TV Review: Anzacs - In The Face Of War

'Anzacs: In The Face Of War' tells its story in straight-forward style. Photo / Supplied

My 6-year-old daughter asked me why she was wearing a poppy. I mumbled something about remembering the soldiers who died in World War I.

"But how can I remember them?" she asked. "I don't know who they are. Can I go and see the Justin Bieber movie?"

The Prime documentary Anzacs: In The Face Of War would be a good place to start for any grown-up wanting an overview of what Anzac Day is about and to "know who they are".

Anzacs is something we don't see too often; a no-frills history documentary which includes a lot of plain, factual context and overview.

You forget how powerful it is to see old footage and be given the unvarnished facts without any particular spin or potentially controversial narrative imposed on it.

This is not a documentary made by some up-and-coming academic hoping to make his name as an iconoclast.

There are no trendy TV-friendly historians walking through ruins, there is no intrusive soundtrack of music to sex it up, no moody re-enactments or exclusive interviews with surviving servicemen or any other MTV-style creative tangents.

Anzacs: In the Face of War quite simply tells the story of the Australian and New Zealand men who went to war.

The narration by acclaimed Shakespearean actor John Stanton gives the simple script appropriate gravitas with lines like "They had no real understanding of what this war would mean for them and their families." This production doesn't need ironic commentary, fancy camera angles or fast editing to keep you transfixed.

The fast pace of this documentary helps. I have got used to the "new" history which seeks to tell the big stories through personal experiences which focus on emotions and human relationships.

Certainly, this can give a profound new perspective to supposedly dry material. But the story of the Anzacs doesn't need any zhushing up. Most importantly, you will actually learn stuff.

The Desert Rats of Tobruk were called that after a sneering reference by the Germans to the losing Allies in Africa. The Allied Troops took that name as a badge of honour and even made a medal of a rat, made of a German bomber shot down with captured German guns.

I also had never realised quite how at threat Australia felt from invasion from Japan or that Japanese midget subs tried to sink a US submarine in Sydney Harbour.

New Zealand historians might quibble about the amount of screen time given to Australian versus New Zealand contributions in both wars, but there is certainly fulsome credit given to some Kiwi war heroes such as Keith Park: "If any one man won the Battle of Britain he did."

Anzacs: In the Face of War might help us understand the Anzac legend, but most of all it made me want to take my daughter to the dawn ceremony tomorrow.

Hearing words like: "We recognise the nobility of their sacrifice. We thank you. We will never forget you" might be the best way to help her to understand. And it would certainly be a superior experience than going to the Justin Bieber film.

Anzacs: In The Face Of War plays on Prime today at 7.30pm.

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