8.044 minSeason 1 • Episode 7
LatestAfter eight months of failures, General Hamilton is sacked and Lord Kitchener finally visits Gallipoli to assess the situation. In freezing winter conditions the ANZACS prepare for a mass evacuation, without alerting the Turks.
As dawn breaks on April 25, 1915, ANZAC troops go into battle on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula. Landing in the dark chaos, Tolly, Bevan and their mates struggle to establish a tenuous foothold on the treacherous slopes and deep ravines. They endure the next eight months on the peninsula learning lessons of survival. By the time of the final evacuation they have also learned the skills of combat and what it means to be a young man in war.
Acting
Kodi Smit-McPhee ages before your eyes, innocence to ash.
Cinematography
Those cliffs look like death itself—gorgeous and hungry.
Production
Chaos of landing sequences rival anything Spielberg staged.
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Thomas "Tolly" Johnson
Nicholas Hope
Walter Braithwaite
Travis Jeffery
Henry "Stewie" Stewart Watson
Matt Nable
Harry Perceval
Harry Greenwood
Bevan Johnson
Sam Parsonson
Dave Klein
Tom Budge
Cliff Sutton
James Callis
Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett
John Bach
Sir Ian Hamilton
Anthony Hayes
Anthony Chandler
Leon Ford
Charles Bean
Ashleigh Cummings
Celia Houghton
Anthony Phelan
Sir William Birdwood
Paul English
Cecil Aspinall
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The ANZAC myth was largely manufactured post-war; this series strips the legend back to terrified boys and bureaucratic incompetence.
Kodi Smit-McPhee learned to handle period rifles until his hands blistered—method acting or actual hazing, the crew won't say.
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