Beneath Hill 60

source: Beneath Hill 60

This is a movie that every Australian must watch. It's a story about the unforgotten heroes, who went and did their bit for the Great War. Amazingly it's based on a true story of miners who, went to the Western Front and dug a network of tunnels deep beneath the Germans. Implanted within the labyrinth of tunnels, is millions of explosives waiting to be set off. What makes this film is the human side of emotion. There is mate ship and bonds which can never be set aside; experiences that only the men can relate to. There is the love story between Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell) and young Marjorie Waddell (Bella Heathcote). And you see the youthful innocence of young men, in particular Frank Tiffin, played by Harrison Gilbertson and Walter Sneddon (Alex Thompson). The contrast between the Queensland and the war is reflected in the use of colour and lighting. Queensland is bathed in sunlight, warm clean colours and in the costumes. While the Western Front is portrayed in constant bleak colours where bright colours don't exist. It's cold, wet and rain(for some reason, it's not a war movie until is has the element of rain and coldness). The English accent of the British troops are not great, they sound more like upper crust Australians. But apart from that comment, this is a gem of a movie. It will have you hooked until the very last second.

I rarely take time to write reviews as I'm a busy man, but this is seriously an awesome movie! Brilliant! Amazing! I had no expectations, and only vague idea what the movie was about, and was completely blown away. I can't praise this movie enough. It is a new take on the war movie - looking at the secret tunnel wars in WWI. It's a great story, looks fantastic and was extremely entertaining. Which for an Australian movie is a big call! It wasn't an action packed blockbuster but you hardly notice as it's a tense and gripping film. And an extremely moving film. The underground warfare sequences are brilliant and made me think about the war in a different way - WWI was more than just suicidal runs across fields of mud and chemical warfare. This movie is about clandestine warfare going on behind and underneath enemy lines. This is already a great Australian film, and a brilliant film!!! Hopefully, Australia makes more movies like this!

The production design and values are superb. The acting is patchy at best. Probably at least in part due to the fact that: the script is terrible. It just reads like there was no time or budget put into it. Some of the narrative set-ups are so predictable that I winced as I watched it. Corny cliché riddled dialogue. Just seemed rushed to me. With a good script this film would've been GREAT instead of just OK. I wonder if this criticism might be better leveled at the powers-that-be in Australian cinema? I cant help but think if Simms and Co were given more support and longer to complete...perhaps a better film would've been produced.

I was so moved by this film, which I saw last weekend, that I went to the Anzac Day ceremony at the Australian War Memorial today and thought of those, brave, brave men in the trenches and the fear,terror and privation in which they lived. I had to stay in the cinema until the lights came up to "compose myself" such was the powerful effect it had on me - the scene with Tiffin in the tunnel as the explosion came closer and the decision Captain Woodward made and how it went on to affect his life haunts me. Forget all that silly draping oneself in Australian flags - this should be compulsory viewing by all Australians.

I have to disagree with the comments comparing this movie with 'Hurt Locker' which is a superior movie in nearly every day and deserves its Oscar credits. This is however an excellent war drama telling a fairly unknown true story of Oliver Woodward during World War One. I for one had never heard of Oliver Woodward until watching this movie. Yes, to some degree, I would compare it to 'My Boy Jack" and even 'Passchendale' and actually 'Tunnel Rats' the Vietnam war drama springs more to mind. There is also a love story thrown in for good measure and overall this is a very sensitive film with an unacceptable but seemingly necessary ending. The acting is superb throughout and the story fascinating in how it was told from beginning until the end. For those who like their dose of war dramas, this is clearly one not to be missed.

