Gallipoli Review: Episode Two – “My Friend, The Enemy”

NOTE: I’ve watched the entire run of Gallipoli, via the free trial at Stan.com.au and am publishing reviews every few days. If you’re waiting to watch on Channel Nine, don’t read on, as there spoilers coming up routinely. I recommend the free trial of Stan, if only to avoid having to watch the episodes with so many commercial breaks chopping up the continuity of what is actually a brilliant Aussie drama.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

One of the more extraordinary moments of the Gallipoli campaign came within the first few weeks that the Australians and New Zealanders had been ashore. Episode Two opens with Tolly’s voiceover explaining that about a month has passed since the landing, and the men are digging in as best they can, turning what was supposed to have been a fast-moving campaign to crash through to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) into a siege.

If the first episode was good, this second is great. Now that we are getting to know all of the characters, their actions become far more meaningful. Watching without any commercial interruption – thanks Stan! – also helps. Most shows take an episode or two to really kick into gear, and that is definitely the case with Gallipoli.  

Of course, everyone knows the story of the first day at Gallipoli (and probably something about the August offensives at Lone Pine and The Nek, which will be depicted in future episodes) but less know what happened soon thereafter, in the early weeks of the campaign, and “My Friend, The Enemy” shines a light on that. 

The first great counter attack of the campaign comes from the Turks, who pour literally thousands of men against the machine guns and rifles in the Australian and New Zealand trenches in what turns out to be a vain attempt to break through the fragile lines.  

Beginning under cover of darkness, the battle lasts for hours, and the Turks are bloodily repulsed. Come morning, there are bodies stacked two and three high, some barely alive, most dead. It seems impossible to cross No Man’s Land without treading on corpses.

In the trenches, Tolly, who still looks way out of his depth on the battlefield – the mute horror perpetually on his face is a tribute to Smit-McPhee – and his friends make wary contact with a Turkish officer after a red cross flag is shot at. The Turk apologises, saying that the man who had opened fire didn’t know what the flag signified, the conversation being yelled across the narrow stretch of No Man’s Land. It is the first time that the opposing sides talk. 

One section of the Turkish trench still operating with impunity is where a machine gun his been trained on the Australians and Tolly risks his life in something akin to a suicidal charge to save Bevan, who has volunteered to try and take care of the emplacement, which is in a bad place for the Australians.  

In scenes that are doubtless ripped from the chapters of history written about so many brave Anzacs – think Albert Jacka, a Victoria Cross winner and a national hero – Tolly saves his brother and dispatches the Turks to silence the gun. The flashbacks to Australia before the war seem to shed a little light on Tolly's relationship with his brother, but not enough for my liking! If you're going to have flashbacks, make them a little clearer!

Later, Sir Ian Hamilton meets with General Birdwood and others, because the Turks have officially requested a truce so they can bury their dead. The British are instantly suspicious, not wanting to grant that request because they understand the Turkish soldiers refuse to attack if it means stepping on the bodies of their departed comrades, so there is a good reason to say no. 

Yet, humanity prevails, and Hamilton (who still seems completely out of his depth and is yet to actually set foot on the battlefield; he prefers the finery of his stateroom aboard a battleship anchored offshore), after a tense discussion with a Turkish emissary who is brought to the beach known as Anzac Cove blindfolded, the truce is arranged. The British want to start it at first light. The Turks want a later start. There is an impasse and the Turk representative threatens to leave before a start of 7:30am is agreed. 

At that time, the guns fall silent and, warily at first, men on both sides leave their trenches and venture into No Man’s Land. Tolly and his friends discover that there is no shortage of work to be done on both sides of an arranged dividing line down the middle of No Man’s Land.  

These scenes are difficult to watch, but tremendously well done. Director Glendyn Ivin should be applauded for the way he handled these scenes. A long shot of the battlefield carnage reveals corpse upon corpse, most men shattered and by now barely recognisable as human beings. Dead soldiers are picked up and limbs come free. Men on both sides vomit, and, too quickly, the hastily-dug mass graves are filling up. 

Clearly, it’s as bad for the Australians as it is for the Turks, and the two sides are united in a common misery. It sets the stage for one of the more remarkable wartime situations. At first the opposing sides do their to remain out of each other’s way, but they eventually come together, and the Turks seek to communicate with the Australians in what can only be described as scratchy English.  

In remarkable scenes of humanity amongst so much carnage, Australians and Turks come together to swap trinkets and chat a little before being asked to return to their own lines to resume the killing that has so gripped the Peninsula. These are powerful moments, and well handled by the writer and director.

A brilliant episode, and far better than the debut.