Customer Reviews

The Hill [VHS]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the most intelligent and honest (not to mention beautifully filmed) movies I've seen in ages. Anyone depressed by Sean Connery's recent whorishness needs to look at this one. It's by far his greatest film.

"The Hill" that gives the movie its name is a device of torture built by prisoners in the Libyan desert: a pyramid of stone, sand and corrugated iron, which looks like a vestige of some ancient, barbaric age. Prisoners who violate the letter or "spirit" of the British Army's antiquated rules are forced to hump double-time over the hill in full pack, in the searing mid-day sun, endlessly, until they drop. On its sides men are broken--hollowed out--and obedient robots are made.

"The Hill" is, in my opinion, the most powerful WWII film ever made--yet not one bullet is fired in its two-plus hours. The drama and the terror of this film are in the war of character, of wills: the violence of psychological destruction. If this sounds boring to you, you should know that the film draws you in quickly with its stark premise (a disgraced NCO enters a detention camp for incorrigible soldiers, and antagonizes the sadistic staff-sergeant), then cuts deeper and deeper and does not flinch for an instant. This movie has a spine harder than the sun-blasted rock of "the hill" itself.

The maniacal inflexibility of leadership--particularly in wartime, and especially among noncombatants eager to prove their "toughness"--has been the theme of several great movies. This may be the greatest. Its atmosphere is more convincing than other prison/boot-camp flicks ("Full Metal Jacket," "Midnight Express," etc.), and its photography and editing have enormous impact--all without resort to stylization or even a musical score. The final brilliance is in the casting. It helps, of course, that most of the actors are unfamiliar to American viewers, but even the well-known ones inhabit their roles completely. Ossie Davis, for instance, is brilliant as a Caribbean prisoner who is forced to the conclusion that his white commanders are absurd and contemptible, unworthy of his obedience.

British character actor Harry Andrews (of the equine teeth and chin) does a vivid turn as the Sergeant-Major of the prison camp. He has to carry a lot of metaphorical baggage--all the sick, ossified Victorian sanctification of rules and ritualized manliness--on his lantern-jaw, yet he carries it off with surprising subtlety. (For instance: watch his face during the aborted prison riot, when the fear creeps into his smile as he realizes his junior officer may a psychopath).

Connery, the "star" of the ensemble, is a revelation. As the officer imprisoned for having defied a homicidally stupid order--and who still could not save his men--Connery adds a hint of survivor's guilt to the rage and perplexity simmering behind the resigned posture and sarcastic bluster. He's a hulk of a man, a field-hardened warrior, yet his lip trembles a bit as he steps out of rank--into the killing zone of the prison disciplinarians--to give evidence against an officer suspected in an inmate's death.

He has reason to be afraid. The officer he accuses, as played by Ian Hendry, is a meager, rail-thin fragment of a man, but what there is of him is iron-hard: a flesh and bone stiletto of cold savagery. Had a big man, like the ogreish Paul Smith of "Midnight Express," been cast in the role, the conflict would have lost its dimensions and richness. It would have been reduced to a physical contest. Hendry's sergeant tells us all we need know about the misuse of authority, about the inadequate, half-mad creatures who can flourish within a rigid power-structure and use it to destroy far stronger, smarter, braver men. This sergeant's eyes hide in the shadow of his cap, and his voice and poise are almost feminine, but his chin is set and he knows the Structure's weaknesses and rules, chapter and verse. He exploits the Army's Victorian pieties (discipline, industry, clean-mindedness) to brutalize others, and in him those virtues become obscene.

Hendry despises the prisoner Stevens (who carries love letters from his wife) for his sentimentality, and for other, darker reasons, and he uses the Hill to exterminate him. Now we see the truth Connery saw long before, that the Devil hides in the rules, and in the absence of checks and balances insubordination may be a man's only duty.

Unfortunately the other men cannot share his insight--or see that Hendry is just the symptom, not the disease--and the ending, as often in honest movies of this sort, is despairing. In a final, devastating twist, Connery is forced to watch helplessly as history repeats itself.

Regrettably, what is true for history does not hold for art, for films. They don't make them like this anymore. Probably never will again.

When shall we see a DVD of this most wonderful and sadly forgotten film of uninhibited control's--not necessarily war's--inevitable brutality. You will uncover few richer and more vulnerable Sean Connery performances on record. But unlike most of Sean's star vehicles, this powderkeg menaces on all fronts. One feels the tortuous heat of the punishing hill in the British prison, the strained nobility of seasoned soldiers treated with contempt by their captors, the unspoken psychological tremors beneath "Williams'" foreboding surface...

Cinematography is fabulous, lack of musical score intensifies the drama's isolated setting.

Buy this film--campaign for the uncensored (uncut) DVD.

Each time I watch The Hill I am stunned.

This is a deeply intelligent film.

The acting, script, story, direction and photography have rarely been equalled. I don't think there is a single weak link, line, or player in this gripping story of human nature under stress.

There is no easy way out in this movie, no fail safe cliches or sentimental heroics. "Mutinous" prisoners baying the name of a dead soldier are cowed and brought to heel, by a NCO, who knows full well how to gain control of a crowd.

Each time, you think justice will out, cynical men carefully pull the strings, bark the orders, and carefully manipulate the men to perform their bidding.

Each character grows, each role has depth, each offers insight into the way any of us might react to such circumstances. No one is idealised. Even Roberts laughs at Stevens at one crucial point.

Strange, the director conveys such brutality and corruption but rarely needs any obscenity in the script. I only realised that half way through the film.

I have a great love for Euripides, the Athenian playwright of 484-406 BC, whose ironic tragedies question the accepted brutality in 'civilised' society at war. I think The Hill does the same and to the same superb standard.

