Hello Dhaaarlings...
Doesn't Wednesday come around Quickly these days?...
Our Host MilkRiver Madman continues to do a great job coming up with challenging movie themes each week... and again this week he has not let us down...
The theme for this week Wednesday 27th October is..
"Favourite Buddy Movie
Can't say that I'm a Big Big Fan of Buddy movies as a genre but there is one movie that I always think of as being the epitome of "Mate ship"
A story based on factual events that in real life were utterly horrific.
It is a tale friendship and rivalry that follows a group of young country boys from the Australian bush. From off the farms and small country townships
that full of youthful exuberance and down right naivety decide to join up for "The Big Adventure" of the Great War. (WW1)
It's a movie about mates and mate ship and the bonds that are forged in the best and worst of circumstances.
And the futility of war...
Can't say that I'm a Big Big Fan of Buddy movies as a genre but there is one movie that I always think of as being the epitome of "Mate ship"
A story based on factual events that in real life were utterly horrific.
It is a tale friendship and rivalry that follows a group of young country boys from the Australian bush. From off the farms and small country townships
that full of youthful exuberance and down right naivety decide to join up for "The Big Adventure" of the Great War. (WW1)
It's a movie about mates and mate ship and the bonds that are forged in the best and worst of circumstances.
And the futility of war...
Happy MCW....
I've never seen this one but it's now in my Netflix movie queue. Mel Gibson was only 25 when this film was shot. I can't wait to see it.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't think of it as a buddy movie. To me, following Mel and the guys is more of a plot device to make an important piece of history more "human."
ReplyDeleteThe exhibit at the Australian War Memorial that caused me to stop in my tracks was one of the actual boats used in the landing.
Boys in the Bush?
ReplyDeleteI think I have that one in my "special collection" of DVDs.
Just another great movie I've yet to watch. Man, was Mel young in this.
ReplyDeleteMel is fabulous in this and it's a great film even if it did make me cry.
ReplyDeletePS: Do you guys still claim Mel as an Aussie or is he too much of an embarrassment now?
ReplyDeleteOh Hai MJ & Joanna!
Gallipoli is a pretty intense movie but a "buddy" movie none the less. I still remember the scene in the trench where they all hang their watches, chains and notes on knives before they go over the wall to certain death. Way to bum me out,
ReplyDeleteHappy MCW!
Mel is not really Australian is he? There is something about him either never growing up in Australia or not having Australian parents or something rather.
ReplyDeleteThese days I wouldn't blame you if you said he was American. Back in the Bird on a Wire days he had a nice arse though.
Ag, Gallipoli ... what a murder. The poor sods.
ReplyDeleteBesides the historical event it is very interesting how it works as a means of identification. I heared that young Australians travel to the place actually. Astounding. WOnder how it works, what happens in the young people's heads? The forefathers did an heroic act for a super-individual bonum - does it work along these lines? I have really no idea. And please understand that I do not intent to piss on a national monument in any way.
In Germany before 1918 and sometimes in the 1930 (but less, the Nazis did not like it) there was the word of the "Jugend von Lankemarck" or "Studenten von Langemarck". "Langemarck" alone could be understood as political statement. Excuse me, Dear Princess, I am too tired now and blab along on your blog, sorry. Basicallyit's about lies, "truth" and instrumentalization.
And besides all this political, historical crap stays the truth of the flesh, of blood and muscles, burnt, shot and torn apart, men facing the abyss. And every one in his nothingness is important.
Dear Hayward
ReplyDeleteMel was young in then but have you seen "Tim". It was Mel's first major acting role. Spends smost of the movie semi clad.
I agree that the plot does make the historical perspective more human XL It was the first movie that depicted the events of Gallipoli in an almost truthful way . With the Guys in the trenches being used as cannon fodder by the Brits. Up till this time we had only been fed the glorious heroics of the soldiers and their command. It made the futility of it more real.
The landing boat at the war museum in Canberra is a real cause to stop dead in your tracks... just to make the connection with it's history... I can't imagine what it would have been like to sit in that thing with your mates watching the carnage, knowing that you were next..
Mel is just out of control these days. Hollywood has gone to his head...
Dear MJ
I'll have to borrow that movie some time. Is it the one with a scene involving a pubic topiarist?
Dear Joanna
It was a sad ending. Mel hit his straps in this... Have you seen the movie "TIM" It was his first major roll. Much younger. And scantily clad throughout for the most part.
Dear Madman
Mel was young in this. his first movie was one called "Tim" where he played the even younger love interest to a Mrs Robinson type...
Dear Buzz Kill
Those scenes were very gut wrenching... I teared up in the theatre when I first saw this movie. Along with most of the others in the audience...
For me it bought home the reality of war rather than the bravado that we had been fed for years about the ANZAC legacy...
Dear Pete
Mel's arse was the star in "Bird on a wire". I think it had it's own trailer on the lot.
As for being "Aussie" I think he's forgotten his roots. LaLa land is welcome to him.
Dear Mago
Thankyou for your insights.
Aussies of all generations make the pilgrimage to the shores of Gallipoli every year to remember and pay homage tho the young men that lost their lives there during WW1.
Our Government I think... has promoted attending the Dawn Service on the beach in Turkey on March 25 (ANZAC Day which is a National Holiday here maked by parades of Ex servicemen and remeberance services at dawn in every little town and big city across the country) as a way of developing some form National Pride. As a country that was not forged in civil or internal conflict the Government have focussed on Gallipoli.
A time when Australia "Became a Nation" and not just another colony of Mother England. Initially the pilgrims consisted of individuals and family members of the fallen soldiers to pay homage and visit their grave site, a very private and meaningful activity. Often to trace family histories etc. These days it has become an "Event" with joint funding for Memorials between Australian ana Turkish Government, Live telecasts from Anzac Cove, Bus Loads of School children, polititians, and the general puplic make the trip each yer in a way of demonstrating a sense of national pride.
Many of those who signed up
for the war came from small farming communities and country towns. Most of these Towns erected
Memorials to the guys that did'nt return. The numbers and names from the same families are quite daunting...The youth of Whole communities dessimated.
The lagacy of war...