Thoroughly Disappointing Gallipoli Tale

Rating: 5/10 (6 January 2015)

The intention behind Russell Crowe's film, based on true events, is a noble one; to remind contemporary viewers of the horrors of the Gallipoli campaign, the hundredth anniversary of which takes place this year (2015), and to show how ANZAC and Turkish troops set aside their differences and embarked on a collective effort to disinter the hundreds of thousands of corpses buried on the battlefield and give them a decent burial and/or tomb.
Sadly there is a world of difference between intention and execution. Filmed in Turkey and Australia, THE WATER DIVINER manages to include every possible stereotype about Turkey into its 111-minute running time, save, perhaps the hubba-bubba pipe (or nargile) and an aerial shot of the Bosphorus. There is the sound of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer (which Connor (Russell Crowe)); the hordes of veiled women peopling the teeming streets; the violent uncle Omer (Steve Bastoni) wanting to take revenge on Conor in the belief his honor has been impugned; and the ritual scene of relative-beating, in which Omer assaults Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko). If Crowe had wanted to make a film advertising the country as repressive and arcane in its rituals, he couldn't have done a better job.
Other stereotypes have along history going all the way back to BODYLINE (1984). In that never-to-be-forgotten miniseries about the English cricket tour to Australia in 1932-3, Hugo Weaving played English player Douglas Jardine with lip-curling relish; here was a villain to savor. The same applies to Jai Courtney's Lt. Col. Cyril Hughes in THE WATER DIVINER; sans any redeeming features, he regards both ANZAC and Turkish troops with contempt. His British accent wavers somewhat, but we are left in no doubt that Crowe blames British imperialists for the mess created both during and after the Gallipoli campaign had ended. While his interpretation is certainly valid, the use of stereotyping seems superfluous.
Nor do the Turkish actors escape a certain amount of stereotyping. Yilmaz Erdogan does what he can with the role of Major Hasan, as he emphasizes the fact that the Turkish army was only trying to defend its territory against foreign colonizers. However Cem Yilmaz's Jemal veers towards caricature, his use of grimaces alternating with smiles proving once again that Yilmaz is a far better stand-up comedian than film actor.
The film's shortcomings do not end there. Although ostensibly taking place in Anatolian Turkey, much of the action has obviously been filmed in Australia. The daylight scenes - especially those taking place in summer - lack the intense looks of a Turkish summer, while the landscape is far too fertile to stand in for the Anatolian plains. Crowe also includes scenes of breathtaking incongruity; at one point he is shown enjoying a candlelight dinner with Ayshe, something that would have been hardly likely to happen in late Ottoman times, especially with a married woman and a protective family dedicated to restricting her freedom of movement.
THE WATER DIVINER looks and feels like a foreigner's view of Turkish history, one that lacks sensitivity to other cultures. Anyone looking for an effective representation of the Gallipoli campaign and its consequences in English would be better advised to watch Peter Weir's GALLIPOLI (1981), or more recently, ALL THE KING'S MEN (1999).