The Hero of the Dardanelles

Overview

'Hero Of The Dardanelles' charts the fortunes of Will Brown (Guy Hastings) who answers his nation's call to do his duty. While only one third of the original film survives, it is a significant fragment of Australia's film heritage - not least for its inclusion of real troops and a real training camp at Liverpool, NSW and an elaborate re-enactment of the Gallipoli landings staged at Tamarama Bay. So convincing was the re-enactment that within a decade of 'Hero's' release, the landing sequence was being used erroneously as actuality. A hit with home-front audiences, whose appetite for heroic figures was yet to be sobered by the harsh realities of a protracted and bloody conflict, the film's anti-pacifist stance and clear messages to women about their duty to their own menfolk, provide valuable depictions of political currents of the day. Reconstructed in 2005, only 22 minutes of the original 44-minute production survive today.