Beneath Hill 60
Review
by Anthony Morris
Exclusive Interview : Brendan Cowell
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Beneath Hill 60
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When Australians think about the first World War, it pretty much begins and ends with Gallipoli.
The equally bloody and pointless struggles of Australian troops in the
trenches of the western front tends to get overlooked.
Hopefully Beneath Hill 60 will go some small way towards redressing this imbalance. It
doesn't hurt that, unlike most World War One stories, this doesn't get
bogged-down story-wise in labouring over the horror of the trenches and
the futility of war - which might be important messages, but can get a
bit dull over two hours. Beneath Hill 60 tells the story of Queensland miner Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell)
and the First Australian Tunnelling Division.
Formed in 1916 to join
the allied effort in tunnelling under the German lines in Belgium,
their mission was simple but dangerous: the Germans knew they were up
to something, and were constantly digging counter-tunnels in the hope
to breaking into theirs. Add in the risk of cave-ins,
flooding, and the fact that they were going to be planting enough
explosives under the German lines to create the biggest explosion the
world had ever seen, and it's little wonder that much of this movie is
suspense at its finest. Unfortunately, director Jeremy Sims and
scriptwriter David Roach feel the need for a bunch of fairly pointless
and tension-draining flashbacks to Woodward's home life in between the
many edge-of-your-seat scenes in and under the trenches. Clearly
there to broaden the film's appeal - there weren't any women in the
trenches, after all - they weaken what could have been a gripping and
memorable thriller. It's still a good war movie: it's just that there's clearly a great one buried in the mud that never quite manages to get out. 3 out
of 5
Beneath Hill 60
Australian release: 15th April,
2010
Official
Site: Beneath Hill 60
Cast: Brendan Cowell, Harrison Gilbertson, Steve Le Marquand, Alex Thompson
Director: Jeremy Sims
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