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 modernday 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 onAugust 1915.

In Western Australia, May 1915, Archie Hamilton Mark Lee, an 18yearold stockman and prizewinning sprinter, longs to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. He is trained by his uncle Jack Bill Kerr and idolises Harry Lascelles, the world champion over 100 yards. Archie wins a race with a bullying farmhand, Les McCann Harold Hopkins, Archie running barefoot and Les riding his horse bareback.Frank Dunne Mel Gibson is an unemployed exrailway labourer who has run out of money. Hes a fast runner and hopes to win the prize money at the athletics carnival, he also bets a lot of money on himself winning. Archie and Uncle Jack journey to the athletics carnival. Frank is surprised when Archie defeats him and is bitter at first and he feels robbed of his bet. Eventually Frank approaches Archie in a cafe after getting over his loss and they both decide to travel to Perth to enlist. Before leaving, Archie gives all the prize money he won at the race to Jack and tells him that he will not be coming home for he had decided to enlist. ........

Source: Wikipedia