Weird Crap Movie Commentary 3 - Gallipoli (1981) - Weird Crap in Australia

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with the tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy A Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words docking, terrifying, mesmerizing. That's the way
a number of Australians have described the alleged encounter with
the Yower.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crap In Australian Podcast. Okay,
welcome to the wee Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host,
Matthew sol joining me for another film commentary. Is of

(00:53):
course the researcher extraordinary Policeholt.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Is didn't I picked this one st yes, because.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
It goes in well with our theme this month being
World War Two. We came off our series on the
Rats of the Brook and in honor of ANZACs everywhere,
I'm going to pop this can. She probably heard over
the audio chat, but that's okay. So today we are
looking at the mel Gibson film Gallickly from nineteen eighty one.

(01:24):
If you'd like to watch with us, you can easily
find that on YouTube. The version we're going to be
watching is the one that was restored by Frame SAT
and Match for the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
So I'll give you a countdown here, three two one.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
So Gallipoli was released in nineteen eighty one. It was
directed by Peter Weir and stars one of I would
say Australia as golden Boys right up until a certain
point in history and at which point we disavowed him.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, So controversy noted here with mel Gibson, who's the
co lead with Mark Lee. Mel Gibson, as of course,
embroiled in multiple scandals, including some nasty verbal abuse with
his second wife, his divorce with his first wife, and

(02:29):
antisemitic comments. He had a look at mel Gibson's family history,
it is littered with Holocaust deniers and believe that, Holly,
I mean, it was.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
This ebonies, So they had a little bit more of
a grasp on it than what we do now, but
it's a bit harder to believe.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, yeah, they were closer to the situation. This film
was directed by Peter weir We He has still to
this day has quite an extensive, extensive filmography as a director.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
I glanced over at your phone. It was like two things,
and I'm like, I wonder if he's being sarcastic.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
No, No, I'm not. He He's done quite a lot. So.
He was the director on A Master and Commander, which
starred Russell Crowe. The Way Back Witness. Witness is a
good film that was nineteen eighty five, but witnesses about
Harrison Ford having a hideout in an Amish community, an

(03:30):
Amish paradise, if you will.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
He directed The Truman Show.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yes, he did directed Dead Poets Society as well, which
stars the late great Robin Williams.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
What else is The Rock the seventy five version.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, there's which we should do one day actually, yeah, huge, huge,
huge film, collective film filmography there. Yeah, and we open
up with our titular characters here. What I really like

(04:07):
about this film have you ever seen this movie before? So?
What I like about this film is that it really
does give you a look into who these young people
were before they're sent off to war, Before they set
off of course to World War One. Yeah, world War one,

(04:30):
right it is, well, yeah, yeah, world War one. Of course,
it's World War one. Yeah. So this is this is
an Australia that's still in the cusp of discovering or
cementing its Australian identity. So we're introduced to our main character,
say Robert Lee, yes.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
And his name is sorry Mark Lee's name is Archie Archie.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
And Archie is getting ready to start practicing for running
and athletics, Western Australia, nineteen fifteen. And I like that
this is the setup, you know, this is the destiny
of this boy, is that.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
He's gonna try for the Olympics. I'm assuming because there
is nineteen fifteen.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I mean it'd have to be close, wasn't it to
the thirty six, thirty.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Two, twenty eight, twenty four to twenty sixteen? Yeah, those
are the years going backwards.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I wonder if you're do you recall a lot of
athletics growing up Holy like with a predominant in your community.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
There were a lot of Islander boys who played a
lot of football, but not so much track and javelin
in that we.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Actually had, as you can imagine in a small town
quite you know, I mean quite a culture of athletics
and things like that. You know, I remember one guy actually,
Bryce Roberts, the dude was always dude, was always running,

(06:10):
i think with the name of being a professional athlete.
And we had a lot of those. So you would do,
you know, your sports cannibals. I'm sure you had them
in Campbelltown. Your sport carnival would start locally within your
own school. Then it would expand out to perhaps maybe
other primary schools in your area or.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
High schools because we were doing it still in high school.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, high school still other athletics cannibals. Then from there
you would then go to district districts. You would then
go to state, regional, state, you know, all of that
sort of stuff, all the way two country athletics competitions.
So seeing that young man, you know, practicing and starting
to grow into an athlete very much reminds me of

(06:56):
growing up.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
It wouldn't surprise me if the characters seventeen eighteen at
this point in time like just on the cusp of manhood.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
I mean, that's sort of the idea of it too.
And you know, formal education is not what it is
today considering they're out in Western Australia.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
And of course you have as always the town bullies.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're going to have the town bullies.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
How else do you INSTI get a plot live in
your own personal life.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, you're going to have a couple of town bullies
at least Dolly. And this is of course pre you know,
any major conflict in Australia. So you know, the only
frame of reference that people have before sending soldiers off
to Glipli is the Ball War.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, which was in the eighteenth late eighteen hundreds. That
was in Africa. So communication between the African continent and
the Australian continent was not all that great in nineteen fifteen.
Telegrams were, yes, there was, I think there was phone lines,

(08:18):
but they were mainly major cities. So country boys l
like this, we'll hear about war, and you'd have the
recruiters giving them, oh, war is great, and you'll come
home with glory and all of this stuff, and they
wouldn't have any experience in other points of view, whereas
the guys in the city would probably have a little
bit more exposure to it.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
And that's the difference between World War One and World
War iiO especially is that you don't have that frame
of reference that a lot of Australian veterans would end
up having, and so it was sold to them as
an adventure. Yeah, you're young men, you want to go
for a travel, go for a bit of a travel.
You're probably not going to see a lot of combat.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
And look for six months you'll meet a hot broader. Fine.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
That definitely wasn't sold to them. But this one thing
that I like about this film is it's I think
it's more authentic to the soldiers experience. There's going to
be a couple of scenes when they get to Egypt
that I want to point out. When we get to them,
you know who produced this film.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
If I read the credits right, Ruper Murdoch wasn't there.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Brute That is the actual Ruper Murdock went over to
Gallipoli visitor briefly sort of became enraptured with the story,
came back to Australia and funded the film, which is
interesting when you consider.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
That history since nineteen eighty one.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, you've got like a First Nations cast member. You
have a more accurate portrayal. I think of soldiering there's
also I mean, there are elements of propaganda to this,
as there is with everything else, but I do feel
that this is at least a little bit more authentic

(10:12):
in regards to you know what, the at least the
wide a straining experience was going over to Callipoli. I
don't think Ruper Murdock would make a film like would
help produce a film like this today.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
I don't think it would get past his front desk.
I would like to extend my congratulations and well done
to the actor who has been running on stand through water.
All of the resistance trainings will make him a decent
sprinter when he hits the track. Running on sand is horrible,
especially wed sand.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well. I mean you'd have to assume that most actors
have to maintain some sort of extreme fitness regime.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yes, but he would probably have had to run over
that same stretch of sand twenty or third times, depending
on how many times he tripped over.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
So it's interesting how similar Australia looks regardless.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
East or west. Yeah, just a lot more dusty out
there by the look of it.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, I think what I do really like it as
well about this.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Oh that's nasty.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, his feet's are cut up after running from those bullies.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I think he was actually training. I'm not sure it
was bullies.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
The thing.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
It was just a challenge and he was training and
he just he wasn't wearing shoes. So the rocks and
the sand and the scrub right listers, all of it.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Police Dad's not very impressed or anything, because, you know,
he's like, well, I've been training this whole time and.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
You've just risked it.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Affection in your foot, yeah, yeah, absolutely, which is a
little bit of a nod to the future. I'm guessing.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Well, I mean that's good foreshadowing, isn't it. You know
that you eventually want, you know, you see where he
ends up in in his destiny here, So that's not
referring to him as he It must be very confusing
for an audio commentary Archie Archie. Yeah, but I think
it sets up Archie as a character with lofty dreams

(12:36):
and expectations of the future. Perhaps that urge to get
out of the small little shack in the outback.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
He's actually putting the effort in. He's not just sitting
around whining about why it's not happening. He's actually trying
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
I'm not I'm not going to go down that road.
I think that is probably given the character a little
bit too much. I think more what I'm leaning towards
is how it is giving you the impression of the
potential for a bit of a wonder lust yep. It

(13:12):
shows you that, you know, these young Australians want to
move into the greater world, and I think by giving
him aspirations at the start of the film, I think
they do a very good job of, you know, setting
him up for making the decisions that he would make

(13:34):
in the future.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
So it's fun. Now the children here are listening to
grandfather question marks read reading a book, Jungle Book, talking
about Melgley and Bagheera. You reading the Jungle Book.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
That's interesting. I wonder why the director picked that particular
book to read. I suppose it's also to be a man.
I mean, that's a big one. That's a very big
thing in that book, isn't it? And I suppose that
was written by a British Man, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I believe it was Salmon Rushti. I'm going to triple
check that. Will you talk?

