Gallipoli Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Gallipoli Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 4, 2023

The loss of youthful innocence to war is not a theme new to war films. It was central to Platoon, for example, but few films capture the contrast between carefree and cut down by the realities of war like Gallipoli, Director Peter Weir's (Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show) compelling and heartbreaking film about the futility of war and the needless loss of life therein.

The film stars Mel Gibson and Mark Lee as Australian youths Frank Dunne and Archy Hamilton, both of whom surrender promising running careers for the prospect of glory in war. They naively join up, believing that adventure awaits. Even in training, the sense of peace and tranquility overwhelm their better judgment. However, as the front lines loom and the bullets begin to fly, the quickly realize that war is far different from their expectations, particularly a war in which countless hundreds of young men are regularly cut to pieces in futile efforts to capture mere yards of land.

Gallipoli is a film of stark contrasts. The bookends represent entirely opposite and opposing ends of the spectrum, with the characters beginning a state of normalcy bias and bliss, and the end a state of emotional upheaval and physical distress. But the film is not a film of extremes. It is a film of gradual movement across this line, with the characters certainly at some level understanding what war is yet naively choosing to fight, anyway, but only slowly coming to realize the true dangers they face and only in the final moments. It is only when they come face-to-face with imminent death that the destruction of their simpler way of life is made complete. The futility of the final assault becomes the defining moment. The film builds camaraderie and glee at the prospect until it all crashes in several moments of pointless death and hopeless advances towards an unwinnable goal. The running metaphor bookends the film as well, with running towards a goal the film’s start and finish, but running to and for vastly different ends and goals.

Tying the film together is a young cast that authentically sells the internal transformations on the perspective of war while handling the external frivolity and gradual realization with care and deep soul-searching. The cast is talented, spearheaded, of course, by a young Mel Gibson, but the film works not because of a burgeoning star but rather a collection of youths who all equally star within the film's story and the emotional demands the roles require. There is a tangible sense of realism to each performance. Intimate character details matter little, which certainly helps, because the payers are all united within the same ebb and flow from naivete to awareness to facing destruction. Certainly, leads Gibson and Lee carry a slightly larger load of characterization, particularly as the film builds around their stories as athletes, but the film is almost unique in its collective portrait, where each character is simply a dot on a larger canvas.

Gallipoli Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unfortunately, Paramount's Blu-ray release of Gallipoli looks nowhere near as good as it should. This is the definition of a middling Blu-ray image. There is plain evidence of artificial sharpening, rendering grain spiky and inorganic. Textures are swarming with digital artifacts, and some compression issues are in evidence. Clearly, there has been some smoothing at some point with an effort to re-sharpen, which just gives the film an unnatural appearance. Viewers will find some sporadically good detail, such as rugged clothes and terrain in the trenches in the final act, and the image certainly enjoys a boost because of the resolution, but this appears to be a master sourced from a standard definition release and simply dropped onto Blu-ray. Some light edge enhancement is also in evidence. Colors are not in good shape, either. Some tones are oversaturated (look at a red running shirt around the 20-minute mark) and lack tonal nuance. Earthy colors are hopelessly flat, contrast is not very good, and the picture just looks muddy and flat. Black crush is evident in low light, skin tones lack realism, and whites are not overly distinguished. The film does not always look terrible. Some stable close-ups capture some pleasing core detail, but there's no mistaking that the image is flat, processed, and its colors are wildly uneven. There are no signs of major print wear, at least, but on the whole this is a very disappointing image for a great film that deserves more.

Gallipoli Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack is flat and uninteresting. The presentation is wanting in all areas, but much of the issue seems to stem from a fairly flat source. Practically no surround information is present through much of the film. The first two acts in particular are very straightforward in terms of front heaviness and, really, not much stray beyond the center area. Gunfire and sounds during a mock battle at the 65-minute mark fall painfully flat and dull, but once the real ordinance begins to fly, there's a bit more to the track. There is a little more verve and depth when artillery screeches, albeit somewhat crudely, along the front in the 77-minute mark, and some background explosions offer some tangible low-end impact, but it's not much, and it's also not very well detailed. An artillery barrage at the 95-minute mark offers the most surround content in the film. The action scenes get the job done, but anyone wanting a significant wartime soundtrack will be left wanting. The presentation in this aspect is more or less adequate but doesn't reach beyond that. Musical clarity is OK, width is fine, and some ambient effects are present but lacking spatial impact and immersion. Dialogue is adequately clear and center focused for the duration.

Gallipoli Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Gallipoli includes various featurettes. No DVD copy is included, and no slipcover is present. This release does ship with a digital copy voucher.

• Entrenched: The Making of Gallipoli (480i): A six-part feature.
  
  
  • The Call to Adventure (10:06): An overview piece that looks at Australia at the time of World War I, remembering the fallen, selling the war to the youth of the day, how the war changed the perspective of war, and more.
  • Touching History (8:50): Weir's draw to the story, visiting Gallipoli, the tangible history that inspired Weir, the film's character focus, and writing the main characters to be runners.
  • The Theatre of War (14:57): Funding, casting, acting, production, and more.
  • Into the Trenches (15:15): Shooting locales, the challenges of the shoot, tales from the set, and more.
  • Moments in Time (8:28): Favorite moments, key lines, additional anecdotes, and more.
  • Reflections (6:24): The film's debut, success, and legacy.
• Theatrical Trailer (480i, 1:54).

Gallipoli Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gallipoli's themes may not feel fresh today, but the film nevertheless remains a powerhouse tale of lost innocence in war. It is one of the finer anti-war movies of its generation, a generation that was, and in the years following in particular would become, predominantly focused on Vietnam but that, here, returned decades prior to World War One as if to say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Sadly, the Blu-ray is not up to par. The video is in a place of struggle, the audio is decent, and the supplements are fine. Recommended based on the strength of the film and not the Blu-ray proper.