 | This three part mini-series could best be described as the Australian "Band of Brothers," if it weren't for the facts that (a) it is set in World War I and (b) the subjects of this story were never immortalized by historians. The deeds of the Australian and New Zealand forces that comprised the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) have largely been forgotten, condemned forever to be locked in the terse prose of unit histories. The truth of the matter is that the First World War was so terrible that those few line soldiers who survived never talked about what they saw and did.
This mini series - made for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - was part of an effort to remedy the situation, at least in part. From the patriotic point of view there is much merit in this. For a few desperate 1st AIF literally tipped the balance of WWI in favour of the Allies, and nothing sells in Australia like movies where the Aussies demonstrate their superiority to the British. Flippancy aside, at one point during the Luddendorf offensives (in the final year of World War I) the Germans shattered the British Army and but for the valour of the Australians at places like Villers Breteneau, the German Army would have taken the Channel Ports. Had that happened it is likely that the French and British Armies would have been vanquished long before the Americans even arrived. And when the Aussies had halted the German advance, they counter attacked and threw the Germans back. From that point on, the Allies were always on the front foot until the Armistice.
But this is no dry military historical wank-fest.
The writers were careful to craft a story that encapsulated the men involved and the camaraderie that bound them together and the essence of the spirit that made the Australians such a feared force on the Western Front. I speak of the bond between volunteers, individuals who would only be led not driven as the British rank and file, often were. This is a story of civilian soldiers - men who did extraordinary things in extremely deadly circumstances.
For example, the best solider stories are those that cover what the boys got up to behind their own lines. We are talking, after all, of fit, confident, hard-drinking young men with a healthy contempt for stuffy authority. It is no accident that birth rates rose during and after WWI and WWII. The essence of this is captured in the character of Pat Leary, played by the irrepressible Paul Hogan (aka Crocodile Dundee).
The writers are also careful to include the story of the people back home as well as a frank and relatively fair appraisal of the attitude of the pre-war Generals and swirling political intrigue between Whitehall and Haig's Headquarters - a battle that just about cost the British the war. This is not an anti-war movie in the style of Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front," it isn't as dark and pessimistic as that - the Aussies weren't fighting on their own soil after all. But it is thoughtfully anti war without conceding the fact that there are things worth fighting for.
In short this series is a compelling and unique view of the men and women who lived through a cataclysmic event that in many ways laid the foundation for conflicts that are still being fought today. Predictably the series was widely lauded in Australia. But to be fair the series is well acted and directed, the characters absorbing and the drama compelling.
It is a favourite DVD of mine because it shows, in a fair light, the strengths and weaknesses, trials and successes of the first generation in the turbulent 20th century.
You won't get in on Amazon. Instead you can order it from the ABC website:
http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=721492
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