Speaker 1 (14:16):
You watch Holly will We'll bust out all of her
Disney law as quickly as she came here. You think
it was salmon Rushi. I don't think it was salmon Rushti.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Looking at it, you talk while I look, No, you talk, well,
I look, Kipling? Sorry, yeah, I knew it was one
of them. Yeah, salmon rushi, trouble for something else.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
A controversial writer in the Muslim community.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Kipling was born in British India, so he's a British
person of British citizenship. But he was born in British
India because he was born in eighteen sixty five.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
So I wonder if using the Jungle Book is a
little bit again a foreshadowing there of you know, connections
to the British Empire.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yes that that could be another one.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yes, Yes, that could be another one. Yes, yet another connection.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
And judge me, there are some beautiful landscape shots in
this film thought showing off the month of Western Australia.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
I think, regardless of the Australian films that we have
watched over you know, the last couple of months, now,
I think all of those filmmakers do a pretty good
job of exploiting, you know, the baptism of fire. So
right now, Archie's looking at a newspaper.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
It's actually from April, so I'm pretty sure it's actually
a news article that I used in the episode we
did on Gallipoli.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
So that article is suggesting that Gallipoli has started or
that it will be.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Starting twenty nine of April. It is after after twenty
fifth of April is when they went into fire. But
this is nineteen fifteen.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
So the baptism of fire is quite an important term
in Australian history, and it's important and an important term
for any country as they encounter their first conflict. And again,
like the Australian identity, nineteen fifteen is very very new.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
We barely even think guesslves Australian, some of us they
had only using English accents.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Well, by nineteen fifteen, you had.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Had Niper isn't founded until nineteen sixteen.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
That is correct, but it had four prime ministers by
this point in nineteen I.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Think we're about five or six is.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
So, yeah, it was six terms. There's Titula mel Gibson
and he's Floppy Hat being introduced to this film and
Australian audiences for the first time.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
I believe no, because didn't Mad Max come before this.
This was in between Mad Max one and two. I
remember looking at him.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Ah, that's right, yes, so he had Mad.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Max one, he did this, then he did Mad Max two.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah. And I think though it is important to remember
that well, although yeah, maybe it's maybe I'm being unfair
to Mad Max because Mad Max was a big box
office hit in Australia, so audiences were probably well and
truly ingratiated with mel Gibson at this time. And it's

(17:52):
interesting when you look at the trajectory of his career
going from Mad Max straight into what you would consider
the I don't know, the Prestige film. This a demonstrates,
you know, another side of Australian the Australian life as well,

(18:14):
Like these guys are obviously bushy's. They're are camping, their
tents are pretty crap, and they're like, okay, there's a
war on. Jobs are up, Let's jump on a train
and let's see if we can get recruited. And the
and I mean the reason that you have Mel Gibson's

(18:37):
character is to convince Archie that, you know, going on
this big adventure is the right thing to do. You know,
he throughout the film will idolize Mel Gibson's character, who
is named where is my IMDb here? Is very handy

(19:01):
Frank done.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
I believe it's done to U Nne just looked it up.
In nineteen fifteen, we were on our tenth Prime Minister. Wow,
so we blew through them pretty part early in the
in the ten I don't.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Because a term is meant to be what three years, right.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Three to four years. Some of them died in office,
some of them were replaced. Andrew Fisher came back for
a second round. Andrew Fisher I believe was in power
in nineteen fifteen, so or it was just about to
come back in.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
And this is the titular Athletic Sea Carnival, Race Day Carnival.
So again, like a lot of small towns in Australia
still continue these sort of traditions, you would sort of
be surprised at how much is still leftover.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
So I believe those women at the table were part
of the Country Women's Association, which is still a thing
that exists as far as I remember, because I was
buying books off them when I lived in military.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
The CWA Country Women's Association still exists today and they
of course played an important role in coming up with
the recipe for the Anzac biscuit.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
I have a couple of their recipe books which I
still use.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
The famous Australian Leamington, the Pavlovo. I don't care what
our New zeal On friends say they did not invent it.
We absolutely invented just mixing trigger with egg whites.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I'm baking it.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
What an inventor of What an invention?

Speaker 2 (20:45):
And now I believe this is the recruiter's office question mark.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
I know this is the registration for the athletics cannibal
so you can see the sign there in the background.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
It was all the Australian flags that made me believe.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
And it's interesting too that athletics carnivals would eventually evolve
to becoming just the pur view of schools. You know,
they slowly were faced out of adult life. Not that
to say the Australian adults don't still embrace sport. There
are many local communities doing the basketball and football and

(21:20):
things like that. I'm sure there are in adult athletics
cannibals as well, but they're certainly not too.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
They're not advertised, they're not a big things. But unless
it's in one of the Matthew's small country towns that
he knows of. It's adults just don't want to do it.
I don't want to run that farward. I have absolutely
no reason to run that far.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah. Well again, I'm not a big part of the
athletics community in anybody shape or form, especially shape. But
ido the night again, Well, you know, you don't want
you to eat my tiger one day there these feet
are still slutely blistered and broken, and.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
I don't think he's going to run very well.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well again, what I like about the writing heros that've
set up Archie to be a character that is impulsive
and reckless, and you know again that yearning per adventure. Yep.
And then of course you have done coming in here
being you know they you know, is charismatic. He's a

(22:30):
bit charming, he looks cool.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
He's probably going to out run the guy who's been
training for ages and someone's going to get very mad.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
He's on the wrong side of the trucks as well.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
He's well, he's illegally gambling on it. So they tells
you more than they need to know, because nineteen fifteen
gambling was illegal.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
But yeah, going back to late royal communities. These sort
of things still happen. You have days, you still have
your horse racing, non Boxing Day, which is a big
deal in Tumi, the Boxing Day races, to the point
that people would move away from Truman you wouldn't say

(23:13):
them for years and years, but they would be back
every year for the Boxing Day races.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Let's see mel Gibson ben like that now.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, Mel Gibson is just He's just one of those
cautionary tales of not letting your bullshit affect your professional life.
You know, he has obviously had problems with alcohol abuse

(23:47):
over his life. He is demonstrated very poor judgment, a lot,
has a lot of problems with and the one thing
that I do happen to respect about him is that

(24:07):
he never blamed anyone else.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Free shit celebratory beer at the finish line tradition.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Not water but a beer, which is very you know,
very typically Australian and yeah, so I think as well.
It's at this point where they are starting to get
introduced to the concept of propaganda. You know, hey, where

(24:36):
you know the armies rocked up with it.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Its mascot come and join the light infantry like that.
Kind of that's I think that's what was written on
the horse that just said light and joint. So I'm
assuming the light infantry.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
The light horse brigade. That's why it's a big mascot
of a horse because this was, yeah, this was still
at the point where light infantry included a horse division
where the horses would run.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
A lot of more started in World War One, a
lot less started in World War Two.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
You know, we transition away from cavalry very very quickly.
And the little boy playing the bugle, which is what's
the bugle that they played to signify the start of
the day.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
The last, the last I don't know it's not the
last rites because that's proud of.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Course, look that one up to I'm pushing the.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Last bugle call, which makes sense. Sorry, the last post.
Last posts. It was originally a used to see used
to sign the end of the day's activities in military barracks,

(26:02):
now so used to symbolize the end of a soldier's duty.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
It's interesting too, like the the grandfather is obviously quite
upset at his grandson going to, you know, join the military,
and you can see he's not stopping him though, which
is interesting. Things resigned to it. And I think that's

(26:30):
where the propaganda aspect of this film comes into play.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Also, you tell a young boy not to do something,
what's the chances you'll go and do it anyway?

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah, but it's like, oh, yeah, you know, I just
took one of my my young grandchildren an athletics canival
and now they're going off to war, and yeah, it's
sort of interesting. So there's some problems here. The young

(26:59):
lad trying to get recruited. He is only eighteen, he's
not twenty one, and the recruiter is being informed by
a bastard.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
I mean, it could have saved the kid's life.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
That Archie is actually eighteen and not twenty one. So
Archie proceeds to steal.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
A horse and do the jumps anyway.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
To demonstrate his ability. Now, let's be honest, it was
quite fast and loose in regards to who was recruited
when they were recruited. Holly and I have both spoken
about in previous episodes how First Nations people were not
meant to be in the regular army but found themselves

(27:47):
in the regular army.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Or they meant to enlist at all, especially in World
War II, which is what we covered into Brooks.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
But as I've said before, when you need soldiers, you
need soldiers, and you'll be surprised at how quickly racial
discrimination and sexual discrimination has dropped in order to put
more guns and hands.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
It's amazing how much that cafe looks like my great
grandmother's house. Yeah, she was born in nineteen sixteen, and
that's what it used to look like with an extra
little foot on in the corner.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
It is really really interesting how Australian culture and interior
design yep, maintains into the nineties. It doesn't really change,
you know. The style of clothing I think changes dramatically.

(28:51):
But those curtains were hanging up in my grandmother's house, yep,
it's just lace, you know, those lacey thin curtains.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
You still got the same kind of kind of interior plants.
You've got the same kind of salt shakers. Maybe you
don't have the cigarette adds on the wall anymore.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Tripo cigarettes the best tar in viuus nicotine cigarettes. I
love the like I think it's It would have been
quite easy for Weir to put this movie together, but
I had.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
To go out the back town and go and do
one of the.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, it wouldn't have been that hard to recreate nineteen
fifteen Australia because you know, nineteen fifteen Australia through to
nineteen ninety five Australia sort of esthetically stays the same.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Especially country. The more country you go, the more it
stays the same.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
And yeah, so I think when it comes to these
two boys, they're trying to find another recruiter. Yep, get
a little bit further out of town where they're not known,
say that these two eighteen year olds can sign up.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
The only thing that's playing through my head right now
is the opening lines of Fan played Waltzing Matilda.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Yeah, so we're headed to Perth.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
It was definitely one of the big recruiting stations.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
I mean all your major cities were, of course big
recruiting stations. There wasn't a lot of formalized identification either,
so you could just sort of walk up to a
recruiter and say, hey, I'm twenty one, I.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Was born in Jindarry. We don't really have birth certificates.
Oh yeah, no worries.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Well, you'd have birth certificates, but you wouldn't be expected.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Two, there were a lot of undocumented births out west.
And I say that as someone who's on the East
coast who is out west. But the back in time
you get, the more First Nations blood you have, the
less likely it was the birth would end up being documented.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
The boys obviously get a bit lost as they're trying
to hop trains and they end up in the middle
of the outback and the train station is one guy
wearing a hat Adam. Again, like there's a lot of
inclusion of First Nations peoples in this, which I find