'Beneath Hill 60' thoroughly exceeded expectations as being not only an exciting war film (which, to be honest, many like films can boast), but a moving one that evokes the horrific conditions of war. PROS -Very realistic, grimy setting, brings trench warfare to life -Claustrophobic feel of scenes. -Believable characters. I did actually care when some of the known characters died. -Tension during some of the riskier scenes where there is close contact with the German forces. -All in all, just a moving film about war that presses an anti-war sentiment with strong Australian soldier's values thrown into the characters. CONS -Plodding plot at times, goes back and forth slightly in time to establish character (though this may not be seen as a con by some) -Some parts could have been fleshed out (scenes with the Germans, the Oliver's life before and after war)

A fine movie. Not a masterpiece, because such movies are non-existent; consequently, I don't go looking for such a thing. My test is that if a movie reaches or exceeds my expectations, it succeeds. In my book, this beats "The Hurt Locker" hands down-- which may not mean anything to those who disliked that Oscar winner. Perhaps foolishly, because of the Oscar hype, I had expectations of THL which were not met. So it failed. "Beneath Hill 60" does not. It's more realistic, more accurate, more tension-filled, and not at all pretentious. No need for me to repeat the plot outlines that others have mentioned. But I will declare that the above-ground battlefield and underground scenes-- the wet, the mud, the cold, the misery-- are amazing for their reality. And they were shot mostly in tropical north Queensland.

The over enthusiasm from 99% of the Australian viewers grading this film so highly is fundamental as to why Australian film making is not progressing in the right direction. Criticisms such as "better than Saving Private Ryan", really do not help portray the film in the correct light. And is probably why Australian film makers are falling behind similar counterparts in Europe, who can make moving films with correct sound underscores. Not to say this is a bad film in the slightest, just not the hyped up best Aussie War movie ever category it is being portrayed into. I think without the hype you would leave the cinema quite satisfied and overall it is well made and acted, but lets you down simultaneously. I give it a 4 simply because i went in expecting so much, and came out feeling every need from the film not being met.

Beneath Hill 60 is a story of courage, heroism, sacrifice and mateship set against the background of the trench warfare of the Western Front in 1916, the site of some of the bloodiest battles of World War One. The film brilliantly captures the horrors and futility of war, the senseless waste of young lives, and the appalling conditions endured by the diggers in the trenches. This extraordinary true story concerns a unit of mining engineers and demolition experts who are sent to the Western Front and given the enormous task of maintaining the extensive and labyrinthine tunnel system established under the enemy trenches. Their main mission is to set off explosives under the heavily fortified enemy position on Hill 60, in the Messines Ridges in Belgium. It was one of the most successful Allied campaigns of the war, and yet it has remained unheard of. The effects of the subsequent explosion, the largest man made explosion in history, were felt as far away as London and Dublin. David Roach's script has been based upon the diaries of Oliver Woodward, the commander of the unit. Brendan Cowell (Noise, etc) heads what has to be the best ensemble cast ever assembled for an Australian film, as Woodward, an untrained soldier who has to earn the respect and trust of his men under adverse conditions. The impressive cast includes Anthony Hayes, Steve Le Marquand, Underbelly's Gyton Grantley, Aden Young, comic Bob Franklin in a serious role, John Stanton, and veteran Chris Haywood as a gruff, by-the-book Colonel. All of the actors are terrific. However, because of the large number of characters we do not get to know many of them or empathize with them. Special mention must be made of one of the more moving characters in Tiffin (Harrison Gilbertson), a naive 16-year-old who is scared most of the time, but who still manages to do his bit in the tunnels. Gilbertson is a rising young star to watch – he previously played Deborra-Lee Furness's larcenous son in Ana Kokkinos's Blessed, and he plays Geena Davis' troubled teenage son in the forthcoming comedy/drama Accidents Happen. This gripping and exciting war drama explores events that the average Australians has never heard of before. While we all know about Gallipoli, the events depicted here have remained pretty much a secret, but this is a story that deserves to be told. The film has been directed by Jeremy Sims, who is obviously passionate about the material. Beneath Hill 60 contains many elements of the traditional war movie, but Sims gives the story here a claustrophobic look and feel. The action is punctuated by a series of flashbacks that take us back to Woodward's earlier life in Queensland and his romance with the 16-year-old farm girl Marjorie, a budding relationship that was interrupted by his decision to enlist. The film boasts superb production values, with Cezary Skubiszewski's rich and haunting score and Toby Oliver's cinematography adding to the overall mise en scene. The film was shot in Queensland, where the production crew built several kilometers of rain drenched and mud filled trenches to authentically replicate the conditions of World War One.