was based on Colonel John Antill, an Australian Boer War veteran who was brigade major of the 3rd Brigade.
- The farewell ball scene was not in the original script at all. It was an idea Weir had during shooting, and the addition cost an extra $60,000 to make.
- Peter Weir cast Mel Gibson as the cynical Frank Dunne and recruited the newcomer Mark Lee to play the idealistic Archy Hamilton, after Lee took part in a photo session for the director.
- The production was a joint venture between News Corporation and the Robert Stigwood Organisation, which pledged an investment of A$10 million in local productions. Gallipoli was the first film to come of it, and the company never produced another.
SPOILER
Archy Hamilton, the film's athlete character, was inspired by a line in the Australian war historian Charles Bean's Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, describing Private Wilfred Harper of the 10th Light Horse at the Battle of the Nek as 'last seen running forward like a schoolboy in a foot-race'.