(31:44):
is it's quite interesting.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
He's having a grand old time laugh and they're going
to cross one of the deserts on foot with a
single canteen of water. It's quicker to walk across the
desert than wait, two weeks.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
It's funny here, it's quicker this way. That's what Burke
and Wills thought. And of course we've done our episode
of Burke and Wills as they decided to go on
quite the misadventure through arrogance, and you can check those
episodes out.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
To be fair of them, they did decide to bring
the oak dining table and a full set of chairs
with them.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yeah. Yeah, they were the most unprepared explorers. I think
Australia has ever had be fair.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
I mean that was the era of unprepared explorers, honestly.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
But there's a difference between an explorer who actually packs
you know, essentials like water and food, and then there's
the unprepared explorer who packs a dining table.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Then there's Burke Wills.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, who I think quite frankly got what he just sat.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Stupid is as stupid does.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Archie is just absolutely determined to walk to Perth. Well
I mean walk to Perth from where they are, but
you know, he's absolutely determined to, you know, go on
this grand adventure like he's whereas what I like about
this as well, when you look at the don't most

(33:21):
of the water doing? You silly, silly boy. You know
what I really like about these two is the I
think there is a nice juxtaposition where Doing is very
I think reluctant to go on this trip, you know
he is. I think they both have this mutual respect,

(33:45):
but I think their desires for life are very, very different.
But they're both feeding into each other's desire to get
to this conflict.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
So they still are having a conversation because Archie keeps
holding his his poper watch up to the sun. Now
I knew exactly what was going on, did you.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
He's used in it as a compass.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Well, I learned how to do that in Scouts. I'm
assuming you learn how to do that because you're a
country boy.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
What happens.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Now? But it is. It is one of those things
that is becoming all less well known and probably far
less often than you're going to see it because very
few people have analog watches.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
I do. I've got a couple.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
You've got a couple, yes, but you're one of the
newer generation produces their phones.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
I've even got a self winder.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
So if you ever get stuck in the desert, open
up your phone and hope to God you can access
the face.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
I mean, don't get stuck in the desert quick quite frankly,
unless there's like I just don't see the situation arising
in this day and age where that it happened. And yeah,
see this is like, this is what I'm talking about,
Like Dune has just had enough, Like he just doesn't

(35:09):
have the determination that Archie does to get to get
to this point. Like I've never seen two people fight
so hard to die. That's that's what this is. It's
Archie is is fighting the odds to die and you know,
whereas doing I think, yeah, I would like it's just

(35:34):
motivated by Archie. I think in this film, I.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Would like to point out that Archie has a slight
advantage over mil Gibson's character in that because he is
a runner in Western Australia, in the desert, he would
be used to going without water and doing a lot
of exercise, whereas Dune or Done is not. He's a runner,

(35:58):
but he's not that kind of runner.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
I think you're writhing and it's done. I'm going to
go with you. Yeah, done on Melo, but I will
inevertently switch back and forth because I'm reading subtitles. So
we do have some trivia as well for you. Due
to the popularity of the Gallipoli Battlefields is a tourist destination.
This film is shown nightly in several hostels and hotels
and several towns on the peninsula. I would have imagine

(36:26):
that's less so than it used to be.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I'd assume that most of that took place around
Anzac Day. I wouldn't assume it would be all through
the year.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
One of the producers as we said, was medium mogul.
Rupert Murdoch. His father, Keith, had been a journalist in
World War One. He visited Gallipoli briefly in nineteen fifteen
and became an influential agitator against how the British top
brass had conducted themselves during battle, the infamous sending us
to the wrong beach scenario, which is a bit of

(36:55):
a myth, isn't it. It's been a while since we
did Gallipoli as queer cut as they were having tea
on the beach and we were getting fucked.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
We did land in the wrong spot.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
We did was that the British's faults.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
The British were the ones in command of the lead ships.
So we're going to blame the.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
British because this film definitely does have a very anti
British angle to it.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
We're Australian, it's kind of in the blood, same as
we have anti American sentiments, but we love them anyway.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Director Peter Weir was inspired to make the film after
visiting a World War One battle site. Originally, he and
screenwriter David Williams played to planned to encompass the entire
Gallipoli campaign from all sides instead opted to focus on
one small group of characters would be able to humanize
the whole fradgedy.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
And here we have one of our famous couple Aralian
camels who are exported to the Middle East.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yes, if you go back to like year one of
Whek Crap in Australia, we talked about different feral populations
in Delicious Desert Beef Off, Random Man.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
It's not beef, it's pork.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Delicious, Random pork off, Random Guy, and Random Dessert Direct Camel. Yeah,
so a huge feral camel population out in the out
back in West Australia. People slaughter them for me, They
use them as pack animals, go on tourists rides with them.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
So these two have come across. I'm gonna say he's
a bushy. Is a bushy. He doesn't actually know there
at war. He has been out of touch for so
long that he doesn't know there at war. This is
not unheard of in the early nineteen hundreds. Again, radio
TV not really a thing. So you get word of

(39:03):
mouth news.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Yeah, it's a nice piece of social context that they've
put in the film, is you know, Yeah, he's like, oh,
we're well with it. That's interesting. You know, I once
new a German. I didn't know where we're fighting them.
It's like, oh, and we're fighting Turkey as well. That's interesting.
I've never heard of turkey. And then the boys continue

(39:25):
marching on after eating their mystery meat.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
It's not mystery, mate, it's pork, very badly refrigerated pork.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
A great deal of the cast and crew Anzac Day,
the day in which Australia commemorates the war dead, meant
a little more than a vacation from school working on
the film. That made them realize it's true significance, and
we discuss that as well. The hell after Bob Hawk

(40:00):
decides to reinvigorate the Anzact Day legend, the Howard government
then uses it as a jingeristic propaganda push in order
to convince Australians that there's a how would I put

(40:27):
an almost superhuman nobility, which I hate. I hate the
idea that is pushed that Australians were all a Captain
America type, because what I love about this film, and

(40:48):
I think it goes counter to that idea, is that
you know, these young boys who are looking for a
little bit of adventure unwittingly walk into something very horrific,
you know, because like the you know, you sort of
look at the first half of this film. It is

(41:10):
an adventure. Yes, you know, these two boys have met
each other, both athletes and you know, looking for a
bit of fun. They sort of find an instantaneous camaraderie
as they journey across Australia. Like a good chunk of

(41:31):
this film is just getting from point A to point
B in Australia.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
The reverse rabbit.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Proof proof proof friends.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah, white guys are walking across the desert to get
a way to get into Cibolo.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
And I mean they also sort of throw up these
temptations as well, you know, like done is very much like, oh,
you know, I don't I don't think joining the military
is for me, and I think you're kind of silly

(42:12):
in doing that. But I'm going to travel with you,
you know, I'm going to travel with you to Perth regardless.
And it's sort of interesting to me that that Archie
though he's still sort of he's like extremely inspired by

(42:33):
the adventure regardless, like the temptations seem to not really
phase him too much. You know. He says this young
girl at a ranch, and she's a bit for something
with him because he's going to walk.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
It's a station station.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Ranch all the same for me, and you know, you
have this it's like it's like the filmmaker sort of
throws these things around Archie. It's like he's a pretty
young lady and she's kind of psutten with you. And
this is, you know, the adventure in the life and

(43:08):
does it's almost the impression that it's like it's okay, Archie,
like you know, your Archie's going to find all of
this later, you know what I mean, Like he's going
to find a pretty young girl in Egypt, or you know,
he's going to go and slay the dragon. He's very
optimistic and very excited he'll learn, whereas done is certainly not.

(43:34):
He's very hesitant. He's yeah, it's a little bit of
mild forgery there on his birth Satyariate.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
So back in the day, paper was a lot thicker.
The ink didn't really sink in it the surface level,
so he could scratch it off. That's how they used
to clear parchment in order to rewrite books.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
So I understand faking the birth certificate a little bit
to get Archie to where he needs to be. But
I don't know if cutting his hair and faking the
mustache is really a thing that really really necessary. You
also have an interesting juxtaposition here again with the two characters.

(44:27):
You know, Done lives in a how would I put it,
a very suburban, lower working class family. Done obviously comes

(44:48):
from an Irish heritage, Irish background. His father there is
discussing how their grandfather was hung by the British, suggesting
that he was an Irish agitator a few generations ago.
That aspect is quite interesting to me. And again it's

(45:08):
the propaganda of this film and not being particularly appreciative
of the British and that they do want to illustrate,
you know, the Irish heritage, the treatment of the Brits
towards Australians towards the Irish, and I don't think they

(45:33):
do that today, you know. I think there's a lot
of nuance to this film that has been ditched for
a film that is very much, for a good part
of it, an adventure film.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, even just the adventure from his full town to Perth.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
There's a lot of nuance in the movie and a
lot of history that I think is being forgotten. That's
why I dig this film, and it's probably wise not
in very fast circulation.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
At the moment, I believe he is making up the
Melbourne horse cadets.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
I don't know what.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Would be giving me that impression. Once again, Archie is
showing off his abilities on a horse and the hopes
of being recruited.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
And see Dunn's character is definitely not the adventurous type
and is more hesitant, and you can sort of see
that in the way that they're raised. How rural Australians
were raised very differently to suburban Australians.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
I do. I do sympathize with mel Gibson's character in
the previous scene when he was trying to get on
the horse and the horse was circling. I've had a
horse do.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
That to me. You have had much more experience with
horses than I have.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
That was the thoroughbred rand A hop on his back.
He just ended up circling. We ended up having to
take him over to a block so I could hop
up because he.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Would not let me do it. I've ridden horses, just
not very often.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
I mean, it's been a very long while.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Since I've not sture leg.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Saw because that's what you're gripping with Chance Kip leg Day.
The faster you go, the more leg muscles use. So
I believe Dunn has washed.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Out, well, he's washed out in respect to joining the
light Horse Brigade, whereas if I recall, it's been quite
a long time since I watched this movie, but I
do believe that both of them eventually end up in
just standard infantry positions. Yeah, So just having to look

