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View Full Version : 25 April (Leanne Pooley)



Philip J. Fry
10-30-2016, 08:08 AM
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/25_April_%28film%29.jpg

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfeKrG74_uQ

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3728746/) / wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_April_(film)) / RT (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/25_april_2015)

Official website (http://www.nzfilm.co.nz/film/25-april)

Philip J. Fry
01-01-2017, 01:01 AM
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z73/Wolf_of_the_Winter/Screenshots/25April_zps6ds4bqed.jpg


25 April.

Leanne Pooley, 2016.

Synopsis: A documentary of the Campaign of Gallipoli from the perspective of 6 New Zealanders: 5 soldiers and a nurse.

How does it look? Rotoscoped.

What did I like about it? It works well at explaining the day-to-day of the New Zealanders on that battle. Great sense of geography since Pooley and co. are always very precise where our protagonists are and what they must attack (yeah, there are a lot of maps). There are some very creative montages and sequences, specially one where they explain how much of a pest the lice were. There is a lot of love and respect poured into this documentary and a bit of an-anti British vibe at the end since, well, Gallipoli was a clusterfuck and it helps that one of the protagonists became a harsh critic of the Gallipoli campaign after the war and another turned into a pacifist.

What did I not like about it? Talking head syndrome. Tons of tell, don't show. We kinda don't know that much about the six protagonists there.

Final thoughts: While I do acknowledge the respect it had towards the subject matter, there's not much of a sense of character there and at times feels like an animated version of a Discovery Channel documentary about the Battle. Although I'll give them that the same interview/talking head format works to...
hide Hami's death (a Maori soldier who's one of the six protagonists) which took me by surprise.