Gallipoli

We only found this on Amazon prime and decided to watch as my late maternal grandfather was a Gallipoli veteran but died before I met him.

This series is absolutely outstanding well acted, well written with no tired cliches with a capacity to shock. It is very realistic and the battle scenes startling without being overly gory.

Overall we both were amazed at this series and believe it deserves more distribution.

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.

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).

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.

Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country to of ours.

You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.