(48:06):
around online, it's quite tricky to get a copy of
this movie.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
I feel like it's one of those ones that has
fallen into the middle era. So because it's it's not
a blockbuster, because it's a small Australian film, but it's
also of cultural significance. You're going to see a copy
of it in the film and sound archive and so on,

(48:33):
but very few people are actually going to try and
buy it. So many people that was a Navy uniform
way back when the Blue Ye see pipe band, well.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
Say the bagpipes. I'm not denying the Australia's history with
the bagpipe. I'm just not a fan of it.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Out I'm Australian, of you.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
I'm not a bag pipist. That's not my bag, baby.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
It always catches me. America has had so many revisions
of its flag and I don't think we've actually changed
our since it was first implemented.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
It is one of the aspects of you know, I
think Australian culture and that we don't change frequently. We
don't change often.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
The red flag there, the red Australian flag.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
That is the navy flag, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (49:34):
That is the navy flag? Yess. A couple of years
ago you were seen a bunch of idiots marching down
the street in Canberra here waving that flag, claiming it
there's a sovereign flag. That is not what and they
were idiots for doing it.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Holly, don't ever let facts get in the way of
being a lunatic.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Little at fat skin in the way of a good conspiracy.
Lady trying to hand her husband a bowl of champagne
but he won't take it. Is that hoping that he
comes home so that they can share it for their anniversary,
has a feeling that she's never gonna say him again,
because that's kind of how this these stories.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Go well, I mean very sadly. You know, many of
these people never returned. It was I mean, we talk
about generational trauma, and we talk about generational trauma in
regards to the stolen generations. There was generational trauma that

(50:40):
happened here as well, especially because of the propaganda aspects
of what they thought they were walking into and what
they walked away from. Not to I mean this, we're
just talking about, you know, the Turkish Front, like talking
about what happened in Germany with muss to gas attacks. Yes,

(51:02):
I mean at least to the Turks credit, And I
mean this is probably a strange statement to say, but
at least in regards to the Turks credit. We were
shot with machine guns very quickly.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
It was a fast death for us.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
As opposed to getting a bunch of mustard.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Gas having our faces melt off.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
It dumped on you while your you know, your lungs
bleed and your your tongue is lacerated, and you know
it's it's not a very good way to die.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
And here we have done again. I believe we've seen
Archie wander off on the ship, off on his adventure.
Now we're gonna follow it. Done on his.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah, I mean Archie he's recruited into the cavalry. Ye, right,
So he's that's always got the feather in the hat.
So he's off to be a horseman, whereas.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Done failed and regular role infantry.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Now yeah, so the two separate just for a minute.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Oh, the grand dotters the tradition. I can see a
singlet burned into his tean there and then that one too.
They've got the sleeves.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Americans really destroyed the reputation of the singler dinner.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yeah they did, they did, although the fact that Australians
called a wife beater probably doesn't help.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
No terrible term, isn't it. Yeah, I used to wear them.
Now my dad still doesn't. Now I don't know anymore.
I don't like the.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
Connotation doing our teeth examinations. Don't understand why you had
to be perfectly healthy to go around.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
To where have we wandered into?

Speaker 2 (52:50):
You see if you turn the camera slightly to the right,
you'll see, especially in the nineteen eighties, funnally.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
So this is a recreation of the Australian Infantry camp
at Cairo. These photos were used often in propaganda and
that they were part of souvenirs and commemorative postcards.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
And what game are they playing?

Speaker 1 (53:21):
They're playing Australian Football Rules AFL.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
We covered that and we did actually mention this.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
There is no MRL at this point.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
No, that would come along later. But the AFL still
has a grand tradition. And you have the Egyptian people
trying to sell anything and everything to make some money,
which is apparently still something that happens in Egypt. Now
you have you have stuff on the tourists trying to

(53:54):
make some money.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
Yeah, it's very very problematic in Egypt for a lot
of reasons. It is always funny though, to see a
bunch of white terrorists fleece by the locals, which happens
quite frequently.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yes, it does. So I'm actually quite surprised that that
guy is wearing a long sleeve jersey. It would be
stinking hot.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
So yeah, if you go to the Australian War Memorial,
you'll say pictures of Australian mascots in the camps.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
By mascots, you mean kangaroos, right.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
A kangaroo yeap out in front of the pyramids. Now,
this part of the movie I really really like it's
a more accurate representation of what life was like for
these guys at this time. You know, it drops some

(55:15):
of the propaganda aspects of it as well as they
will go on here to explain to the.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Boys the lecor has been poisoned. You'll capture a million diseases.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Yeah, you know, they use the term horizontal refreshment aka
utilizing the prostitution of the local area, and they're warning
them about sexually transmitted diseases that they could pick up
should they go to spend some of their money. To

(55:55):
spend some of their money in Egyptian Brothels.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
The line that he used there was send you home
with an embarrassing problem to explain to your girlfriend and
or wife. So we know that some of you have mistresses.
So we're going to put the end in there.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
And I think that it is important to acknowledge all
aspects of what sol dream was and who these people were.
And I think trying to deny this aspect of and
that's why I really don't dislike the Howard era of
the rewriting of the Anzac tradition or legend or however

(56:35):
you want to phrase it. But to deny that these
people human denies a lot. I think it denies their courage.
Of course, you're overseas, you're bartering your engaging in local culture.
They have been sold on the promise of an adventure

(56:57):
and you know you you end up encountering rothels, prostitution.
I kind of like I do, kind of like Mel

(57:21):
Gibson's just sort of the amuse maintain a little bit
of wonderment at the situation.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
They're in British officers. You're wondering at that reaction.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
So our Australian ANZACs erev ncammon a couple of British
who have been rather pompous and you know, arrogant. I
mean this this.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
The Australians are riding around the mules to mimic and
mock the British who are on horses because we're Australian
and this is what.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Oh you are crude, in, disciplined and unmannered.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
I'll get it up here.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Then I wonder if it was the Australian Americanism that
got our soldiers through, whereas the I think the confronting
nature of what like I mean, these are the convicts
who have come back right into the fold. Whereas for

(58:29):
the Brits going to World War One, it's a group
of people who who have been doing things the proper
way for quite some time, and now their hands are
covered in their friend's brain. And I think that's why
they broke a lot.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
I think it's the Australian ability to just repress everything
and then drink.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
So here they are in what would you call it
a tavern or a hostel.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Maybe it's like a coffee house because that's one of
the Middle East, and teapots in front of them, and
the pornographic images.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Yep, so I'm going to they're either buying, are they
buying pawn or are they seeing.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
Cross I think it's like a catalog of prostitutes, because
that's an invitation to a donkey show that's a little
bit racist.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Well, yeah, there's this, you know. Mel Gibson's character said,
oh you know, it's it's it's prostitution. There's there's women
have no respect for themselves. This is how it is
in most foreign places that you were going to encounter.
Yet they still sit there and oogle the fit pictures
and and you know, look later you know, all the

(59:57):
higher them and then yeah, funnily enough so that they're
all laying down there artifacts that they've buying. So you know,
one of the soldiers is wearing affairs and they all
start laying down the same pretty suck. Sorry what's it called? Okay,
so what's the U shubbdy?

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
So the U shabdis? The little figures are putt in
Pharaoh's tombs to act as slaves in the afterlife so
that they didn't have to do any work.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
And those are obviously fake.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Ones you can get in real life. You can get
a braannge of them. You can get some really really
crapply crafted clay ones, and you can get some that
are made out of solid gold. They are designed to
look mostly the same. So looking at those, yes they
are probably fake. But in real life you can get
some that are just collections of the same looking ones

(01:00:47):
because at one point in.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
Time they may produce them.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
They mass produced them, They made amount of molds and
just scribbled names into them so that it was unique
to the per person.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
And now these boys have returned back to the Puffeyer
of the exact same artifact in order to get their
money back. Yep, which is which is you know, like
they were conned. They were conned in the terrorist bizarre

(01:01:26):
and now they want their money back, which I find
it's quite funny.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
I'm just going to do a calculation to see exactly
how much they paid for it, because they said they
paid five shillings five shilling. I have shillings for it
in nineteen fifteen. We're going to use twenty twenty two
because that's what I always use because that was before
the inflation went through the roof, about thirty dollars each.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
So a decent trunk of money.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
Then yes, oh, and he's just trying the shop.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Yep, because they was problems when they went over there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Americans can be a two sided.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Point, absolutely ken and yeah, so they you know, the Australians,
they went to the brothels. They caused a bit of
grief for the local Egyptians got venereal diseases.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
You were and everywhere on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
That dude was wearing a snake as a hat.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
Yes he was. I believe that is British in the background.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
There and so there you go to where the guy's like, oh,
you know this was the room shop. You know we're
in the wrong place. And then you know, yeah, so
you know Mel Gibson, who takes the you know, the
very righteous than about you know, not engaging with prostitutes.

