Reviewed by Kate Rodger
War stories can be hard ones to tell on the big screen, and expensive to tell well. Beneath Hill 60 manages to do so on all fronts, and was a lovely surprise.
Filmed in Queensland by actor turned director Jeremy Sims, Beneath Hill 60 is based on true events, and follows the fortunes and otherwise, of a group of Australian miners in the trenches of the Western Front in the first world war.
Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell) leaves his young fiancée behind and enlists, sent to lead his countrymen on a mission which could turn the tide of the war.
This is not a film for anyone who suffers even the slightest claustrophobia. These soldiers must dig tunnels underneath enemy lines, and they’re not alone down there. The Germans are doing the same, in a deadly game of tunnelling cat and mouse, when even an enemy cough can be heard through the mud and clay. It makes for an incredibly tense few hours in the cinema.
The relationships between the soldiers are played out subtly and with a distinctly antipodean feel while deftly sidestepping any cliché. This is due in part to the writing, and to an excellent cast of relatively unknown Australian actors. Cowell will be familiar to some for his TV work, as will several of the others, and I’d love to see more of Cowell in particular.
If there were any downsides to be found in the telling of this story, perhaps one criticism I have is the feeling at times it was a little once over lightly in places. I would have liked to delve more into the back-stories of some of the other men.
Amidst the multitude of great war movies though, this one has the freshness of a story untold, and is delivered with authenticity and a gentle Aussie restraint adding enormous emotional impact.
Four stars.
Beneath Hill 60
:: Director: Jeremy Simms
::
Starring: Brendan Cowell, Harrison Gilbertson and Steve Le Marquand
:: Running Time: 122 mins
:: Rating: M - Contains Violence and Offensive Language
:: Release Date: August 26, 2010
