Gallipoli (1981 film)

Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian drama war film directed by Peter Weir and produced by Patricia Lovell and Robert Stigwood, starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, about several rural Western Australian young men who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War. They are sent to the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire (in modern-day Turkey), where they take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. During the course of the movie, the young men slowly lose their innocence about the purpose of war. The climax of the movie occurs on the Anzac battlefield at Gallipoli and depicts the futile attack at the Battle of the Nek on 7 August 1915.

Gallipoli provides a faithful portrayal of life in Australia in the 1910s—reminiscent of Weir's 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock set in 1900—and captures the ideals and character of the Australians who joined up to fight, as well as the conditions they endured on the battlefield. It does, however, modify events for dramatic purposes and contains a number of significant historical inaccuracies.

Gallipoli

Coordinates: 40°21′N 26°28′E / 40.350°N 26.467°E / 40.350; 26.467

The Gallipoli peninsula (/ɡəˈlɪpəli, ɡæ-/;Turkish: Gelibolu Yarımadası; Greek: Καλλίπολη) is located in Turkish Thrace (or East Thrace), the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east.

Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" (Kallipolis), meaning "Beautiful City". In antiquity, it was known as the Thracian Chersonese, from Greek: Θρακική Χερσόνησος (Latin: Chersonesus Thracica).

The peninsula runs in a south-westerly direction into the Aegean Sea, between the Hellespont (now known as the Dardanelles) and the bay of Melas (today Saros bay). Near Agora it was protected by a wall running across its full breadth. The isthmus traversed by the wall was only 36 stadia in breadth (about 6.5 km), but the length of the peninsula from this wall to its southern extremity, Cape Mastusia, was 420 stadia (about 77.5 km).

Antiquity - Medieval

In ancient times, the Gallipoli Peninsula was known as the Thracian Chersonesus (from Greek χερσόνησος, "peninsula") to the Greeks and later the Romans. It was the location of several prominent towns, including Cardia, Pactya, Callipolis (Gallipoli), Alopeconnesus,Sestos, Madytos, and Elaeus. The peninsula was renowned for its wheat. It also benefited from its strategic importance on the main route between Europe and Asia, as well as from its control of the shipping route from Crimea. The city of Sestos was the main crossing-point on the Hellespont (Dardanelles).

Mel Gibson

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker (screenwriter, producer and director). He is most well known as an action hero, for roles such as Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon buddy cop film series and Max Rockatansky in the first three films in the Mad Max post-apocalyptic action series.

He was born in Peekskill, New York, and moved with his parents to Sydney when he was 12 years old. He studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art. During the 1980s, Gibson founded Icon Entertainment, a production company which independent film director Atom Egoyan has called, "an alternative to the studio system." Director Peter Weir cast Gibson as one of the leads in the critically acclaimed World War I drama Gallipoli (1981), which earned Gibson a Best Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute. The film also helped to earn Gibson the reputation of a serious, versatile actor.

In 1995, Gibson produced, directed, and starred in the epic historical drama film Braveheart, for which he won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Director, along with the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2004, he directed and produced the financially successful, but controversial, biblical drama film The Passion of the Christ. Gibson received further critical notice for his directorial work of the 2006 action-adventure film Apocalypto, which is set in Mesoamerica during the early 16th century.

Mark Lee

Mark Lee may refer to:

See also

Peter Weir

Peter Lindsay Weir, AM (/wɪər/; born 21 August 1944) is an Australian film director. He played a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema (1970-1990) with his films such as the mystery drama Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), the mystery drama-thriller The Last Wave (1977) and the historical drama Gallipoli (1981). The climax of Weir's early career was the $6 million multi-national production The Year of Living Dangerously (1983).

After the success of The Year of Living Dangerously, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office hits—including the Academy Award nominated films such as the thriller Witness (1985), the drama Dead Poets Society (1989), the romantic comedy Green Card (1990), the social science fiction comedy-drama The Truman Show (1998) and the epic historical drama film Master and Commander (2003).

Early life and career

Weir was born in Sydney, the son of Peggy (née Barnsley) and Lindsay Weir, a real estate agent. Weir attended The Scots College and Vaucluse Boys' High School before studying arts and law at the University of Sydney. His interest in film was sparked by his meeting with fellow students, including Phillip Noyce and the future members of the Sydney filmmaking collective Ubu Films. After leaving university in the mid-1960s he joined Sydney television station ATN-7, where he worked as a production assistant on the groundbreaking satirical comedy program The Mavis Bramston Show. During this period, using station facilities, he made his first two experimental short films, Count Vim's Last Exercise and The Life and Flight of Reverend Buckshotte.