THE LIGHTHORSEMEN
A Film Review by Manavendra K. Thakur
Copyright 1988 by Manavendra K. Thakur and The Tech
Reproduced with permission.
1987 (*)115 mins. Australia English Rated PG Dolby Stereo Color 35mm/2.35
Cast: Peter Phelps, Anthony Andrews, Sigrid Thornton, John Walton, Tim McKenzie, Jon Blake, Bill Kerr, Tony Bonner, Shane Briant, Ralph Cotterill, Grant Piro, Tony Bonner, Patrick Frost, Adrian Wright, Anthony Hawkins, Gerard Kennedy, Graham Dow, James Wright, Scott Bradley.
Credits: Directed by Simon Wincer. Produced by Ian Jones and Simon Wincer. Executive Producer: Tony Ginnane. Screenplay: Ian Jones. Music Composed and Arranged by Mario Millo. Editor: Adrian Carr. Production Designer: Bernard Hides. Director of Photography: Dean Semler, A.C.S. Sound Editors: Peter Burgess, Craig Carter, and Livia Ruzic. Stunt Coordinator: Grant Page. Masters of Horse: Gerald Egan, Bill Willoughby, Jim Willoughby, and Peter D. Smith.
Production Company: Picture Show / RKO Pictures-FGH
Distributor (North America): Cinecom Entertainment Group
1250 Broadway
New York, NY 10001
(212) 239-8360
The Australian film renaissance began about a decade and half ago as directors like Peter Weir, Gillian Armstrong, George Miller, Bruce Beresford, and others began to create outstanding and innovative films. Their creative vitality not only opened doors for newer filmmakers but assured significant worldwide distribution of a distinctly Australian cinema. But it is increasingly becoming apparent that not only are the good films crossing the Pacific but the drek as well. THE LIGHTHORSEMEN belongs squarely in the latter category. It practically deifies an Australian military victory in World War I and throws in a ludicrously sappy romance for good measure. Worse yet, it tries to be all things to different people by including a subplot about a young soldier who finds it difficult to shoot a fellow human being.
The Australian Lighthorsemen were a group of mounted soldiers who would ride their horses near their target, dismount, and proceed to attack on foot like infantrymen. In 1917, they won a crucial battle that broke the stalemate in the British campaign in Palestine. 800 Lighthorsemen trekked through the desert and overcame a force of 4000 defenders to overtake the Turkish-German stronghold of Beersheeba. By capturing this strategically vital and water-rich town, the Lighthorsemen succeeded where the British had failed.
It is within this historical context that the film's events unfold. The film focuses on four Lighthorsemen who take part in the attack, Frank (Gary Sweet), Tas (John Walton), Scotty (Jon Blake), and Chiller (Tim McKenzie). They have been together since the battle of Gallipoli, but their camaraderie is shaken early in the film when the wounded Frank is replaced by a young recruit from Melbourne named Dave (Peter Phelps). [See accompanying article for an interview with Peter Phelps.] The three men initially resent Dave's attempts to fill Frank's shoes, and their animosity is heighted when Dave freezes during an enemy attack. While the three men deal with the loss of their buddy, Dave falls in love with a young nurse named Anne (Sigrid Thornton, who played Jessica in THE MANY FROM SNOWY RIVER and its sequel), who had taken care of Dave when he was wounded at one point. Dave eventually transfers to the medical corps, which conveniently puts him close to Anne. The film concludes with a full-scale recreation of the final charge on Beersheeba.
This premise allows the film to incorporate at least two factors that characterize many of the Australian films that have been exported to the US. The first is the same rugged stoicism and basic masculinity of Australian men who make their home in the untamed frontier -- the Marlboro Man come to life -- that is seen in Australian films like MAD MAX 2 [THE ROAD WARRIOR] and "CROCODILE" DUNDEE. The second is the superb technical command of many Australian filmmakers. The Aussies are the ones who have consistently kept alive the art of widescreen shot composition and stereophonic sound in the face of the creeping influence of video. Australian films like GALLIPOLI, DOGS IN SPACE, and THE COCA-COLA KID have shown a remarkable dedication to the masterful use of Cinemascope and Dolby Stereo.
These two factors come into play most prominently in the last thirty minutes of THE LIGHTHORSEMEN, when the soldiers make their assault on Beersheeba. The film has captured the sheer spectacle of the charge so well that it rivals the chase scenes in MAD MAX 2. Cinematographer Dean Semler used a recently developed camera called a "hot head" -- a remote-controlled camera fitted on the end of a mobile crane -- to film the men and horses in closeups that put the viewer in the thick of the battle. The widescreen closeups of horses' hooves are tightly edited with shots counterposing the two forces, and the result is quite thrilling to watch. The sound effects, stereo manipulation, and music by Mario Millo combine to make this the only memorable scene in the film.
