Anzacs

Excellant drama that charts the story of an ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) volunteer regiment from Gallipoli through to the end of the war. It is a story of tragedy and triumph, laughs and tears and is a series I can't wait to get the opportunity to watch again.

I remember seeing this movie on UK tv many years ago. From what I can recall it was an excellent portrayal of the events of that time. Whilst not always historically depicted and not always well acted I do remember eagerly consuming each episode as it was shown. A more sophisticated audience from nowadays might be less satisfied with the offering. All I can say is my family have it as top of my most wanted for either video or dvd. Alas, its available on neither. Roll on the BBC's repeat of this well worth watching film.

I refer in these comments to the full 3-video mini-series, not the truncated version or film produced for the American market.

In general, a well-produced and directed series which, with a few minor exceptions is probably as close to the true horror and carnage of the First World War as it is possible to get. Most of the minor errors can be explained by the requirements of plotting or pure visual effect and, in my opinion do not seriously detract from the overall truth of the subject matter.

It should be remembered that this series was produced for the Australians, whose culture and memory is very different to that of the Americans who seem to have a collective down on this video/film. Perhaps if our North American cousins had come into the war several years earlier and suffered the casualties the Empire did they might have a different view of the series.

The feeling throughout the series is of the AIF being abused and butchered by the incompetent British generals - and as a military historian I cannot say the series is wrong. However, other than one short scene, the series does not highlight the fact that the British were suffering just as much under their own generals.

All in all I would say the viewer would get a much better idea of what the AIF and World War I was about by seeing this mini series than by viewing Gallipoli, which is generally thought to be historically weak.

I would recommend the mini series but not the film or truncated North American video release.

Just watched this recently on video. Shows how the Australians performed during World War One. Many humorous moments. The title music is very good. Shows the historical aspects of this war accurately and gives us an idea what it was really like for the soldiers. Recommended viewing.

I thought it was quite a good series. I can't imagine how this could be reduced to a 2hr? tele-movie without losing just about everything good about it. I'm Australian, and this was produced for Aussies, no apologies for that. It's about time, rather than the usual good and bad Hollywood and to a lesser extent Brit efforts. If you don't know a Zac from a Brass Razoo, well we've had to put up with your slang and slight cultural differences for long enough. But I digress, this showed a part of history which has been long ignored, both here and overseas. In Australia we know full well the tale of Gallipoli, however the further efforts on the Western Front have largely been ignored. It's also good to see mention of the Home Front politics regarding conscription which severely divided the nation at the time and the Diggers response, which left it the only Allied fully volunteer Army in WW1. All in all I throughly enjoyed it, a good mix of believable characters, action, behind the lines antics and the Home Front drama, well worth seeing if you can get the original 5 part series.

For reviewers

Some of the previous commentators have said they wouldn't mind getting a copy of this. The only place I know that sells it is the Australian War Memorial. As you don't want URL's I won't include one however I'll leave it to you to phrase this part if you want to include it. Stuart Coates