Not perfect but promising.

Rating: 7/10 (14 March 2015)

The movie definitely could have been better. I am sort of disappointed with the movie due to some unnecessary details (playing cricket on a train car), bunch of clichés and certain editing problems. I also anticipate the patriotic part of the movie for Australians. So I cannot blame them if they like this movie more than others. But honestly, it could have been attracted much more audience if few things should have been taken care of more carefully. For instance, I could for sure live without a love story in the plot. There was absolutely no need to watch Crowe and his war-widow lover having a romantic dinner in a 21 century hotel kitchen which presumably belongs to a guy (her brother-in-law) he punched hours ago. Also, I don't get the significance of introducing dozens of extra characters such as the redhead in the hotel. Why? Editing wasn't intact either; sudden jumps and disconnections in the storyline sometimes made me close my eyes. But overall, all these things are forgivable given the fact that this movie is Russell Crowe's first directing attempt. Not good but promising.
As for the historical glance, I in general like history and war movies and it's always good to see something WWI since Hollywood does not care about it as much as they do WWII (for the obvious reason). Even in the limited number of movies and documentaries you can find on WWI, you usually watch stories having taken place at the western front in Europe. In that sense, it's definitely interesting to watch something about the other major fronts, such this one from the Turkish side. I was also pretty surprised that the movie gave a look at the Greek occupation in Turkey aftermath of WWI (one of the screenwriters, Andrew Anastasios, has indeed Greek heritage). After Turkish army was disbanded in 1918, the Greece jumped and carved its share up in the western part of defenseless Turkey (pounding a man while his hands are tied behind his back is not cool). You usually read these kinds of unpopular facts only in history books and scholarly articles.
Overall, you can watch this movie if you are a history nerd, a war-movie lover or if you have time to kill during a long flight. It's still much better than Mel Gibson's 'We were soldiers'...