Gallipoli Movie Accuracy

Introduction
Peter Weir’s Gallipoli is based on the historical events from World War One in 1915, in Gallipoli. World War One started on the 28th of July 1914 and continued until the 11 of November 1918, the movie is set in 1915 from about the start of the year until 7th of August 1915 when the Battle of the Nek took place. This essay will discuss the accuracies and inaccuracies of the film Gallipoli compared to the events of World War One in 1915. The accuracies and inaccuracies of how the war started and who started World War One will be examined along with life in the trenches and the Australian attitudes to the war and the propaganda.

Weir’s film has many accuracies and mistakes surrounding the views on the war, who started World War One,

From one account of a soldier at Gallipoli, he stated “A few bivvies, excavated in the walls of trenches, but most men only had the floor of the trench upon which to lie” - Colonel Herbert Collett, 28th Battalion. In the movie, it was seen that there were only “a few bivvies” to sit and lie in while there were many soldiers sitting on the dry ground, this is a very accurate recreation of the firsthand accounts and pictures taken at Gallipoli. The trenches were not a pleasant place as they were unhygienic, and disease-ridden because of the constant death in and around the trenches, Weir falsely recreates the trenches with dead bodies buried in the walls and little-seen disease except the flies in the soldier’s food. Another account from 2nd of December describes the trenches as not being under “continuous bomb fighting and bombarding all the time” instead “the chief occupation is the digging of mile upon mile of endless trench” -Dispatch, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Weir’s Gallipoli reconstructs life in the trenches as standing around for ages and filling time with activities like smoking and small gambling or betting, this was the case but many soldiers had to be constantly digging more lines of trenches which were not shown in the movie. We could see that biscuits had been handed out when a

in Australia, the war was promoted very biased with all the media surrounding the war being pleasant and heavily censored so that more people would be more inclined to join the war. Some attitudes to the war were not so great with some people saying it was not Australia’s war and an Irish stereotype was that they did not want to fight a ‘British War’. This was demonstrated in the film when Frank’s Irish father said: “it’s not our bloody war”. It was widely thought that World War One would demonstrate Australia’s value to Britain, which would lead to further support militarily and other help. This is why Australia was so eager to promote the war volunteering 50,000 troops to Great Britain. As the war broke out there were many Anti-German protests and riots targeting the Germans who lived in Australia, their clubs and businesses were also a target. These riots and protests were not shown in the film as it is set after the war has already broken out, the film shows how everyone is celebrated for their efforts in going to fight for Australia. As the war progressed more and more people signed up in hopes to support Britain in the war, with hundreds of thousands signed up by 25 December 1914. Many people who were of age to serve were challenged and urged by family and friends to either enlist or stay home. One such person was Edward Brittain who was urged by his father and other former Cambridge friends to not fight, while his sister