1915

Has anyone seen this mini-series besides me? I taped this program from public TV 20 something years ago, put it aside for a wet weekend, and watched it for the first time last night. Seeing as we are once again embroiled in a war, it should be brought back for a repeat viewing. PBS take note.

I don't consider it a spoiler when I say that the story is very similar to "The Deer Hunter" and is the usual sad tale of a group of young friends living an idyllic life in pre WWI Australia, with few worries other than finding the right person to settle down with. Billy is the local mischievous scamp, son of a hard drinking failure, attracting trouble like a lightning rod and catnip to the local women, married or not. Walter is the educated son of a more successful grazier. They meet and both fall for Frances whose father runs a hotel while her mother teaches music in Sydney. War comes and everyone celebrates the "big adventure", bands play, the young men rush off to join up, but little do they realize what they are in for. By the end, as in all such films, lives are changed forever.

The beautiful and nostalgic scenery alone is worth watching, the old pubs, trains, railway stations, farms and gracious old homesteads in New South Wales, Australia. Life moves along at a slow pace - letters to loved ones are written, the girls walk down to the mail box to post their letters kissing them before they drop them in the box. Evenings are spent around the piano. Australians paid a terrible price in the first world war, especially when you consider that it was a European war and they lived on the other side of the world.

I really hope some day it will be available on DVD, or re-shown on TV as I would love to see a good clear copy.

Staggering that there appears to be so little interest in this great mini-series. Has everyone forgotten so soon the debt they owe to a country's fighting men just a few generations back? Is freedom taken so lightly?

A superb companion-piece to Peter Weir's GALLIPOLI, 1915 tells its story through the eyes of the Gilchrist family, specifically their son Walter, so well played by Scott McGregor. As war bites deep into the comfort zones of Aussie families on the home front, there comes a realization that freedom might have to be both defended and even paid-for with lives. Walter and his best mate Billie MacKenzie (Scott Burgess) sign up and head out to Europe full of patriotic pride but with no conception of the horror that awaits them.

The scenes of death and destruction are painstakingly recreated in this seven part series and viewers are left in no doubt as to what the actuality of war is/was. It would not be until SAVING PRIVATE RYAN that the realism of war would be even more graphically displayed on screen.

Absolutely superb cast, with old pro's Lorraine Bayly and Bill Hunter as Walter's parents and Anne Haddy, Bill Kerr, Sigrid Thornton and Martin Vaughan (to name but four), in supporting roles. Excellent musical score from Bruce Smeaton further complements the drama.

Mini-series viewing at its best. Highly recommended!

After Peter Weir's great movie Gallipoli i see this mini series as the best of Aussie WW1 shows. Better in it's treatment of what happened than in Anzacs which came out a few years later because it shows the Aussie troops warts and all. Billy and Walter are mates who have known each other in a country town in NSW since they were kids with Walter the better educated richer bloke and Billy the extrovert ratbag. You get to see the dark side of Billy and others and the damage war does to all involved. I didn't watch this series in the early 80's when it first came out but i'm glad i've seen it now. I'll be reading the book by Roger McDonald next.