GETTYSBURG 129
and a bit of a martinet. Because of Robinson’s clipped, upper- class Australian accent,
viewers tend to misidentify him as a British officer, even though he is wearing an
AIF uniform. In point of fact, the Battle of the Nek was exclusively an Australian
operation, though it was planned and ordered by British staff officers serving
directly under ANZAC commander Gen. William Birdwood: Lt. Col. Andrew Skeen
and Col. W. G. Braithwaite, chief of staff for Gen. Alexander Godley, one of ANZAC’s
divisional commanders. As Les Carlyon (Gallipoli, 2001) and other historians have
noted, the blame for the senseless slaughter at The Nek rests squarely on the shoul-
ders of Col. Antill and his immediate superior, 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade
commander Brigadier General Frederic Hughes (1858–1944). In the midst of the
second wave, Hughes left his headquarters to observe the attack, cutting himself
off from communication with Antill and the rest of his staff. After the third wave
had been decimated, Hughes ordered the attack be discontinued, but not in time
to save half of the fourth wave. In the film General Gardiner, Hughes’ fictional coun-
terpart, suspends the attack after the second wave. In real ity the attack fell apart
when half of the fourth wave charged the Turkish lines without orders and were
duly cut down. The movie’s Major Barton is modeled on Lt. Col. Noel Brazier, the
surviving regimental commander in the trenches who attempted to get the attack
cancelled. Carlyon and others have stated that the Australian attack at the Nek was
in actuality a diversion for the New Zealanders’ attack on Sari Bair, not the British
landing at Suvla, as depicted in the film. The British were therefore not “drinking
tea on the beach” while Australians died by the score—an anti- British slur popu-
lar with Australian filmgoers.
Gettysburg (1993)
Synopsis
Gettysburg is an American war epic written and directed by Ronald F. Maxwell,
which he adapted from Michael Shaara’s historical novel, The Killer Angels (1974).
The film is about the Battle of Gettysburg ( July 1863) during the American Civil
War. The film stars Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, and Martin Sheen.
Background
In 1966 Michael Shaara (1928–1988), a former paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne
Division turned Florida- based En glish professor and writer, visited the Gettysburg
battlefield in 1966 and was inspired to write The Killer Angels, a novel about the
famous battle (1–3 July 1863) that turned the tide of the Civil War. Completed in
1973, Shaara’s book was rejected by 15 publishers before being placed with David
McKay, a firm soon acquired by Random House. Published in September 1974 to
good reviews, The Killer Angels won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Filmmaker
Ronald F. Maxwell secured the film rights to Shaara’s novel with a $10,000 down
payment on a $40,000 option in 1978. Maxwell wrote a screen adaptation, but no
one in Hollywood wanted to risk money on a sprawling, all- male Civil War epic.
Eventually Maxwell’s luck turned. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns also read