10 Great World War 1 Films You've Probably Never Seen

A young Mel Gibson delivered a star-making turn as one of two young Australian sprinters shipped out to Cairo to fight in one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War.

More than 8,000 young Australians died during the conflict which ultimately had no major bearing on the outcome of the war. Filmmaker Peter Weir would go on to bigger things in Hollywood with movies like The Truman Show, Witness and Dead Poet’s Society yet Gallipoli still ranks among his most affecting films.

Much of the credit for that goes to Gibson as the initially cynical and increasingly desperate Frank, yet his lesser-known co-star Mark Lee is worthy of equal praise for his performance as Archy, the more idealistic of the two main characters.

As much an exploration of the theme of innocence lost as it is an anti-war film, Weir’s movie culminates in dramatic and heartbreaking style with a vivid depiction of the now-infamous attack at the Battle of the Nek and the role senior army figures played in sending hundreds if not thousands to near certain death.