Gallipoli
The film Gallipoli is set amidst World War I during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. The two main characters in the film are Archie and Frank. Archie and Frank are from Western Australia and they both enlist to fight in Gallipoli. Archie is an amazingly fast runner who meets Frank at an athletics competition. From the beginning Archie wants to join the war, and after being turned down because he was underage, he went to Perth, eager for someone to accept him into the light horsemen. Frank, however, is sceptical about Australians wanting to join the war and tells his friend Archie that it's "not our war to fight". Frank joins up anyway into the Infantry.
The story revolves around Frank and Archie's experiences during the war including training in Egypt and then on the beach of Gallipoli and up in the trenches. The mood of the film changes from light heartedness, when Frank is thrilled to be reunited with his friends who signed up into the infantry, to his sombre realisation of the terrible consequences of war which become apparent as Frank's friends are killed and when Archie must run up out of the trenches to his death.
Gallipoli is more obviously a film about mateship and honour than a war drama. (The war drama is more subtle). The plot about Archy and Frank, the two heroes in the film, is designed to symbolize and glorify the old Australian ideal of mateship.
The central characters, Archy and Frank with two sharply contrasted personalities, begin their mateship in a running competition. Archy is a patriotic young man who is strong, courageous and determined to fight for his country in World War One. Frank, on the other hand, is cunning, more realistic and cynical. In the beginning of the film, they compete with each other in a running race and they also disagree with each other about the meaning of fighting at war. After a series of difficult and mutual...
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