ABC's Gallipoli
Did you like HBO's Band of Brothers, but thought it could have been improved with the inclusion of real life brothers, not figurative brothers? Did you find Peter Weir's "Gallipoli" too short, and would appreciate the same narrative dragged out over a whole lavish miniseries? Gallipoli has been described in its lavish promotional advertisement as "Australia's Television Event of the Year", and it probably is. The makers also probably had a checklist of required elements needed to sell it to today's television audience. From the classy "True Detective" opening sequence, under equipped medical orderlies on the beach (medical dramas always a big hit with audiences longing to fill that House/Greys Anatomy void- both might still be on television), the best friend from "Bridget Jones Diary" as a journalist doing hard hitting investigative journalism just like Season Five of "The Wire"; the heavy handed treatment of Generals eating with silver cutlery and then jump cutting to soldiers dying in crudely dug foxholes; and also some hinted at, possibly later developed when the girl turns up as a Nurse which is what I am picking for this show, romantic circle with the two brothers and one hot 1915 Australian babe. All it is missing is a home renovation angle, although time may tell on this and as they start building trenches there are real possibilities for this to develop.
The cliched treatment of the conflict continues throughout the first episode I watched, admittedly it is hard not be cliched as the story has been told so many times. The greatest issue the story has so far is presenting a balanced view, however the need to express outrage at the folly of sending troops to the Dardenelles in the first place seems a bit redundant. I felt in its own way, the program did attempt to flesh out the Generals who initially seem brash and confident, but as the reality of the initial failure of the landings are revealed begin to challenge their own views. But it seems as if they used Australian actors to play the English, too busy in other costume dramas to be involved in Australia's Television Event of the Year". The program so far has a bit of a Turkish problem. Not confident enough to treat the Turks as equal partners in the conflict, they are reduced to stock characters who are cannon fodder. There seems no difference between their treatment in the first episode and what it would have been in a 1926 film version. While the Australians get back stories, flashbacks and dialogue, we are left to infer from the look of fear in the Turkish soldiers that they too are thinking of their halcyon days in Anatolia, sipping apricot wine and dancing.
The issue for ABC's "Gallipoli" however is not it's ambitions or even the racist undertones of treating the Turkish Army as second class citizens in its broader story of constructing an Australian identity out of the debacle.1 It is, instead, that it is not doing anything new with the format. The 70,000 strong Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, of which the Anzacs formed about 28.7% of the total force, landed at Gallipoli in 1915 in a big push to open up the Bosporus. This of course has been tackled in "Anzacs" , a 1985 four part miniseries, which covered mateship, larrikanship and the formation of the Australian Identity TM ; Peter Weir's feature length 1981 film "Gallipoli", covered the same material with an emphasis on the futility of the campaign, also featured scenes of Mel Gibson on a horse; "Çanakkale Yolun Sonu", a 2013 Turkish rendering of exactly the same story from the Turkish perspective except without the larrikanism and with bigger mustaches; "Gallipoli" a 2005 documentary that is considerably better than all of the previous documentaries and goes for a balanced view from both sides and Jeremy Irons; also "All the King's Men" a 1999 feature length TV movie, which covers the same territory except without ANZACS and all the formation of a national identity business.
Still, the production qualities of this new ANZAC program are A grade. Who knows if it will continue its passable grade. At the moment it is probably as good as HBO's The Pacific. Also, as all the main characters seemed to survive day one of the invasion- apart from the heroic Captain who was holding the ridge, serving to illustrate the horror of war, we can be sure that we are going to lose some key players probably by episode four. We can also be sure that highlights of upcoming episodes: the formation of the Australian national identity, meeting some Kiwi jokers, humanising the Ottoman Turks, some nude swims in the Bosphorus, and more shots of the Generals enjoying silver service onboard the state rooms of the Queen Elizabeth.
1. This is ignoring, of course, the way in which for Turkey, the First World War provided a massive impetus to foge a new identity as well. A secular and modern state which was, like Australia shaped by its experience of WW1. Of course, the Australians are meant to be forging their identity in opposition to the British, depicted as removed, calculating and wildly out of touch. Despite British troops also holding the line further down the Coast, which are apparently not part of the narrative in ABC's Gallipoli. Admittedly HBO's "Band of Brothers" tended to take a similar approach with its focus on Easy Company, and you do occasionally hear talk of the British holding the line in the first episode. But we don't get to see their reality.
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I dont know if I can bear any more Galipoli stuff. Thw whole thing always seems to focus on poor Aussies being sacrificed when the real tragedy involved Poms, Kiwis, French and even the odd Turk. Also it has to be remembered that the idea was to break the deadlock with all its suffering on the western front which far eclipsed the Dardenelles.
ReplyDeleteAlso when I start feeling sympathy for the massive Turkish losses I then have to remember what they went on to do to the Armenians.