The film Gallipoli takes place during World War I's Gallipoli campaign in 1915. The two main characters in the film are Archy and Frank. Archy and Frank are from Western Australia and they both enlist to fight in Gallipoli. Archy is an extremely fast runner who meets Frank at an athletics competition. We can see from the beginning that Archy is eager to join the war. After being turned down because he was underage, he goes to Perth, anxious for someone to accept him into the light horsemen. Frank, however, is skeptical about Australians wanting to join the war. He tells Archy that it's "not our war to fight". Despite this statement, Frank eventually joins up into the Infantry.

The story revolves around Frank and Archy's experiences …show more content…

A weakness of the film is that it creates a negative opinion about the British. The film does not show us the thousands of British troops who were also massacred in the same way as the Australians. This is bad because we tend to think that the British were using us to fight their war, and that none of them were fighting on the front with us. The film Gallipoli is a true reflection of the attitudes and mental sentiments of Australian citizens at that time. Such Australians could be recognized by their common sense, their willingness to endure hardships, their bravery and resourcefulness, their spirit and independence and their reluctance to accept unquestioningly the authority of others. (Gammage) Qualities like these are exemplified by the characters in the film. For example, near the end of the film, when the men are fighting in the trenches, the Australian men know that they are about to get shot down and die, but they are unaffected and stoical in the face of death.

Works Cited

Books

Broadbent, Harvey. The Boys Who Came Home - Recollections of Gallipoli. ABC Books, 2000.

Gammage, Bill, and David Williamson, and Peter Weir , eds. The Story of Gallipoli - The Film about the Men who made a Legend. University of Queensland Press, 1994.

Winter, Denis. 25 April 1915 - The Inevitable Tragedy. University of Queensland Press, 1994.

Internet

Battle of Gallipoli. modified 23:27, 25 April