Peter Weir’s film Gallipoli

Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipoli can in every sense of the phrase be called an ‘Australian classic’. The impact and effect this film has had upon the psyche and perspective of several generations of Australians has been significant. Whilst it can be argued that every Australian is aware of the ANZAC legend, and the events that occurred on the Turkish beaches in 1915, Weir’s film encapsulates and embodies a cultural myth which is now propagated as fact and embraced as part of the contemporary Australian identity. The film projects a sense of Australian nationalism that grew out of the 1970’s, and focuses on what it ‘means’ to be an Australian in a post-colonial country. In this way Gallipoli embodies a sense of ‘Australian-ness’ through the depiction of mateship and through the stark contrast of Australia to Britain. A sense of the mythic Australia is further projected through the cinematic portrayal of the outback, and the way in which Australia is presented in isolation from the rest of the world. These features combined create not only a sense of nationalism, but also a mythology stemming from the ANZAC legend as depicted within the film.

Gallipoli was released in 1981, developed and filmed in the post-Robert Menzies, post-Vietnam War period when Australia sought to reconsider and artistically represent its post-colonial tension. In a reflection of anxiety about Australia’s so-called national identity, the film is deeply rooted in the local mythology of the nation, and “is redolent with the overt rhetoric of nationalism. The film emerges from a historical period of Australian film-making when funding was newly available for films that dealt with explicitly Australian content and themes”. Gallipoli embodies and projects a now...

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