Gallipoli

As a devoted history reader, I also try to follow such shows, films, and series because I just wanna feel that "connection".

This production is far from the best historical adaptation but as a great-grandson of a Turkish martyr that fell on Gallipoli, I must admit I felt more than just a simple "connection". It honestly brought tears to my eyes at a certain point.

True, the character development is a little off. True, many moments from the show might seem cliché. Also, I don't know about all the actors but the Turkish speakers had to work on their pronunciations a little bit more.

But to see an Australian production that shows the Turks the respect that we have shown to them is just a sign of a beautiful thing in my opinion. Sure, some moments felt off, definitely. All things considered, I find this show beautiful, touching, brutally honest about some aspects of the war.

For the people who think about watching the show, I can only say that if you're looking for "Saving Private Ryan: WWI Version", you won't find it in this show. This is different. Really different. It definitely is worth a shot.

Wow. This just got better and better. It must have been hard to have re-created such a difficult story of the Gallipoli battlefields. I have to say I was extremely impressed. The young actors were wonderful and very true to what I am sure a lot of these characters were like. I knew some of them as old men.

You really felt like you were there. To see what these poor buggers went through really went right to the heart. The director and scriptwriter managed to tell the whole story as it truthfully happened and apparently it was approved by the Australian War Memorial for being factual. I did not fully understand till now just how it all unfolded, but to see this series made it all very simple to understand just what happened. I think this should be shown in all Australian High Schools. I had always heard about the Battle of Lone Pine but when I saw this portrayal I was so shocked. Also what happened to the New Zealanders should never have happened. I think the English people should see it also as it showed a loyal bunch of Australians and New Zealanders giving their lives and losing them so a stuck up English General could add another medal on his chest.

I could not believe that this was being lied about to the Australian Prime Minister. And I was very surprised when the Aussie journalist Murdoch and his British counterpart decided to write and inform their leaders of the truth. Upon reading the letter which was circulated far and wide, the troops were finally withdrawn. Amazing story and very well told with this brilliant mini series.

I, honestly, have never heard of this show. I even spent 6 months in Australia, and this never came up in passing. The only reason this show was given a watch by me is because of boredom, which always tends to lead me to war shows. Anyways, this show is so darn good! I definitely would say this belongs in the same breath as Band of Brothers. IMO, nothing will ever top Band of Brothers for me, but Gallipoli was certainly very well made like it. What raises this show up on top of it just being good is the fact that Gallipoli is not well known. Anything to do with the battles here, all the Churchill stuff being hugely unknown where he failed badly at this time (everyone knows him when he took over as PM in WW2, but don't realize the failure beforehand), and the story of the ANZACS. ANZAC day is obviously very big in Australia and NZ, even having a day for it, but as Americans we know NOTHING about it. I learned while I was studying there, and I love history!

So in a nutshell this show should certainly be given a watch when you have the time to pay attention. The second episode especially was such a great window into what war is like. It's hard to imagine these days where it's a different world, but the World Wars were largely made up of just regular people. The wars before now were a lot less personal due to technology, and fighting tactics....but reality sank in hard when they learned their hated foes were just men fighting with wives, childeren and families (A "we aren't so different you and I" type thing).

First of all, Gallipoli campaign was one of the most epic battle in WWI. As we all know the total casualties of both side almost 500.000 man including my grandfather's uncle.

Considering these informations, the series look like pale in comparison to reality mostly because of the budget i suppose. if they could manage to increase the budget it would be much more satisfying, so we don't have to see maximum 15 dead body lying down in a battle like that.

I also made a quick research about the casts, especially the Turkish actors. And I never heard of them before. I made this research because of their accent, I am Turkish but some of them did not even sound like Turk.There are lots of Turkish actors which can participate in a production like this and that would be much better. Also I think that the actor, who plays Mustafa Kemal is a bit inadequate and doesn't look like him as well.

So in conclusion, while the main characters and the Australian & New Zellander characters are well placed and good in acting, Turkish characters are not. Musics are so so, could be better. And the story looks like progressing well for now.

When this aired I saw a few minutes and turned it off. I thought it looked lame and cliched. I decided to see a full episode this year and thought it was outstanding, and the other epis followed in quick succession. Yes, the characters are a bit shallow and it leans heavily on its good production value, which is strong for an Australian produced TV series. But the characters are never cliched excepted in isolated moments. I can see the temptation for Australian productions to slam the Brits as dummies in the WWI context, but ironically Sir Ian Hamilton to probably the most sympathetic and well-rounded character in the series. There is great attention to historical accuracy, and the broad scope of events is very informative to the layman, and full of neat surprises of historical details for those who appreciate it. Maybe it is patriotism calling that I give it 10/10, but Anzac history is of personal interest to me and I find it a shame the show bombed. It's not often we see quality Aussie stuff unfortunately.