Film Worksheet
#3: Gallipoli
Part A. READING ASSIGNMENT: Read some film
reviews or commentaries on Gallipoli, on director Peter Weir, and/or on related
background topics (like the Gallipoli Campaign of WWI, ANZAC Day,
Australian Cinema, Australian Female Filmmakers or Gillian
Armstrong).
1. Describe three or four valuable points
you learned from these reviews/commentaries AND identify the source/s you consulted.
Part B. YOUR FILM VIEWING IMPRESSIONS:
Respond to FOUR of the following topics:
2. Opening/Title Sequence: Comment on the
impression/mood created, your interpretation of the (visual &
musical) information provided, and what the opening leads you
to expect from this film.
3. Main Characters (Protagonists):
Analyze Archy Hamilton & Frank Dunne. How are they alike
and different? Comment on how their relationship demonstrates the
Australian concept and virtues of "Mateship"/"Mate" (see definitions
in Introduction:
Gallipoli
handout).
4. Sport/Game and War. Comment on the ways sport/game and war
are linked in the film, and role/s played by "running."
Consider the reason/s why the main characters (Archy, Frank, Billy,
Barney, Snowy) enlist.
5. Genre, Plot Structure, Locations. Gallipoli belongs
to a familiar genre or type of story variously called "coming of
age," undergoing "rites of passage" or "initiation" into adulthood,
and "loss of innocence." The plot structure of Gallipoli is
divided into three acts, in three main locations:
Act 1: Southwestern Australia (the longest act); Act 2: Cairo,
Egypt; Act 3: Gallipoli battlefield (the shortest act). Describe
key plot events of each act/location as stages in the progress of
the young men's "coming of age"/"initiation" into adulthood/"loss of
innocence."
6. Peter Weir's signature other-worldly/surreal "film moments."
As film critic Romy Sutherland has observed, Gallipoli
is dominated by "dusty realism,"
"with fe[w] obviously stylised effects,"
but Peter Weir departs from this norm in some "richly atmospheric
[film] moments to portray the subjective
confusion of traumatic events,"
tense encounters between "alternative realities," or unsettling
"hallucinatory, dreamlike states" (see
Introduction:
Gallipoli
handout).
Comment on "Weir'd" film moments you found striking.
7.
Ending & closing Freeze
Frame. Explain your
reactions to the film's ending and the closing freeze frame of Archy
Hamilton. What earlier scenes/dialogue are echoed in the
closing scene, and how do they comment on the meaning of the ending?
8. Themes &
Significance. Offer your interpretation of the theme/s or
message/s of the film. You may wish to comment on the
established views that Gallipoli tells not just the
protagonists' but also Australia's "coming of age" story,
and/or that Gallipoli has been "internationally
received as a statement on the irrationality of warfare"
(Sutherland;
see
Introduction:
Gallipoli
handout)
9. Gallipoli vs.
Pan's Labyrinth and/or The 400 Blows:
Compare/contrast significant similarities and/or
significant differences between Gallipoli and one or both the
previous films we've studied so far.
Part C: QUESTIONS/COMMENTS:
What questions or other
comments do you have about the film?
