Russell Crowe stars in and directs this Australian historical drama.
Set after the events of WW1, Crowe plays the father to 3 sons, killed in
the war. As a promise to his wife, he goes to Gallipoli in Turkey to
bring their bodies home.
Crowe has assembled a stellar cast, and shot this film in quite
authentic locales. I occasionally had a mini series or telemovie feel
about this, but that doesn't take away from the heart of the story. The
film itself is very good, and engaging. It serves as a suitable
dedication to Australian history, and shows that both the Turkish and
ANZACS suffered greatly. The leaders of the armies from Turkey are by no
means shown to be heartless, in fact, they probably had more heart than
our allies.
Unfortunately, I didn't feel any sort of greatness when watching the
film. There is a subplot with a hotel owner (played by Kurylenko) that
is occasionally weird. I see what Crowe was trying to do here, but, it
came off as a bit ho hum for me. Overall, a very good feature debut as
Director for Crowe.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5.
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