(01:02:51):
They're now in the Red Light district of Egypt and
they're about to start engaging with prostitution. And I don't
hate any of this, Like, for me, this is a
more accurate portrayal. Yep, this is more honest. And I

(01:03:12):
think that it's important to portray people as people and
to portray them as human because you get a better
understanding and appreciation of the fear the sacrifice that they felt,
you know. And yeah, they're definitely looking to oh there

(01:03:33):
was a bottom.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Oh no, because we haven't already seen the photographs of boobies, since.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
This is one hundred percent a set as well.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Absolutely, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
They did a little bit of on location filming for
the Pyramids, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
Because you're not going to build a pyramid out in
the backyard. Yeah, the twenty bob for an hour. So
if we're doing the half bob for you shall deep
and summer in the vicinity. I'm gonna say about one
hundred and twenty dollars now for a girl And doesn't
seem like how much, does it, especially considering what those

(01:04:14):
poor girls would have had to go through.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
And there you go, and then you say the boys
going straight into the brothel after again being so very
very indignant about the whole situation. Everyone's right until they're
a hypocrite, which is it's probably why this movie is
so hard to come across. You know, they did a

(01:04:37):
re release. I think it was in twenty fifteen.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
We'll have to say that would have been one hundred
years that Pollipoli, so that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Otherwise, Yeah, I think Australian propagandas have done a very
very good job in cleaning the record, cleaning the record, well,
whitewashing the records and making it all sparkly and bright.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
I mean it would be whitewash because we still have
a lot of knowledge of the best nations people who
are in it. So it's not whitewashed, but it is
definitely cleaned.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
Whitewash in the sense of what it actually like. So
whitewashing is not the origin of the terne used in
both forms, yes, exactly. This is why contacts Ladies and
gentlemen is important, because someone can take what you say,
which is what Holly just did, and then say, oh, no,

(01:05:32):
it's actually this thing, whereas no, my intention was actually
just to you know, suggests that their reputation was shined
up and polished, and we.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Have some local people hitting out origins oranges. Because you
don't want your soldiers dying of scurvy. Yes, you'd rather
have them die of bullets.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Yes, if you have any scar tissue, if you get scurvy,
everything opens back up. We'll tell you looks some more
trivia here. At the time of filming, Peter Weir felt
that he's young starf mel Gibson was fill of beans
with really no grand career ambitions, although he wears an
AIF uniform. Colonel Robinson is often mistaken for an Englishman
because he has a clipped Anglo Australian accent. Was very

(01:06:15):
typical of the time. It took three years for filmmakers
to secure the funding. The Australian government's Film Agency refused
to fund it, saying it was not commercial.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
I wonder why they refused to fund it, But that's
fascinating to me because then they would spend the.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
Entire nineteen nineties funding films that weren't commercial.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
But this is not an approved history. It is showing
the dark and dirty side and that is not what
they wanted to fund.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Well, see again, though, you've got to so let's put
this in the context of the era. It comes out
in nineteen eighty one. People don't give a shit about
Anzact day as much as they do today. Right, that's
where the commercial viability comes in. The cleaning up of
the Australian legend to use is propaganda purpose doesn't happen

(01:07:01):
till John Howard, which is in the nineties. So I'm
going to disagree with you there based on facts, But you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Still don't want people talking bad about your dad or
your granddad at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
I don't know. I think Australians in the nineteen eighties
were probably talking about their parents all the time. It
is the starter generation X, after all, that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
Just means all quiet and then we're doing a mock battle,
training them to rush the Ottomans.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
On the scene and then and artually reunite again. So
it's sort of interesting to me considering how radically different
the terrain would be between Egypt and Turkey.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Yes, so, especially because running up to stand June is
a lot different to running up a cliff.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Like how the Colonel's like, this is meant to be war,
you know, battles, Why are you coming up and hugging
each other? It's because we're friends.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
At faith beating each other up. Bayonets are of course
covered just in case, and I would push so far
as to say none of those guns are actually loaded.
Last thing, what is a friendly fire incident?

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
So David Williamson adapted his screenplay from Bill Grummage's Book
of the Broken Years, which is a collection of diary
excerpts and letters from around one thousand soldiers who all
fought at Gallipoli. The music Major Barton has playing the
night before the attack, and the famous is the famous

(01:08:41):
away duet de way Duet from The Pearl Fishers by
Georges Bizette, which two men swear to remain friends and
be united until death.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
More women. It feels like a granted venture at this
point in time.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Yeah, I mean that's what it was up until they
get to Turkey like that. You know, they got to
go on a boat. Never been on a boat before,
Like many of these men had never left.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
The country, some of them never left the town exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
You know. So they they get on a boat, they
have a job, have a uniform sense of identity, purpose training, yep.
And they land in Egypt and it's all very exciting
and very interesting. They get to see this new world,
meet these people, you know, in some cases lose their virginity.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
And.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
It is grand and fun and exciting and different, you know.
And this is what they were sold on as well.
They were sold on this adventure. They were sold on
this idea, yep, you know. And they got to experience
the I mean, they got to see the Pyramids.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
And the Sphinx, something that I really want to do,
but I don't think we ever will because Egypt is
a bit troublesome at the moment, definitely does not have
a good reputation I'll read it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
I can tell you that if I was younger and single,
I would probably not be as worried about going to
Egypt as a tourist. Yep. I'm sure that there are
lovely parts of Egypt, and I'm sure that we only
ever hear about the bad things that are going on.

(01:10:34):
That The Middle East has been a little bit problematic,
you say, for the last fifteen nine years.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
Get any closer to the conflict in Israel Gaza than
I absolutely have to be.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
Yeah, there's also some big problems as well with how
to like While the Egyptian government desperately once more tourism
after the Arabs bring Egypt ended up with a very
negative reputation. But you know, never say now that there
is things change all the time. I used to want

(01:11:12):
to always go to America and now you kind of
get you kind of get me there if you've paid me.
This is where these two boys have been sort of
identified for their ability to run, to be quick. So

(01:11:37):
there's a decision to be made to make them runners.
You would have runners going back and forth along the
trenches to deliver messages. You know what. It is funny
looking at mel Gibson though, because I think he was
and still is probably a very good actor. You can

(01:11:58):
tell the these a bit of a cunt though, can't
you know?

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
There's something that there's objacting in his condition?

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah, there's something. There's something about looking at the man
and maybe that's just a bias that I have no
in his history. But yeah, and they're selling it again.
But what was it? What did you say? It was called?

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
We have people's eating photos and sketching and basically just
enjoying themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
And these British ladies who are all walking around Holly are.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
They with their parasols?

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
What what are we doing? Are they they're just tourists,
tourists with the army or just tourists, tourist.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Tourists on the side. But they would have been hanging
around the army because those are the people they know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
Well, there was no fighting in Egypt, was there No?

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
Not in Egypt itself, it was all only training, so
it was one of the safe havens. And then you
cross the Mediterranean seat and walk into hell. But with

(01:13:16):
the British girls though his own grandmother for toppens and
still talk his way back into heaven.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
And then they had what is that, Yeah, the nurses.
The nurses again, and often forgotten aspect of war World
War One and World War Two is the involvement of
Australian women and the British women on the battlefields.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
All the support crew usually gets forgotten. You remember the
guys who go running into the fire, but I forget
the people who were maintaining their trucks or feeding their horses.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
Or outside of rare examples like Simpson andes Donkey. So
as I think you discussed that Simpson and these Donkey
was most likely.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
He lasted less than a month before he.

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
Got shot, and there were also multiple people that could
have also fit the description of Simpson and these donkey.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Yes, and the only reason he had the donkeys because
he stole them off the Ottomans.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
That's why we sort of referred to it as a
sort of amalgamation a legend where you know, you just
instead of having five gurus, those five gurus get combined
into one and become Jesus Christ. And with Simpson and
these donkey. While Simpson existed, he had a donkey. He
was red Crossman. There were also other people that did

(01:14:47):
the exactly we need exact same job, but he was
a good example of them all.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
And the boys are doing their run early duties, which
is taking messages back and forth between officers.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Mm hm.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
The orders to leave Alexandra.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
Yeah, and I think this is where you start to
say this, this radical change in the tone of the film. Yeah,
so you know, well, what's the significance of leaving Alexandra Ali?

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
So they're going to end up on the shores of
Glipoli within.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
A week, you know. And when passing on that order
to their commanding officer, who was quite harsh with you know,
done having a drink and the like, you know, remind
your friend that this is party for officers, not for you.
As soon as he reads that letter, he then insists, hey,

(01:15:59):
go go have a drink, go mingle, have a good night,
as he was fully aware of the situation that they
would soon all be walking into again.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
This movie might be called Gallipoli, but it's not the
first landing. It's just one of the later landings that
ended up in almost the same kind of problem.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Well, I mean the that is the The thing about
Gallipoli is that it was one of the worst failures.
And it's interesting too, like when you think about it
being Australia's first real action in this this I don't
like to use the term greend, but I don't really
have a better word for it. This green in large conflict.

(01:16:44):
You know, you have one of our worst military failures
of all time. You know, as the Australian Army has
got smaller and smaller on the average, we have actually
gotten better and better a conflict aside from obviously there

(01:17:05):
are controversies noted, but while our army has shrunk, our
success rate and efficiency has improved. I suppose technology is
an aspect to that. And now this is the crossing
of the sea. Obviously, they're going to do this at night.

Speaker 2 (01:17:23):
Harder for plans to see you at night.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
Having big, giant search lights. It doesn't think, but you
had big search.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Lights, I do not.

Speaker 1 (01:17:33):
No, this is more accurate here as they're crossing with
very little light.

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
Yeah, because you don't want the guys who are up
on the cliffs with guns ready to see you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
Well, I mean this is also the first time where
you start to see the use of machine guns. So
the Turkish who you know. Let's also remember where the
Turkish fit into this. The Turkish were defending their land.
Turkey was their home, yep, you know, yes, they were

(01:18:05):
aligned with the Germans at the time, but at the
end of the day, Turkey was their home and it
was Australians at the behest of the British who were
going to invade someone else's home. Yes, and so it
must be contextualized in that way. It isn't as noble
as going after you know, the Germans during World War II.