This is one of the most powerfully-acted films you're likely to see, again proving the traditionally underrated Sean Connery one of the finest actors of his generation. Connery's cynical but heroic prisoner role is matched by character actor Harry Andrews as an old-school sergeant major running a sun-baked British military prison in WWII North Africa. Other Amazon reviewers outline the plot, so I'll just note that Sidney Lumet's direction and unique jump-cut editing style makes this an unforgettable drama. Definitely worth a purchase.

Sidney Lumet is best known for his classic "12 Angry Men", with Henry Fonda. I have been trying for almost twenty years to get hold of this prisoner camp/WWII movie after hearing great recommendations from trustworthy friends. Finally I can say that this one is even better. In my opinion it is simply one of the best 100 film of all times. Why it hasn't been on dvd till now is beyond me.

Shot in beautiful and stark black and white in the desert of Almería (Spain). During WWII in north Africa the British run this prison camp for British petty criminals whose lives are made miserable to the brink of going mad. One cell is shared by five very different persons, each one very interesting for the type they represent. Harry Andrews plays the cruel sergeant-Major who sadically enjoys torturing his "human specimens" march up and down a man-made sand hill. His staff-sergeant embodies the loathable lackey who takes orders and even exceeds in carrying them out. All the cast is superb, wonderful. Connery, the star in the film is very good but I felt the other characters were as interesting -if not more- than him. The tension in the film increases by the minute, to a point when you can't even blink an eye, it's gripping, absorbing. One really feels like being there, tortured in the 100 degree sun, running out of breath, with no way to escape. The system is rotten but nobody dares speak out.

It is very realistic. It reminded me of my own Spanish military experience: the officer's cruelty, drunkenness, the commanders away with prostitutes and relaying responsibilities in the brutes of the lower ranks always willing to take it on the rank and file. Even the physical exhaustion, and the beating. The feeling of being isolated from the world, and that nobody outside will ever know what's going on inside. All of those emotions run vivid in this film. It's as close as it can get to living it.

One lesson out of this story is that every insitution is made up of human beings, and always the bad guys are going to end up ruling and corrupting the system if the system has no way of being checked; call it the Army or what have you.

A masterpiece.

This is a film which will haunt you long after you see it. Several desperate soldiers are trapped in a desert 'glasshouse' guarded by sadistic guards who force the prisoners to charge repeatedly up a dune carrying sandbags until exhaustion overcomes them (a la Sisyphus). The film follows the inmates attempts for justice - either through violence or their own sense of innocence.

Easily one of my favourite B&W films: the acting is 'heroic', the B&W cinematography unsurpassed and the plot is tragic and intense. Connery's greatest film.

The Hill manages to capture all the stark realism that is needed for a topic like this. Directed by Sidney Lumet the year after he made Fail Safe - the film features an all star cast.

Sean Connery plays a disgraced sergeant, Harry Andrews the RSM with excellent supporting roles by Roy Kinnear and the late Ian Bannen.

Set in a prison camp for Allied soldiers needing displine during the Desert War of 1940-43 it is extremely convincing through it's script and screen-play. Lumet pulls you right into the plot. Not being a believer in giving away the plot in these reviews - Ian Hendry plays a sadistic Staff Sergeant whose deliberate insistance of exercise punishment leads to the death of an in-mate.

Fantastic and a real find.

'The Hill' is an astonishing movie in many respects. It has a great ensemble cast, largely made of up of people who aren't generally part of ensemble acting - Sean Connery, Ossie Davis, and Michael Redgrave were certainly more of the 'leading man' types. Other well-known actors from British cinema are featured as well (Roy Kinnear, Harry Andrews, Alfred Lynch, Ian Hendry, among others). Sidney Lumet directed this film in 1965; based on a play, it shows the harsher side of masculine, military life - it is set in a disciplinary prison in the Libyan desert during World War II.

Connery and others star as a group of new prisoners getting acclimatised to the way life runs in the prison. Some rebel, some go-along-to-get-along, some become introverted and depressed - the whole range of possibilities is explored. There are class issues and racial issues addressed as well.

The title 'The Hill' comes from the artificial sand mountain constructed in the middle of the camp that the prison warder non-commissioned officers drill the prisoners on, breaking them down physically, and supposedly mentally, in order to reconstruct them as properly disciplined soldiers. However, not everyone responds to this, and at a certain point in the film it becomes clear that one of the warders is in fact a quite sadistic guard.

The process goes on with drudging sameness until the disciplinary punishment goes too far, and a man dies from the treatment. The subsequent attempt at a cover-up provides much of the drama for the film (even though this consists of less than half the screen time of the film), and the ending is certainly poetic in its justice even if it isn't a happy ending by any means.

The film was done at the height of Sean Connery's popularity as the new James Bond character - he had done three Bond films in the previous three years, including the classic 'Goldfinger' just the year before; here he was a gritty, working-class career soldier without the polish (or the toupee) of the Bond character. Connery shows he is no lightweight actor here, nor does he use his star power to steal the show.

This film was also done in black-and-white, which shows the dusty, dry desert elements in greater relief than a full-colour or colourised version might.

I eagerly await the DVD.

This film is a masterpiece. Anyone buying this video would want the whole film. But, they cut it. Why? Why? Why? It's still a great film, despite the cuts and the cuts are the only reason I give the film 4 stars instead of 5.

Directed by Sidney Lumet at a fever pitch and featuring a superb cast, this is an unforgettable film. It should be much better known than it is. Connery is at his best as a decent man caught in the midst of a sadism-ridden nightmare--a British military prison in north Africa during World War II. The hair-raising shock ending will stay with you; I saw it as a kid and have been haunted by this film's dark vision ever since.