Peter Jackson restores priceless footage of Gallipoli

World War 1 buff Peter Jackson has used his expertise to restore the only film taken of the Anzacs at Gallipoli.

The Lord of the Rings director has reportedly restored the film so well it is now as good as when it first screened in London in 1916.

Although priceless, the print of the film preserved at the Australian War Memorial was in poor condition, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Jackson, now finishing his latest feature King Kong, approached the Australian War Memorial two years ago to see if his Wellington special effects company Weta Digital could be used to restore archival film.

War Memorial film and sound senior curator Madeleine Chaleyer said Weta removed most of the film's scratches, white spots and some of the shudder caused by shrinkage and sprocket damage.

"Peter has done a great job because it still has the feeling of authenticity. The aesthetics have been maintained," she said.

The grainy, wobbling cinematic footage shows a line of soldiers engaged in a vigorous trench fire-fight with their Turkish enemy perhaps not more than 10m away.

In another shot, an Anzac soldier hands a dispatch to an officer and offers a faint salute.

This and other scenes from Quinn's Post, the most dangerous spot on Gallipoli in 1915, comprise 20 minutes of cine film.

Some of the inter-titles are wrong, adding to debate about what the film actually shows.

The original nitrate film was destroyed in 1967, and the best print that remained was scratched, fuzzy and low in contrast.

The film was shot by Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, an English war correspondent, in July 1915. It shows British troops at Suvla and Cape Helles, the Australians at Anzac Cove, Turkish bombardments and troops embarking at Imbros Island.

Part of the attraction for Jackson may have been that the men in the footage now thought to show Quinn's Post may have been new Zealanders -- the Wellington Battalion commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone.

- NZPA, HERALD ONLINE STAFF