Gallipoli

Gallipoli (1981) is Peter Weir's war drama you can watch online on iFILM. Two young Australian sprinters sign up to fight, with almost no idea what they are walking into.

Frank and Archie meet at amateur foot races, dare each other across the outback, and end up in the same training camp pitched in the sand near the Egyptian pyramids. From there the road leads to a narrow peninsula by the Dardanelles, where the Anzac corps is pinned down under Ottoman fire. The film's last stretch plays out in the trenches before an assault the friends count down like the start of another race. Mel Gibson plays the clear-eyed Frank, Mark Lee the dreamier Archie.

Weir skips the sweeping battle chronicle and stays close to two runners ground up by someone else's fight over a patch of land they first read about on a recruitment poster. It became a cornerstone of the Australian New Wave and helped launch Gibson's career. Stream Gallipoli (1981) online on iFILM.