These may not be the twenty greatest films ever made, but they are my favourites. I started with 35 of the movies I love the most for various reasons, and had a tough time narrowing the list down to just 20 films. Even harder was putting them into some sort of order. It's an eclectic list - as those of you who know me well know, I like a broad range of films - but, all in all, the twenty films that have made the most impact on me over the years.
#17 - The Lighthorsemen
Stars: Peter Phelps, Jon Blake, Sigrid Thornton, John Walton & Gary Sweet
Director: Simon Wincer
Writer(s): Ian Jones
Year: 1987
The Story: Based on the true story of the Australian Light Horse unit in Sinai and Palestine in 1917. The early part of film traces the fortunes of a section of four Australian horsemen throughout the final stages of that Middle Eastern campaign. Frank (Sweet), Scotty (Blake), Tas (Walton) and Chiller (Tim McKenzie).
After a fight with Bedouin, the section loses one of it's own, and Dave (Phelps), a replacement, fresh-faced and inexperienced, is attached to the section. Hard-nosed Taz takes an immediate dislike to Dave, and it only gets worse when the new arrival freezes on a number of missions, completely unable to fire his weapon. Eventually, Dave is moved to the Ambulance Corps, where he will not be required to kill men, and around the same time meets Nurse Anne (Thornton). A British intelligence officer concocts a scheme to draw enemy reinforcements away from Beersheba, aided in that enterprise by Taz. Tony Bonner appears as Lieutenant-Colonel Murray Bourchier and Shane Briant of The Anzacs fame plays a too-smart-for-his-own-good hotshot German officer.
The final stanza of this film - and it's most impressive moment, by far - is the charge for Beersheba. A triumph for Australia, but a little-known campaign in comparison to the battles taking place at the same time on the Western Front, the light horse brigade (who were really mounted infantry, and who normally dismounted to fight, a fact illustrated often in this film) galloped against the heavily fortified town in a last-gasp effort to avoid an all-out disaster for British forces, who had crossed many miles of desert and needed the wells of Beersheba to slake the thirst of both horse and man. It was a desperate gamble - indeed, British commanders demanded that any charge should be made by proper cavalry - but one that opened up the war in the Middle East.
In the end, the last great cavalry charge in history became an incredible if unlikely success, with the water secured, and, most importantly of all, very few Australians losing their lives.
Watch it if...: You enjoyed similar films like Gallipoli, Breaker Morant and the TV miniseries The Anzacs.
Why I Love It: Another great Australian war film, this one about the little-known light horse campaign, which was a minor blip on the nation's radar compared to the battles on the Western Front in France and Belgium at the same time. Following in from the success of Gallipoli on the big screen and The Anzacs on the small screen, this is a stirring tale of the continued coming of age of Australia as a nation, and of and the very Australian ideals of mateship, courage in the face of great adversity and larrikinism.
From ground level and from above, perfectly utilising helicopters, Simon Wincer, with able assistance from wizard cinematographer Dean Semler, perfectly and urgently capture the thrill, fear, adrenalin and terror of a charge across miles of open ground (he South Australian desert stands in for Palestine), into the setting sun, and into the teeth of Turkish rifle, machine gun and artillery fire. It's a gripping scene, a perfect climax to the slow build of events previous. It's brilliant film-making.
Mostly because of the happier ending - though there are still some dreadfully sad moments scattered throughout The Lighthorsemen - I like this more than Peter Weir's Gallipoli, but it's a close-run thing. Both are incredible brilliant films, but the hellish, unforgettable frozen ending in Gallipoli has always haunted me. If I had a Top 25 Countdown, Gallipoli would slot in at #21.
For mine, Jon Blake steals the show. His performance as the Irish trooper is equal parts heroic and brooding - on par with his star turn as the first-nameless Flanagan in The Anzacs mini series. Based just on those two great performances, it wasn't at hard to see why Blake was destined for such great things, and why he had drawn comparisons to Mel Gibson. Some said he was better than Mel.
Alas, and tragically, we never got to find out, for The Lighthorsemen turned out to be Blake's last film. He was driving home from wrap celebrations when he hit a parked car after being forced to swerve to the wrong side of the road to miss an oncoming one. He sustained permanent brain damage and was unable to speak or move for the rest of his life. He died, tragically, at age 52, in 2001, from pneumonia. His celebrated performance as "Scotty" was the final chapter in an all-too-short career.
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