Remembrance Day screening of Gallipoli at Orange Regional Museum

The Orange Regional Museum is honouring Remembrance Day (Saturday 11 November) with a viewing of the classic Peter Weir film Gallipoli.

The movie screening night is the first in a series of Movies at the Museum.

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd said the program was about engaging with a broad range of community members.

“This is a way of adding to the already rich culture Orange has in regard to our history and in particular, our war history,” Cr Kidd said.

“Every Anzac Day in Orange, you see thousands of residents, including hundreds of small children come out in the cold and honour those who served.

“Those traditions are important as is the minute’s silence on Remembrance Day but it is also good to enrich those experiences, add to them, and encourage all our community members to participate in remembering and acknowledging our past.”

Orange City Council’s Services Policy Committee Chair Kevin Duffy said the Gallipoli screening added to Orange’s experiences of Remembrance Day and it could become a tradition on its own.

“It’d be great to see people, particularly young people, getting together to remember Gallipoli and remember all of the men and women who fought for Australia,” Cr Duffy said.

“If this is a way to get people engaged with history then that’s great.”

The film, rated PG, is about two young men Archy (Mark Lee) and Frank (Mel Gibson), who are Australian sprinters and want to join the army.

The pair are turned down because they are too young, so they hop on a freight train to Perth, where they are allowed to join up.

They board a troop ship headed to Cairo and, after training in the shadows of the Great Pyramids, the boys are sent to the front line, where their speed makes them candidates for messengers in one of the war's bloodiest battles.

The evening starts from 6pm(Saturday 11 November). Wine, food and music will be available. Tickets available from the museum’s website.