Currently there are two shows on the ABC about Gallipoli and WW II and the contribution of the ANZACS.

Should such shows be as authentic as possible, particularly "The War That Changed Us (The Real Story Of Our ANZACs)"?

This production, advertised as "Education/Information", lists many academics in the credits and the footage is interspersed with their learned observations.

I watched a bit of ANZAC Girls the other night, it seems pretty authentic apart from the fact that nobody under seventy really speaks with an Australian accent anymore or uses the dialect.
There were still a lot of the old WWI guys about when I was a kid, I was a St Johns cadet and we marched and did first aid duty on ANZAC day so I interacted with them quite a bit and they'd always be referring to us as Cobber, Sprigger, little mate etc.
I realise this clip shows a very old man but it gives an idea of how they sounded, the accent actually reminds me of how some older Aboriginals speak:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxA-bgg3vGY

I'd find them more realistic if they didn't fall prey to the American habit of only using "pretty" actors, in real life the pretty people are the exception. If those nurses/soldiers had a majority of "large", pimple-struck, plain and or "ordinary" people with only the odd "pretty" amongst them then it would be realistic, otherwise it's just another unbelievable plastic production, to me anyway. It robs the portrayal of any verisimilitude, no matter how factual the dialogue or history.

Bruce,
I've looked up my great grandfather's service record, he was five foot six and weighed eighty kilos by his medical form. He died when my granny was a girl but I knew my great uncles and if he looked anything like his sons he would have been a prematurely bald, pot bellied, bow legged little character huffing and puffing his way up and down the tracks at Gallipoli.

speaks with an Australian accent anymore or uses the dialect.
Jay of Melbourne,
Even I as a Wog find it sad that the rather nice language of then is no longer used. I find so uplifting when I listen to the great English of the past. The colour of the then language is nothing short of marvellous.
Even when reading articles the quality of that language has suffered greatly. It's all just artificial nicety i.e. fawning & devoid of character. Old journals were written with such eloquence.

indi,
What I actually meant (but failed to express properly) was that the actors don't have authentic 1915 Australian accents, I mean neither do I but since we have recordings of how those people sounded they might have at least tried to act the part.

Jay of melbourne,
Yes of course I gathered what you meant. I suppose since PC reared it's ugly head & whilst some of us could see it's evil from the very beginning yet others are still oblivious to it, language & dialect have been adversely affected in the film industry. Eloquence & identity have been pushed aside in a rather discriminative manner by the insipid PC brigade.
Accents on the other hand have been put into the limelight. "AAHL be Bahgck".

Yep G'dayBruce, have to agree 100%

<<I'd find them more realistic if they didn't fall prey to the American habit of only using "pretty" actors, in real life the pretty people are the exception. If those nurses/soldiers had a majority of "large", pimple-struck, plain and or "ordinary">>

Though I think it isn't just an American thing.It's a worldwide thing.

Oh brother, you guys think Australian productions are on the nose, have a gander at this one from Turkey:
ÇANAKKALE (GALLIPOLI) 1915
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofsLGUuTdnE
The production values are extremely high, it's actually a gorgeous film but pee-ew, the story and dialogue, if you want a laugh skip to about the 30 minute mark, that's where it gets really silly.

I usually find something interesting in
a documentary, perhaps because of the
predictability of TV dramas. Documentaries
seem to offer me alien voices. They aren't
all good to be sure, but the best are unusual,
persuasive, and seductive, and often give you a
glimpse into how people lived, what they thought
about themsleves and their world and how they
solved their problems. From which we can learn a
great deal.

Documentaries about the wars of the past are important
because hopefully we can learn from the mistakes of the
past.

Wars and fights between nations and individuals
have continued over the centuries. However, scientific
discoveries have made weaponry more sophisticated and
more and more people have become involved. Instead of
two armies gathering on a battle-field to slog it out
amongst themselves, we now have weapons which with the
push of a button can destroy whole nations.

Therefore we have to be compulsory students of the past.
We cannot afford to make mistakes , cause wars, or make
international blunders, which could unleash the
war to end all wars.

What I found particularly amusing in 'The War That Changed Us (The Real Story Of Our ANZACs)' was the reversal of parts of the film so that there were Diggers with their uniforms and equipment reversed in one scene then magically reverted to normal in the next; the left handed rifles were a hoot as was the crummy mock-up of a Vickers gun that switched from being right or left handed as the camera angle changed.

Absolutely hilarious was the sight of a soldier leaping from a boat onto the beach at Gallipoli clutching a Japanese Arisaka rifle of the 1940s, one of the Turks also had one so the time warp was even handed.

This series has a most impressive list of academics in the Credits and some of them make learned appearances on camera, the show is, after all, advertized as "Education/Information"; pity that it is so misleading.

My 12 year-old son is quite an historian and has done considerable research on family members of ours and of friends who fought in WWI.

He's found records from all over the place, tracked his great grandfather through Egypt and into France, where he marched and when he was on leave, found out his great uncle was shot three times - there's an amazing amount of info available in this age.

The father of an elderly friend of ours was the last known surviving British Gallipoli veteran living, until he died in 2001.

My son found online a long recording of him talking about his experiences before, during and after the war. He deplored the war and his main memories of being in the trenches boiled down to "what every man experienced" - dysentery and lice.

My son made copy of the recording and presented it to this man's son (himself in his eighties) He hadn't heard it for years and enjoyed listening to it again....and we learned a lot too, listening to someone relate the realities of that theatre in that war.

In the latest episode there are even more Turks with left handed rifles and as a bonus for those that are historically minded there is a shot of a Digger who used his well known Australian ingenuity, the front hand-guard of his rifle is being held on with a plastic zip tie*.

Available from Bunnings (World War I division) at $6.40 a pack of 100.

* also known as 'Cable ties'.

To jay of melbourne: I have just finished reading Bean`s history Vol. 6 which covers the last 6 months of the war. The Australians then were remarkably different in style and temperament I feel. So much more English in attitudes and behaviour, but still determined to demonstrate their difference from all others on the battlefield. They had a strong affinity for the American soldiers that were sent to them to learn the "ropes" as the navy would say, because they were individualistic also, and, like the Diggers, self-reliant to a degree. I am 63 and used to say "Achi Barbar" as an expletive as a kid, which turned out to be the name of a distant mountain behind Gallipoli. Important times for us all. We learned to respect ourselves as a people.

Nice ShaRing..

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