Mea Culpa, Mea Stupido

Yesterday, in reference to the film "Gallipoli," i misquoted, or malquoted, Eric Bogle. I wrote that "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (which was about Gallipoli) included the line "a whole generation that was butchered and damned."

Wrong again. That line comes from his song "No Man's Land." Which was about the war in France.

Still, and yet, at Gallipoli a whole generation was butchered. But i forgot rule #1 of research: verify your assumptions

Spriggsblog Goes To The Movies 2

Watched Peter Weir's "Gallipoli" last night -- a very powerful film.

Remember Eric Bogle's song about it, "And the band played 'Waltzing Matilda'"? One of the lines in the song is "a whole generation that was butchered and damned." I hadn't realised how true that was: a large percentage of the young men of Western Australia were slaughtered in that battle. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

Oddly, that's two evenings in a row i've watched a film with Mel Gibson in it. Say what you may about him as a person -- he's been an embarrassment to himself more than once recently -- he's made heaps of worthy films.