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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
An Australian man travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try and locate his three missing sons.
Notes
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Note on film and book:
The novel was published with the banner 'Now a major motion picture' on the front cover, while other sources identify it is a novelisation of the screenplay. As such, the relationship between the two is not one of straightforward adaptation.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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“They Said It'd Be an Adventure” : Masculinity, Nation, and Empire in Centennial Australian World War I Film and Television
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 51 no. 6 2018; (p. 1356-1375)'The World War I Gallipoli campaign in modern Turkey in April 1915 was calamitous from the outset, with the amphibious assault by British and Allied forces landing well off course. Australia's first major military engagement since achieving nationhood in 1901, its chief success would become their stealth evacuation, which saw seventy thousand men covertly withdrawn over nine days and nights in December 1915. The campaign was ultimately futile and deemed immaterial to the outcome of the war. Such an ignominious defeat at the hands of the Ottoman Empire would seem an unlikely source for a national myth. It lacks, for example, “the psychic reassurance of triumph over the sources of threat” and the defeat of enemies that Graham Dawson identifies as a key psychic and social function of adventure narratives and soldier heroes (282). Yet, the ill‐fated Gallipoli campaign is popularly held in Australia's cultural imagination as the “birth of a nation” for a former colony then still under the yoke of the British Empire. In Australian politics and culture, the youthful nation's presumed character was forged in war and embodied in the deeds of its young men, in spite of ultimate defeat.' (Introduction)
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Box Office Bonanza
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 22 January 2016; (p. 34) -
The 100 Best Australian Films of the New Millenium
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 22 September 2016; -
2015 Australian Cinema Goes Commercial
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Metro Magazine , Winter vol. 189 no. 2016; (p. 42-50) -
Flicking Over the $64 Million Mark
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 October 2015; (p. 24)
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Return to the Fatal Shore
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 December 2014; (p. 12-13)
— Review of The Water Diviner 2014 single work film/TV'Russell Crowe’s directorial debut in takes him beyond the famous battle at Gallipoli, and to the heart of two very different home fronts, writes Michael Bodey.'
writes
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Divine Intervention
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13 December 2014; (p. 28)
— Review of The Water Diviner 2014 single work film/TV'Jai Courtney had to keep his cool playing a real-life Aussie army officer at Gallipoli in Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner...'
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Divining the Past
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 18 December 2014; (p. 31) The Advertiser , 18 December 2014; (p. 40)
— Review of The Water Diviner 2014 single work film/TV -
Tragedy in Turkish Quest
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 21 December 2014; (p. 75)
— Review of The Water Diviner 2014 single work film/TV -
The Year’s Biggest Aussie Film, But Why?
Why Rusty Has Nailed It...
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8 January 2015; (p. 27) The Canberra Times , 8 January 2015; (p. 6w)
— Review of The Water Diviner 2014 single work film/TV -
Crowe Works Both Sides in Post-Gallipoli Tale
Crowe Directs Tale of Gallipoli Aftermath
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 1 February 2014; (p. 5) The Age , 31 January 2014; (p. 7) 'This is a not a war story, says Russell Crowe. It's a story about fathers and sons. He is on set, in the middle of shooting his directing debut, The Water Diviner, a tale of loss and discovery, of lives affected by the battle of Gallipoli.' -
The Water Diviner
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 25 November 2014; (p. 30, 35) -
Don't Shelter Kids from Horror of War : Crowe
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 2 December 2014; (p. 9) -
Bond Girl Finds Plenty to Crowe About
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 3 December 2014; (p. 9) -
Crowe Divines His Next Role behind the Lens : Another Watery Tale
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 December 2014; (p. 6)
Awards
- 2015 winner AWGIE Awards — Film Award — Original
- 2015 winner AWGIE Awards — Major Award
- 2014 shortlisted Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Film
- 2014 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards — Best Original Screenplay
- 2014 joint winner Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards — Best Film
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cTurkey,cMiddle East, Asia,