The Battle of Gallipoli

 The Battle of Gallipoli

 

Mid-way through the First World War, the Allies found themselves fighting the Germans and Turks in a part of Turkey called Gallipoli.  There was a movie version devoted to this battle that was released in the early 1980s and it starred a very young Mel Gibson.  In fact, it was his break-out role around the same time as Mad Max was released.  The movie was the story of two young men, both excellent athletes, sprinters, in fact.  As I was a sprinter in the pool the first time I saw this movie (See my collection Swimming Among the Olympians, or look me up at the SwimSwam website:  https://swimswam.com/swimming-among-the-olympians-a-memoir/  ), I particularly related to the themes of boyhood friendship and fellow athletes going to war.

As I remember, Gibson’s character and the other young man were two of the best sprinters in Australia at the time, and naturally, the commanders pick one of them to be a “runner” for bringing messages from headquarters to the front lines and back. The Mel Gibson character is chosen, though his friend is a slightly faster runner.  It is a heart-breaking work of brilliance, this movie, and I strongly advise anyone interested in the time period or Australian history to see it.  There are a lot of spoilers, and plot twists, but I won’t mention them here.  An excellent portrayal of the innocence of youth and the wastefulness of war.  The ending is particularly impactful.