The rest of the film can easily be thrown away because it serves little purpose other than expanding the film to feature length and giving viewers hooks to hang their emotions on. While the premise may seem reasonably intelligent, the stupid cliches start early. The film can't have Dave be seen as a wimp, so Dave proves his manhood and wins over his three partners by rescuing some horses during an enemy airplane attack. When Dave awakens in a hospital after being wounded, the first person he sees is Anne. The look in their eyes and the love theme on the soundtrack tell the viewer instantly that a solid and everlasting romance has begun -- just like in the movies. Neither bravery nor love is intrinsically cliched, but the random way the filmmakers throw scenes and plot elements onto the screen reduces the emotions to extraordinarily hollow shells reeking of gratuitous idiocy. It is downright insulting to include nice moonlit shots of Dave and Anne walking hand-in-hand by the seashore in a film that is trying to convey the sweat and grit of 800 soldiers who won despite impossible odds.
And there's no mistaking that portraying the glory of the Australian victory is supposed to be the main thrust of scriptwriter Ian Jones' efforts. According to the publicity materials, Jones interviewed many veterans of the attack and came to view the film as a labor of love. But whatever modicum of researched reality is present is constantly destroyed by the cheap emotions offered by director Simon Wincer and Jones. For instance, the only character in the film who doesn't have an identifying label pinned on the forehead is Major Meinertzhagen (Anthony Andrews). He's a slippery and enigmatic intelligence officer who devises a clever ruse to confuse the enemy about the Lighthorsemen's actual target. He purposely wanders close to enemy territory and, when chased by enemy troops, leaves behind forged documents indicating the Australians will attack a target several miles away from Beersheeba. This does in fact create suspense, and it seems as though there's yet some hope left for the film.
But then the film degenerates again into stupidity: it turns out that Meinertzhagen also included a love letter supposedly from his beau back home but written in reality by Anne earlier in the film. When the Turkish officer reads the letter, he is struck by how beautiful and loving the letter is. Such a tender letter can come only from a most pure and honest heart, he decides -- and on the basis of that flimsy evidence concludes that the documents are genuine and orders massive troop movements away from Beersheeba to the false target. This is all too typical of how ludicrously sentimentalized the whole film is. Perhaps Meinertzhagen did in fact conduct the operation this way, but the way Wincer and Jones portray it leaves one gasping in outraged disbelief.
Even worse, the politics of the film are thoroughly muddled by the fundamental ambivalence with which Wincer and Jones have infused the film. To one hand, they want Australians to feel patriotic pride for their country's military victory. To the other, they include throw-away lines to satisfy the pacifists in the audience. When an aide tells the commander of the Lighthorsemen how great it is that only 30 Australians died in the attack, the commander leans back on his haunches and pompously proclaims, "Not if you're one of them." It's difficult not to gag in disgust at how obligatory and empty the commander's line seems -- especially when the first words of the end credits proudly inform the audience that not a single horse was injured or killed in the making of the film. And there's no larger significance at all to the film's depiction of Dave's refusal to shoot another human being. It would have been far better to eliminate the subplot entirely rather than to give mere lip-service to anti-war sentiments that were so movingly portrayed in films like GALLIPOLI and PATHS OF GLORY. Even the laughably ultra right-wing war films like THE GREEN BERETS and RED DAWN didn't trivialize or cheapen the principles of pacifism the way THE LIGHTHORSEMEN does.
A final example: in Lewis Milestone's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930), there is a scene where some soldiers comment on how good it is to go swimming since they haven't been able to bathe in three weeks. That one comment is quite telling about the enormous hardships and difficulties that the fighting men had to face. In THE LIGHTHORSEMEN, there's a similar scene where the soldiers cavort nude on horseback at a seaside R & R station. But once again the film implodes into a ball of fluff. The film conveys no sense of why the men would be eager to grab any opportunity to discard their heavy weapons and dirty clothes. Instead all one sees is a bunch of men happily running around naked on the beach.
All these out-of-place scenes may lead one to think that perhaps the film is supposed to be a comedy about war, like John Boorman's recent HOPE AND GLORY. But whereas that excellent film used such scenes to debunk the myths of war, THE LIGHTHORSEMEN in fact employs them to create new legends -- and fails miserably. Aside from the well-shot final attack scene, the film does embarrassingly little credit to its Australian cinematic heritage and ends up being distastefully and stupefyingly mindless.
Filmography of Simon Wincer:
SNAPSHOT/THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN 1979 HARLEQUIN 1980 93 mins. PHAR LAP 1983 106 mins. D.A.R.Y.L. 1985 100 mins. THE LIGHTHORSEMEN 1987 (*)115 mins.
Simon Wincer seems to like horses. Both PHAR LAP and THE LIGHTHORSEMEN feature horses prominently. Wincer was also an executive producer of both THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER and its sequel, which may help to explain why both of those films are equally as juvenile as THE LIGHTHORSEMEN. He has also directed over 200 hours of Australian television, including the two mini-series "Against the Wind" and "The Sullivans."
(*) This running time does not include approximately 10 minutes of footage that was cut from the film for its American release. Inquiries directed to both RKO Pictures and Cinecom have failed to determine precisely which one edited the film. See the accompanying interview with actor Peter Phelps for more information about the content of the missing footage.
Manavendra K. Thakur
{rutgers,decvax!genrad,att}!mit-eddie!thakur
thakur@eddie.mit.edu
thakur@athena.mit.edu
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