ANZAC day

[danny_galaga]

it's a public holiday here today. a commemoration of the events in Turkey during WWI that really galvanised the australian and new zealand psyche. Something that started to gel in the Boer War. It's an inexplicable thing that people from the richest country per capita in the world would volunteer in droves to fight this war the very day Britain declared war on Germany. boys 15 or 16 would lie about their age to enlist. Poor ---daisies--- ended up as cannon fodder for Churchill...

If you are interested in war history and haven't seen it before, i recommend the movie 'gallipoli' starring Mel Gibson. This goes some way to showing the 20th century 'berzerkers' that australian and new zealand soldiers became renowned for. and perhaps partly explains our wonderlust and why everywhere you go there are bloody kiwi and aussie backpackers!

[Samstag]

Yeah, good movie.  It may be on cable channels tonight in the US.  I think I saw it about 15 years ago and it must have been on ANZAC day because it was played as a double feature with The Light Horse (or Horsemen, or something like that), which was another good one.

[NiN^_^NiN]

Lest we forget

[danny_galaga]

Yeah, good movie.  It may be on cable channels tonight in the US.  I think I saw it about 15 years ago and it must have been on ANZAC day because it was played as a double feature with The Light Horse (or Horsemen, or something like that), which was another good one.

last week i watched gallipoli for the first time in 27 years. its still quite moving. i had never seen 'the light horsemen'. watched that tonight. didnt think much of it sadly. the battle scenes looked too sparse (like a medievel re-enactment, which are fun but really not movie-genic). the beginning was too comical as well. the love interest seemed silly, even though those two people were actually based on real characters!

i completed the edwardian aussie military trifecta with 'breaker morant' just now. was reminded of it from my poll in the p & p section. hadnt seen that for about 20 years. thats a good movie. true story about a court martial during the boer war. stars edward woodward as morant.

[grantspain]

breaker morant was a class film about the real dirty side of the boer war,some excellent acting from woodward btw

[danny_galaga]

and i learnt stuff too! for instance, did you know that the term 'commando' came from the Boer guerillas? whod a thunk?