(01:18:31):
You know, there's a lot more contexts to it than that.
But yeah, you send them across in little wooden boats
over the.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
Ocean, very similar to the lifeboats on the Titanic in design.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
Yeah, so their little paddle boats. It's not like the
storming of d Day, of the storming of Normandy, when
you have big steel boats with no motors. Here motors
in this case, it is very much puddle boats. And
would World War One is this interesting point between you know,

(01:19:13):
automation and industrialization.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
Well, the beginning of the war was horses and rifles,
the end was tanks. The end was tanks, planes and
machine guns. So we developed a lot of technology over
those four or five years.

Speaker 1 (01:19:33):
And again like when they land on the beach and
the first round goes off and they all sort of
duck and have a bit of a chuckle and a
bit of a smile, you know, at the situation. Again,
it's a really nice demonstration of the naivete and.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
Being woken up by shellin that's your wanning alarm.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
And Archie is still happy, he's still love and life,
still having his adventure.

Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
And Done is commenting on that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
I think the character of Done is very much A
beautiful shot that one. Yes, it's my favorite shot in
the movie where they're panning down over the beach and
you can see the staging area and the flag waivers.
It's just, yeah, I really really love that shot. It's

(01:20:28):
a very grand shot.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Of course, back then personal radios walkie talkie is one
not of things. So they're communicating with flags and everybody's
having a wash all their bits out.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
Yep, you want to say, a bunch of beer bums.
Why are they throwing the shillings in the hut?

Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
I do not know. I am guessing it has something.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
To do with looking after the year maybe.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
Yep, or him he had a camera there, so he
might be a journalist photographer. Sunken boat swimming around those
Mel Gibson butt I think we need to do a
tally for all of these things that every time we see.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
A buttah and yeah, it's it's interesting. They're all swimming around.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
There's you can't you can't see or hear the shelling,
but you can see the vibration and all the debris
that's coming down at.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
Them, and they're all blood. Yeah, and then one dude
gets hit and I think, again, this is where the
that the director is very good at hinting what life
will be. But they still think it's a big lat

(01:21:56):
you know, he got he took a little bit of
a shrap and so now here's a soldier.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
He's got his war wound.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
Now now he's in the war.

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
I want a free trip to Egypt. Stick your head
up here. It's a sign that's on the side of
the trenches they're shooting.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
And again a bit of restrained ingenuity here, you've got
a couple of pieces of broken glass on the stick,
which is reflecting what's going on over the trenches. And
this would a hard.

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
Wonderful, hard attack covered in flies.

Speaker 1 (01:22:41):
And you've got a guy here who's obviously been in
the wharf for a little while, has been serving for
a little while, and all these shaw blokes are starting
to realize the situation they're in a little bit more.
I'm dude throwing of mine over the trench, having a

(01:23:01):
bit of a laugh. You see there he's got the tin, yep.
So what they'd start doing against building improvised explosives and
they would utilize you know, old tin turn into into shrapnel,
shrapnel bombs, utilize a lot of the stuff around them.

(01:23:22):
Right there, you've got a man who's buried into the
actual wall. So they're shaking his hand as it's slowly
rodding away. And I think you can tell at this
point that a lot of.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
Them I assume are starting to disassociate quite.

Speaker 1 (01:23:39):
Happily a bean and hope past this point casualty corner, yep.
But I think there's also this this maintenance of a
little bit of there's still the Australia your attitude, I think,

(01:24:01):
very very present here. So as I was saying, Holly though,
talking about the improvised explosives, you can see that they're
they're filling them with empty shell casings, a little bit
of powder. They're like that fuse and.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
I mean, good luck throwing them up over that height
of a cliff. But they do have to walk up
and down it several times a day, so many of
them are not reacting to the fact that a shell
just hit the background, like thirty forty feet behind them.

Speaker 1 (01:24:33):
I think that this is just what life was in
the trenches, where you start to you know, you don't
get hit, but you know you also wouldn't be too
concerned if you didn't get hit, because you wouldn't really
thinking about would you. No, no, really saying your brains

(01:24:55):
would be all over the place.

Speaker 2 (01:24:57):
And they've captured an Ottoman, they've got him trapped in
some bar boya.

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
I still don't quite understand what the British were hoping
to achieved with this.

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
I don't understand whither. I can only assume either they
were trying to keep the Ottomans occupied and thus we're
sacrificing our people, or they didn't want to admit that
they screwed up.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
Yeah, because sending people over a trench again and again
and again and again and again and again leading to
the exact same outcome. You know, they were two. There
was no way that they were going to stop the Turkish. No,
there was no way they were going to be This
is not a Ratsom to Brooks situation.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
No, there's no holding it off.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
No, you're not making it over that trench. July reunited
as well with their other boys. Yes, we are from Egypt.

Speaker 2 (01:25:58):
July nineteen fifteen. The very end of July, at the
twenty eighth I believe, was the Battle of loan Pine.
So we are very slowly closing in on that. In
the movie's continuity.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
A storyline, the Battle of loam Pine is one of
the last that's correct.

Speaker 2 (01:26:16):
It's one of the biggest ones. Then we went through
the August offensive and then eventually the British went you
know what, this is not worth it. It only took so
many Australians being killed and their own British people and
many others, but they eventually gave up.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
And then, yeah, so what Hollywood suggesting there is what
the movie is in fine as well. They're talking to
the British officer there, who looks very similar to Prince
Charles King, Charles King, Charlie King, Charlie King, Charlie King, Chuck,
and it's like, you know, and my aunts understand correctly

(01:26:55):
this offensive that loan Pine is just a diverttionary tactic.
It's like, no, it's vital, and the Australian officer is
not believing any of the bullshit.

Speaker 2 (01:27:14):
The intention here is to make it around the corner
and land somewhere else and try and catch them in a.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
Wedge where the British incompetence. During World War One and
World War.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Two it was a new field for everybody. I just
want to lay that out there like this.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Before.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
Yeah, could they have done more before they sent people
into war zones?

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
Yes, but I mean world War two. You think about
situations like Dunkirk.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
War two, they ended up being the ones getting trapped.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Where they had to end up. You know, basically saying
to every single sailor with a tugboat, can you please.

Speaker 2 (01:27:57):
We're going to take a boat and where you're going
to get those?

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
Yeah? Can you go across? And because they're the Navy,
couldn't rescue their own people. And while the Americans had
devastating battles, you know, especially when you think about the
landing of Normandy, the intention was, yes, we're going to
throw a lot of bodies at this, We're going to
lose a lot of people, but we will get where

(01:28:21):
we did ave something. We will actually achieve something. I
don't feel like the British managed to do that. And
World War two was worse than World War One or.

Speaker 2 (01:28:31):
World War two. They were on the back foot to
begin with, because I mean being attacked directly, which hadn't
happened in World War One.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
But think about like what happened in Singapore, you know,
where they're like, well, they're stupid Japanese people that are
going to be able to stop this. And then Churchill's like,
we'll give the Japanese queens say and fuck them. Yeah,
and then was like you know we're going to say
and even the Americans realized how vital Australian was as
far as minerals went, and how much it had to

(01:28:58):
be protected. I think the British about at war.

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
I don't think they're really good at horses ands of
metal smacking each other, but once you include mechanization, it's
over their heads.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
And that's It's not to say that the British soldiers
about it war. I just feel that.

Speaker 2 (01:29:16):
The British for machine is not very well.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
It's not really is it. You know. And then you
look at sort of later conflicts that were involved in,
like you know, leaving Africa in the sixties, when Thatcher
marched everyone into oh god, what was it South American country?

(01:29:38):
I just can't remember what it was.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
The Falkland Island War.

Speaker 1 (01:29:41):
Is, yeah, the Falklands, which was a disaster. Yeah, you
know what I mean. Like the British have a pretty
fucked record when it comes to their war effects.

Speaker 2 (01:29:53):
The bigger the war, the heart of the British were
finding it to win.

Speaker 1 (01:29:57):
The British people were incredibly resilient.

Speaker 2 (01:29:59):
Yes, you know, come and carry on this bread into
their bones, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:30:03):
Like you see all those pictures after.

Speaker 2 (01:30:06):
Simpson and his Donkey. This is what this particular shot
is representing you've got your wall wounded on the back
of a donkey being led down by a soldier, like.

Speaker 1 (01:30:15):
When you think about blitzkrigs, which I now understand that
term properly after listening to the We're Crapping a Show
podcast plugging the push up. You know, when we get
to when you get to World War two and you
see all those photos of the Brets and they would

(01:30:39):
reopen their butcher's shop even though it was half blown hell,
and they would have, you know, morning tea, even though
the coffee shop was blown.

Speaker 2 (01:30:46):
Up, the table sitting in the rubble with the cup
of tea.

Speaker 1 (01:30:50):
You know, I think the British people were incredibly resilient.
Now these boys are all understanding that very shortly they're
going to to be bent over a trench. They've gone
over the top, and that was a death sentence. It
was a death sentence for anyone who went over that top.
They were not coming back. It was similar to that,

(01:31:13):
they're not coming back. They're not coming back. And then
here's another interesting thing too, is one of our guys
that bought the fake Egyptian tourist thing, he's sitting there,

(01:31:38):
he's got gunshot wing the gun shot wing and it's
got his name, and it's got the date because he's
most likely not gone home.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
It's basically the first form of a dog tag. What
you died of, what your serial number was, date of injury.

