Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 10, 2011 23:52:50 GMT 12
I rewatched the film Chunuk Bair over the weekend. For those who may not know, this is a low budget NZ film from 1991, which told the true story of the New Zealanders at Gallipoli who were ordered to take a strategic hill called Chunuk Bair. The battle was huge, the losses for the New Zealanders immense, but against all odds a small number of them achieved the objective, getting to the top and holding it. They repelled Turkish counter attacks and were then shelled by the British. This shelling killed their leader, Lt Colonel William Malone of the Wellington Regiment. The next day the kiwis were finally relieved by British units who were almost immediately repelled by the Turks and the Allies lost Chunuk Bair, never regaining the important position again.
The film stars award winning British actor Robert Powell who does a magnificent job of playing a New Zealand Sgt Major. He has the accent down perfect and I think he is really impressive in the role.
He is supported by New Zealander actors lead by Kevin J. Wilson, who plays Colonel Connoly - who is based on Colonel Malone. i don't know why the name was changed, because other genuine historic figures appear with their real names being used, such as signaller Cyril Bassett who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry during the battle. Other actors who appeared were then unnown but have gone onto great things, such as John Leigh, Jed Brophy and Karl Urban.
Sadly due to the low budget, which was a result of the belief back in those days that NZ stories would not sell outside of NZ so no real investment could be raised, meant that the scope of the real story became a little limited on film. It was also based on a stage play that had been written by Maurice Shadbolt, and I think the fact that it has that stage play feel and the tight budget cramped studio shooting of a lot of it, it was somewhat slightly let down. However the story is still amazing and great and the film tells it pretty well in the circumstances.
As far as I'm aware this is the only New Zealand film on World War One. Considering that of the country's then population of a million people, 1 in every 8 people (or 125,000 men and women, the latter being nurses) served in the NZ Armed Forces in WWI. Of them 103,000 served overseas. Forty-two percent of all men of military age served in the NZEF. 16,697 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded during the war - a 58% casualty rate. So, why have more stories not been told as dramatic films? Most kiwis know about and feel connected to the Gallipoli campiagn thanks the ANZAC Day but so few have any idea that the NZEF also fought in the Sinai and Palestine, and in France and Belgium. We now have a very good, strong and rich film industry. We have an amazing array of military collections in this country and top historians too.I think it is high time more stories were told of NZ's WWI efforts.
Anyway, back to Chunuk Bair. I am curious what other people here think of the film. And I'm also interested to know if anyone here had any actual involvement in the making of it. I know there are some here who are into the military collecting, re-enacting and military historian stuff, so I'm sure that there will be some interesting opinions and perhaps some first hand input.
I'm curious as to where the outdoor locations were shot. The studio scenes were done at Avalon so I assume it was a Wellington beach.
Lastly at the tie the film was released the very first issue of the magazine New Zealand Military Style came out and had a photo of military re-enactors attending the premiere of Chunuk Bair. The short report beneath it said three other war-related productions were then in progress. One was Absent Without Leave, starring Craig McLachlan about a true life WWII soldier who goes AWOL to be with his pregnant wife, which I have seen and was ok but not much of a story to it.
The second was called When Kilroy Was Here, apparently a television drama about "the impact made by US troops who came to NZ during WWII."
The third mentioned was What Did You Do In The War, Mummy?
I have never heard of When Kilroy Was Here, and wonder if that was a working title for The last tattoo, although that never came out till 1994. And I have never heard of What Did You Do In The War, Mummy? either. Any ideas what either of these were?
One additional question - have you any suggestions of true life NZ WWI stories that would make a great feature film?
The film stars award winning British actor Robert Powell who does a magnificent job of playing a New Zealand Sgt Major. He has the accent down perfect and I think he is really impressive in the role.
He is supported by New Zealander actors lead by Kevin J. Wilson, who plays Colonel Connoly - who is based on Colonel Malone. i don't know why the name was changed, because other genuine historic figures appear with their real names being used, such as signaller Cyril Bassett who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry during the battle. Other actors who appeared were then unnown but have gone onto great things, such as John Leigh, Jed Brophy and Karl Urban.
Sadly due to the low budget, which was a result of the belief back in those days that NZ stories would not sell outside of NZ so no real investment could be raised, meant that the scope of the real story became a little limited on film. It was also based on a stage play that had been written by Maurice Shadbolt, and I think the fact that it has that stage play feel and the tight budget cramped studio shooting of a lot of it, it was somewhat slightly let down. However the story is still amazing and great and the film tells it pretty well in the circumstances.
As far as I'm aware this is the only New Zealand film on World War One. Considering that of the country's then population of a million people, 1 in every 8 people (or 125,000 men and women, the latter being nurses) served in the NZ Armed Forces in WWI. Of them 103,000 served overseas. Forty-two percent of all men of military age served in the NZEF. 16,697 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded during the war - a 58% casualty rate. So, why have more stories not been told as dramatic films? Most kiwis know about and feel connected to the Gallipoli campiagn thanks the ANZAC Day but so few have any idea that the NZEF also fought in the Sinai and Palestine, and in France and Belgium. We now have a very good, strong and rich film industry. We have an amazing array of military collections in this country and top historians too.I think it is high time more stories were told of NZ's WWI efforts.
Anyway, back to Chunuk Bair. I am curious what other people here think of the film. And I'm also interested to know if anyone here had any actual involvement in the making of it. I know there are some here who are into the military collecting, re-enacting and military historian stuff, so I'm sure that there will be some interesting opinions and perhaps some first hand input.
I'm curious as to where the outdoor locations were shot. The studio scenes were done at Avalon so I assume it was a Wellington beach.
Lastly at the tie the film was released the very first issue of the magazine New Zealand Military Style came out and had a photo of military re-enactors attending the premiere of Chunuk Bair. The short report beneath it said three other war-related productions were then in progress. One was Absent Without Leave, starring Craig McLachlan about a true life WWII soldier who goes AWOL to be with his pregnant wife, which I have seen and was ok but not much of a story to it.
The second was called When Kilroy Was Here, apparently a television drama about "the impact made by US troops who came to NZ during WWII."
The third mentioned was What Did You Do In The War, Mummy?
I have never heard of When Kilroy Was Here, and wonder if that was a working title for The last tattoo, although that never came out till 1994. And I have never heard of What Did You Do In The War, Mummy? either. Any ideas what either of these were?
One additional question - have you any suggestions of true life NZ WWI stories that would make a great feature film?