Short Paper Assignment: Film Analysis of Peter Weir’s Gallipoli (1981)

Length: 4 pages minimum (1000 words). Format: Times, 12-point font, one-inch margins, double-spaced, cover page (include name, essay title, course number, due date). Citations: Use parenthetical citations that include the author’s name and page number when you quote or paraphrase texts: for example, (Bentley, 84). For primary sources, use the author’s name and, where applicable, the date: for example, (Bert Smythe, 13 December 1914); where no date is available, simply include the author’s name. Sources: Limit yourself to the primary sources and material contained in Module 13 and Bentley. Assignment: Peter Weir’s Gallipoli dramatizes the British military campaign against Turkish positions on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. The film is informed by historical accounts of the event. These include official records—military and governmental, as well as more mundane accounts written by the soldiers themselves, including diaries, letters home, and memoirs. Your assignment is to write an analysis of the film’s historical accuracy, using primary sources to support your positions. You may want to consider some of the following questions when writing the paper. Why do the two protagonists initially represent opposing positions on the war? How accurately does the film portray the actual experiences of Australian soldiers who trained in Egypt before being shipped to the Gallipoli front? (Use the letters of Bert and Percy Smythe for comparison between the film and conditions in Egypt.) Why were Australian soldiers fighting Turks on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the first place? (Use Bentley for background information on World War I and the Gallipoli campaign. Summary material on the Gallipoli campaign is posted on Blackboard.) How successful is the film at representing conditions at Gallipoli? (Use the personal accounts section on the link Anzacs of Gallipoli, posted on the Week 6 module.) Finally, you may want to comment on the colonial relationship between England and Australia as a potential explanation for why the Anzac soldiers were ordered to attack heavily fortified Turkish lines when they had no chance of success. This is by no means an exhaustive set of questions. You should feel free to explore other topics of your choosing, as long as you support your arguments with evidence from the course material.