Gallipoli First Scene

The first scene of Gallipoli the film begins with a teenage boy timing his sprint speed on a dirt and gravel track in Australia around 8 months after the start of WWI, the boy would become known as Archie. Archie wants to enlist for the army and since he can ride, he hopes to enter the Light Horse although he is underage for the military entirely. One day when Archie gets into a heated discrepancy with a man by the name of Les McCann a race is organized between the two, with McCann on horseback and Archie on foot with no shoes. Archie ultimately ends up winning but not without major damage to his feet having ran the entire way barefoot this just days before a festival race. Archie lives with his Uncle Jack who is also his trainer, one night …show more content…
Most importantly the film created a visual representation of World War 1 from an Australian solider perspective. Gallipoli itself is a very authentic place and the battle at Gallipoli was one that can be found in recorded history. To begin, Archie can be seen timing himself against a real Olympic Record holder Harry Lascelles 100-yard dash time of under ten seconds. Archie being a minor at the time and still insisting on joining the military depicts the authentic portrayal of citizens around this time feeling as if their sole purpose was to join the forces and fight for their country. The battalion Frank and Archie joined labeled “10th Light Horse Regiment” was a historically documented group of soldiers that did die at the Battle of Nek which was also an authentic combat engagement that the main portion of the film focuses on. The methods for training exercises using live bullets as a real simulating practice specifically in the film when Frank and Archie reunite with each other, was a real technique in the military during this time. When Frank joined the infantry originally, he was shown being examined by having his lung capacity recorded was actual criteria a solider had to pass at the time, along with a solider having bad teeth meant that the solider was considered to have bad bone structure within their body. Gallipoli the film gave an authentic portrayal of the first training camps in world war being stationed in Egypt. The scene of the soldiers climbing the pyramid itself was something that occurred and can be validated by the graffiti left by the soldiers at the top of the pyramid. The director was not given permission to film this scene which meant rules would be put in place going forward to have all monuments in Egypt to be supervised when filming is needed. The films depiction of trench warfare was also appropriate especially when combined with showing how