Speaker 1 (01:31:59):
If he's been regiment Yeah, if he's been shot in
the stomach, he's not going to make it anyway. You know,
many people who were shot were not going to make it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
SIS wasn't a massive problem.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
It might be lucky if you got like an arm
or a leg blown off. Maybe you could if they
got a tornic K two quickly enough and we're able
to look after you quick enough. But you know, and yeah,
like like Done is very much aware of his situation,
and I think, yeah, see, Archie, this is what I

(01:32:35):
really like about this film. Archie is still like ha,
like we're still having fun here. And I almost wonder
if Archie at this point it's just a coping mechanism.

Speaker 2 (01:32:46):
It would have to be. It would have to be
a mixture of disassociation. I'm not here, it doesn't matter.
It cannot get me mixed together with I'm I'm what
what does it matter?

Speaker 1 (01:32:59):
Yeah, Like, I think is still living in his fantasy
that you know he is going home or that you know,
he's still on a grand adventure, where as Done is
that's actually quite a famous face, the one you just
saw there with the curly hair in that very very

(01:33:21):
quick shot. He would later go on to try and
break a piece with apes in the Rise of the
Point of the Apes. Yeah, I think that Archie is
just still living through his fantasy, whereas Done is very
much aware of the situation that he's in. And yeah,

(01:33:49):
so the you know, Archie's like, I'm ready to do this,
like I'm ready to go over the trenches, and he's like, no, well,
we still need you as our runner. We still need
you going back and forth.

Speaker 2 (01:34:01):
Once the showing starts, everything yet knockdown and we need
someone to run.

Speaker 1 (01:34:10):
Whereas, yeah, Dune is fully aware of his situation, Archie
is still living in this I think. Okay, yeah, you know,
I think he's living in an absolute fantasy world. So
we'll go back to some more trivia as the movie
has moved forward a little bit. Shortly after Archie and

(01:34:32):
Frank arrive at Gallipoli, they cross through the trenches to
try and take what they think it's a shortcut to
the beach. When a soldier guarding the point informs them
that it's a short cut to the bloody symmetry the
guard is seeing behind the sign that says, abandon hope,
pass this point. This is a paraphrasing of abandon all hope,
ye who went to hear the famous line from the

(01:34:53):
fourteenth century poet Dante and his famous poem Dante's Inferno,
the inscription above the gate of Hell as the poet
walks through it. And as Holly mentioned earlier, the book
that Jack reads the children early on in the film
is Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. The part he reads

(01:35:19):
discusses the main character, Mowgli's passage to manhood. For the
purposes of the film, foreshadows Archie's passage to manhood as
he leaves for war.

Speaker 2 (01:35:29):
Thank you very much, I paid attention in little.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
This movie is included amongst the one thousand and one
movies you Must See before.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
You Die, Like knock another one off my list.

Speaker 1 (01:35:41):
I have about three of those books sitting around here somewhere.
One thousand and one Films you Must See before you Die.
I think it's a fantastic film. I do. I think
it's shot its shot beautifully, It's acted very well. The
characters are charismatic, the plot is consistent, and I really

(01:36:02):
like the the Yeah there's this you know, this real
hard turn, and I think that's important. I think you need,
you know, you want to like these characters and enjoy
their adventure, just like the people going to war thought
they were going on an adventure. And then you kick

(01:36:22):
the audience in the guts and you're like, this is
what it's like, you know, and you maintain this Australian alaricanism, right,
you maintain that throughout. The characters don't change. Their attitude
doesn't change, and that makes it worse, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
Because everything that's the same, but everything is now much much.

Speaker 1 (01:36:49):
Much it's worse. Yeah, you know, so they would fire
what they're doing here in the film at the moment,
they're firing water with an attempt of diversion, creating smoke,
taking out the Ottoman emplacements that wantn't work most of
the time. And then that I think that was really
done more to give the soldiers almost so like, you know,

(01:37:15):
a false sense of security. Really don't worry, boys, We're
going to hit them with mortars first.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
Be able to get through to be fine. They definitely
won't just shoot through the smoke.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
You know. Archie is sitting there writing this letter about
his grand.

Speaker 2 (01:37:31):
Adventure, sending it home to his parents.

Speaker 1 (01:37:35):
I'm still here and I'm getting ready to do my bit.

Speaker 2 (01:37:40):
Johnny Turk won't know what's coming for him.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
You know, I'm still living my adventure. Doesn't surprise me
that we had such a huge film career after like this.

Speaker 2 (01:38:00):
He's had a good job on it, like he wrote it.
I think I think he had writing credits as well
as directing.

Speaker 1 (01:38:07):
It's also unusual two see an early director have such
a strong grasp of film. Yep, there is a cameo
of the screenwriter David Wilson. He is the tall, dark

(01:38:31):
head football player who gets tackled hard when the soldiers
play football in Egypt.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
Oh, the one that I was like is weird. It's
wearing as jersey.

Speaker 1 (01:38:38):
That's the one. Although based on events in which took
place on the Gallipoli Peninsula in nineteen fifteen, the characters
portrayed in this film entirely fictitious. So what we're seeing
here as an example of going over the top. And
as you can see, they are dropping dead before they

(01:38:58):
even get any way near.

Speaker 2 (01:39:00):
It seven to eight yards of Some of them are
going down just as they hit the top. Some mightn't
even make it to the top.

Speaker 1 (01:39:08):
I don't know why they didn't start refusing because they
need to be shot, because they were all like it
was just to die.

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
Yep, you just got water and target practice.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
I think for some of these people the idea was
maybe I can go across, get shot in the arm,
get back over the trench, and maybe they'll take me home.
And Archie sees one of it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
This is the guy who told them his age back
at the beginning of the film.

Speaker 1 (01:39:50):
He's absolutely terrified at about the situations in and I
think like that that finally pushes Archie outside of his
niss a little bit. Now, you know, now it's come home.
Now it's a little bit more real. And yeah, you
see one guy there didn't even means to get over

(01:40:11):
the trench. And they did this for weeks months, just
sending people to die for no goddamn reason. This is
what I mean, This is what I'm talking about. I
don't think that. So you see, they're right, the Ottomans

(01:40:32):
are using machine guns, right, they're feeding through machine guns
and they's a German produced I believe at.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
The time they were allies, but I am not sure, right, and.

Speaker 1 (01:40:43):
This is pointless. Right, So they're going over the trenches.
They've got a very light rifle, yeah, single shot rifles.
I think they had a fire bolt clip, I think,
or maybe not. That doesn't look like it has a
fire bolt clip, right, And they're just sending people over

(01:41:06):
again and again and again and again to be cut
down by machine guns and again. That from the Turkish perspective,
what are they doing?

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
They're like, oh, they're offering more targets.

Speaker 1 (01:41:18):
I was trying to think of it for more of
a noble point of view, Holly, they're defending their homes.

Speaker 2 (01:41:23):
Well, that true, but the specific act of them standing
there going why are they still doing this? They're gonna
kill them?

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
I don't think that you really like, that's not my
impression of what the very small glimpses that you're getting
of the Turks. I think they're just doing their jobs.
Their jobs is to kill these people. I don't think
you're getting much of an emotional reaction from them.

Speaker 2 (01:41:50):
But yeah, so that's that I can almost guarantee at
least some of them would have been sitting in the
bunkers that night, going we were they doing? Because that's
the reaction someone would have had.

Speaker 1 (01:42:01):
Yeah, No, one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (01:42:02):
Approximately the one hundred and forty one thousand Allied deaths
during the Killipoli campaign with only eighty six thousand Ottoman deaths,
so almost twice as many Allied died during this particular campaign.

Speaker 1 (01:42:19):
And would you level this the British I believe I would. Yeah.
I think it's hard not to when they're.

Speaker 2 (01:42:29):
The guys who are running the idea and running yeah
point on everything. If they make the decision and everyone
follows it because they're following orders, then ultimately it's on
them because they know those orders are going to be followed.

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
So this is interesting, Holly. The movie was initially to
be made by the South Australian Film Corporation, who were
the original team behind the production. However, they withdrew support
for the film over creative differences with the script. However,
the movie was still partially film and then South Australia.
The Gallipoli peninsula was filmed at Port Lincoln, while the
market sequence was also filmed in South Australia at a

(01:43:06):
fish market. There you go there you go. So the
only little bit of real is in front of the pyramids,
and this.

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
Is where communication starts illustrating being broken down. Like I
thought I saw a flag. I didn't see a flag.
Did you see a flag? Who was it? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:43:27):
And then in order to get you know, proper information,
you did have to send these runners, and for the
runners that would be life or death for certain people.
This is a really interesting music choice as well, because
this is more digital music. This is this which is

(01:43:51):
more indicative of say maybe a James Bond or a
spy thriller or something like that. And in a it's
music that goes along with the scene quite well, but
doesn't go along really well with the rest of the
catalog of the movie, which is interesting. You know, now

(01:44:13):
at this point, if you know Gibson, Gibson's character done
is trying to get information.

Speaker 2 (01:44:22):
He has to run through like Hell's Point or Death
Valley or whatever they called.

Speaker 1 (01:44:26):
It and try and get there as fast as he
can and get that information and bring him back otherwise
more troops are going to keep going back, you know,
over that trench. Yeah, it tells sound pointless to continue on,

(01:44:46):
and it's like yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:44:47):
Yes, but the British you're happy to be doing this.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
So yeah, this is what. Yeah, the British officers a
scene on a beach drinking cups of tea, and now it's.

Speaker 2 (01:45:03):
This has been told to tell him we're reconsidering it.
But that's not really specific of yes or no.

Speaker 1 (01:45:09):
It's enough to stop everyone though, you know, you can
then run that information back through and say, well, you know,
now it's where we can at least holt because we
have to reconsider considering options. Hold, we're reconsidering considering you know,

(01:45:29):
which is and I think that's enough, you know, to
try and halt any further action. And then you've got, Yeah,
your boys are writing their letters, looking at their photos,
and the loved ones having a cigarette, nursing their wounds,
you know, praying.

