Mel Gibson worked with Peter Weir on Gallipoli.
Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian drama war film directed by Peter Weir and produced by Patricia Lovell and Robert Stigwood , starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee , about several rural Western Australian young men who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War . Mel Gibson . Director Peter Weir cast him as one of the leads in the critically acclaimed World War I drama Gallipoli ( 1981 ) , which earned Gibson a Best Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute .