Gallipoli is a movie directed by Peter Weir that was released in 1981. It stars Mel Gibson as Frank Dunne and Mark Lee as Archie Hamilton. The film is about several young men from rural Western Australia (WA) who enlist for the Australian Army in May 1915, around the time that Australia first entered the great war. The film has three main settings and three main acts. Act one is set in WA, act two is set in Cairo, Egypt during the Australian Army training camps. And the third and final act is set in Gallipoli. During the course of the movie Archie and Frank slowly lose their innocence about the purpose of war. Through out the film Peter Weir uses film techniques such as symbolic, written, audio and technical codes (SWAT codes) to influence the viewer to have a sympathetic view towards Frank and Archie.
In Peter Weir’s tragedy Gallipoli the viewer is made to feel sympathetic towards Frank through the use of SWAT codes. The viewer is first introduced to Frank Dunne in the second scene of the film in an unknown rural region of WA. When the viewer is first introduced to Frank he is with his mates and they are discussing whether to join the infantry or not. All of Frank’s mates are on board but Frank is not convinced. “If you want to go and get yourselves blown up then by all means join up.” This example symbolises how Frank is more worldly and has an idea about what really happens in war. This quote also makes the viewer immediately feel sympathetic towards Frank as that viewer gets the feeling that he’s going to leave his mates and have to be alone. This then changes when that when we realise that Frank is going to the Kimberly gift to run this is when the viewer learns that Frank is also a runner however he decides to put a bet on himself to win but the viewer can see through the use of technical codes that although he is confident enough to bet on himself he is still worried about losing the money. The use of technical codes makes this clear