Speaker 2 (01:45:49):
Reliving the horror over and over and over again in
their heads.

Speaker 1 (01:45:53):
I know that there's a lot of people who looked
out on atheists for not having any particular religious views.
What most people don't know as the atheist movement actually
came out of World War One.

Speaker 2 (01:46:05):
Because who would believe God when they could see what
man can do to each other?

Speaker 1 (01:46:08):
That's right, absolutely, It was very confronting for a lot
of people, and atheism, you know, very much came out
of World War One. And see what's interesting too, is
like I don't know whether Dunn's character realizes or not,
but you know, the you know, the quicker he gets

(01:46:33):
to and see, this is the breakdown right here. So
we've got the radio and the British the phone calls on.
The on the radio is saying push, whereas his superior
is saying, we're reconsidering. So right now, you know, there's
this terrible tension where you have these boys who don't
need to be going over because mel Gibson is running

(01:46:54):
the new information to them. So right now you've got
all these different points of information. So this is this
beautiful moment of tension and sadness and the shittiness of
the situation. And that's why I think Gallipoli is a
fantastic film, not only about like it. Here's the really

(01:47:17):
hard thing about war movies, right, how do you do
a war movie without making it look cool? Yeah? Right?
Saving Private Ryan is considered one of the most accurate
depictions of war, and it was so that film is
so beloved and so appreciated and so liked that they

(01:47:38):
made video games about it called Call of Duty. Right,
That's directly where it came from. Someone's like, let's make
Normandy a video game.

Speaker 2 (01:47:45):
Right, I just want to break in here the scene.
What they're doing right now is they're shoving their knives
into the sandbags. They're putting letters on it, They're putting watches,
they're putting wedding vans. Anything that is special to them
is going there as a memento of who they are,
who they were as they're being forced over the top.

Speaker 1 (01:48:06):
Again and they're hoping that these items will be collected
and sent back to Australia. At this time as well,
you start to see Archie's facade slip.

Speaker 2 (01:48:17):
He starts to show how.

Speaker 1 (01:48:18):
Much it's affecting him as it's getting closer and closer
to him having to go over the trench. He is now,
you know, starting to I think, realize the situation is
in as he starts to break down. So, going back
to what I was saying, you know, can you make
a war film without the action of the warfare being

(01:48:42):
inherently visually cool? Right, the lack of a better term,
There is nothing cool about this movie.

Speaker 2 (01:48:52):
No, there is no.

Speaker 1 (01:48:54):
There You know, I think that Weird does something that
Ethan directors like Spielberg, who you would say, you know,
almost made the definitive war film or you know, the
the other film like all quite on the Western Front.
I think this movie really really does And there you go,

(01:49:14):
so done, can't stop. No, you really should keep your
eyes on this. I was looking something up that's great,
but you should really watch this scene. This is the
scene that's our main character Archie and shot and on
that Ladies and Gentlemen. This is how the film Gallipoli ends.

(01:49:37):
And as you were listening to this commentary, if I
hadn't stopped Holly from looking at a phone, she would
have missed what is considered to be the most pivotal
and heartbreaking scene of the entire film. It is sad, yes,
so yeah, that, Ladies and Gentlemen was Gallipoli. I hope

(01:49:57):
you've enjoyed that. If you haven't watched it, you should
know I have listened to this commentary fort.

Speaker 2 (01:50:04):
I mean you can still watch it. I'm sure that
you'll actually pay more of some parts of it than
we didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:50:09):
I would I would highly recommend that people go check
it out. It used Australian soldiers, the men of the
Port Lincoln and Adelaide's sixteenth Air Defense Regiment, so it
actually used actual soldiers in it. I think it is
one of the best pre pieces of anti propaganda that

(01:50:30):
I have.

Speaker 2 (01:50:30):
Seen, definitely anti war propaganda, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:50:34):
And we'll finish it up here with a little bit
more trivia. The film was given a small release in
the US, where it was pitched to US audiences as
an arthouse film due to the then novelty of Australian
made feature films being screened there. The film was given
a smallsh run in UK Cinemas two in December nineteen
eighty two, where it got excellent reviews and good word

(01:50:55):
of mouth, resulting her better than expected box office. Released
on video rental VHS and Vedamax in the UK in
nineteen eighty three, a full year before its video release
in Australia, where it had a lengthy theatrical release, including
a re release, as the video rental market wasn't as
large in Australia as it was in the UK. Mel

(01:51:16):
Gibson and Robert Grubb also appear together in Mad Max
Beyond Thunderdront. The film anacharistically used as a snippet from
Gene Michael Jurrey's nineteen sixty seven synth album Oxygen to
give the desert an alien feel. That's why they were
using the sensu the synth music there, which I picked
up pretty quickly. Actors Bill Ker, Tim McKenzie and Graham

(01:51:41):
Dowe appear in both Callipoli and The Light Horsemen in
nineteen eighty seven, both epic Australian pictures about World War One,
which were both partly and significantly filmed in South Australia.
Also working on both productions were experts Steve Courtley and
Roger Coland machinist, costume designer David Rowe, and horse regular
Bill Willemby Bell. Depicted at the end of the movie

(01:52:04):
is the Battle of the Neck, and indeed there was
a lack of synchronization between the artillery officer and the
assault officer. Notably one of Hugh Jackman's favorite films.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:52:15):
According to the Movies Made in and Around Korn web
page at the Secrets of the Flinders Rangers and Corner website,
the steam train scenes were made in corn Corn and
the Pitchy Richie Pass.

Speaker 2 (01:52:33):
One of the credits that was in the very end
there it mentions that the movie itself was actually used
inspiration from the works of mister Bean C. E. W. Bean,
who was the guy who ended up not mister Bean,
the not the Englishman money. He was the Australian photographer

(01:52:55):
who went to war, came back and helped found the.

Speaker 1 (01:52:58):
Walmarro and just quickly as well and probably fitting as
we end this, the last image of freeze frame of
Hamilton playing Archie being shot plays homage to the famous
photograph taken by Robert Kappa during the Spanish Civil War.
There you go, so there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:53:18):
The more war changes, the more war stage, it is
the same.

Speaker 1 (01:53:21):
Well, ladies and John and I hope you've enjoyed watching
that film with us. That's Glipoli. You can check it
out on YouTube like we just did. And it is
really hard to find the movie by outside of it
being currently seen on Foxtel.

Speaker 2 (01:53:38):
Because you went looking for it to add to the collection, didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:53:40):
He Yes, we can buy a secondhand copy on eBay
And after watching that movie again, it's something I'm going
to be doing as soon as we finished the recording.
Just a little bit of housekeeping before I let you go,
don't forget. You can find us all over social media
just typing whekrap in Australia into the search bar, and
you can also send us an email Week crap in

(01:54:02):
Australia at gmail dot com. Did you enjoy watching the
film with us? Have you never seen the film before?
What we thoughts? We'd love to hear from you? You
can use either social media or email. You can also
they helped support the show. You can find us over
on Patreon for only five dollars USD a month. He

(01:54:22):
g'd access to bonus minisodes as well as ad free
episodes released to you a day early, just like this one.
You can also check out our book series Christmas Time
is It Common Impact Comics dot com dot au where
they may be doing some Black Friday stuff this week
question mark question marks, they've done it it mails sometimes

(01:54:43):
does it, sometimes doesn't. I would check that out, I believe,
or if he does do it, there'll be at least
some sort of discount on instock items, which is good
news for you because our book series We Crap In
Australia volumes one all the way through to six currently
sitting on shelves so you'll be able to get are
set for a decent price. You can also pick up

(01:55:04):
the book from our print themand service from Lulu if
you're an international listener, and you can grab the digital
edition from the Kindle Bookshop. And at last, but not least,
if you want to grab yourself a Weird Crap in
Australia T shirt or coffee cup, you can pick those
up from our Tea Public and Red Bubble stores. Just
like social media, typing Weird Crap in Australia into the

(01:55:25):
search engine, and as is our custom, we give Holly
the final words.

Speaker 2 (01:55:30):
The thing that I was looking up was that, yes,
soldiers did.

Speaker 1 (01:55:33):
Actually one point of the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:55:35):
Yes, but soldiers did actually do that thing with the
knives and the wedding bands and the letting.

Speaker 1 (01:55:40):
Something doesn't that that makes perfect sense?

Speaker 2 (01:55:43):
It wasn't. It wasn't generally done in the very front
trenches and the first trenches, but as people get closer
to being the ones going over, they did it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:51):
Also, that actor that I did see that I recognized
in a very tiny little cameo. I believe his name
is Jason Clark. There you go. Yes. Otherwise, ladies and gentlemen,
that's it from us. Please be kind to each other,
stay safe, and we will see you all next week
as the month needs to shift towards something that isn't
World Wore anything.

Speaker 2 (01:56:11):
No, we're doing a murder.

Speaker 1 (01:56:12):
We're doing there. Dear you got a Christmas episode lined up.

Speaker 2 (01:56:17):
I'm working on it. It's very hard, yeah, yeah, because
I try and find something in the lines of the
Christmas It's just it's getting harder.

Speaker 1 (01:56:25):
Yeah, because I've already done seven Often any ideas send
us an email off quickly, please help us well. Otherwise,
ladies and gentlemen, we will see you all again next week.
From more, We'd Crap in Australia till then both for
now they The Weird Crap In Australia podcast is produced

(01:56:53):
by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If
you've enjoyed this podcast fast, please rate and review on
your favorite podcatching app.

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Weird Crap Movie Commentary 3 - Gallipoli (1981)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Weird Crap Movie Commentary 3 - Gallipoli (1981)