Third Man

The Hill (1965) Sidney Lumet

While reading through the paper the other I day I was reminded of Sidnet Lumet's film The Hill a very tense and superb example of hard Imperial style army life - the matter of which I talk about is the death of a soldier in 2006 from what was said "exhausting physical activity", this is known as beasting.

BBC NEWS | England | Wiltshire | Soldier 'died after punishment'

The Hill is about a bunch of insubordinate soldiers being punished at a army camp by way by being made to climb again and again a artificial hill built in the middle of the camp - The Camp is situated in the Libyan desert which has reached temperatures of 57.8 °C (136.0 °F), generally accepted as the highest recorded naturally occurring air temperature reached on Earth.

Sidnet Lumet is a very American director and has made such classics as 12 Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon yet we find him here bivouacked in the desert with a bunch of British actors some of which he would reunite with in another British film The Offence - and making a very British and uncompromising film. Starring in the film is Sean Connery and along with The Offence both are possible Connery's finest efforts on film.

Connery plays Joe Roberts a man of integrity but of change - he sees a failing empire and the wind of change sweeping through it unlike Harry Andrews in a career best as the barking mad R.S.M. Bert Wilson who protects the sadistic Williams (Ian Hendry in another career best ) his right hand man who resembles a pit-bull terrier more than a human being. We also have Connery's three other insubordinate colleagues played by Roy Kinnear,Jack Watson and the brilliant Ossie Davis as the black Pvt. Jacko King - to tell you anything about Davis' character would spoil the treat of a very assured and paradoxical part of the film. We also have Ian Bannen as the sympathetic Harris and that heavyweight of the British screen Michael Redgarve as a cowardly Medical Officer who turns a blind eye to the camps high ranking officers cruelty and bigotry.

The Hill if anything is a moral character study of men under intense pressure and whoever can keep their head when all about them men are losing theirs will survive this tortorous examination - beware this film is not for the faint hearted but it is a marvellously crafted film and easily one of my favourites.

Simon

homeguard

I thought how brilliantly Harry Andrews played every Sergeant Major I've ever known - hard but fair, and how he could manipulate men. Then on one of these posts I found out he had spent most of his adult life 'manipulating' men. How disappointed I was.
Regards,
HG

donna

felt it was more a mans film, it bored me and unsettled me too, I didnt like it one bit.

Third Man

It never bored me at all because the writing is superb, unsettling yes most definitely VERY! A mans film - well I don't know what you mean by that does it appeal to men only and why would it? It certainly doesn't portray men in a positive light even the Connery character has his flaws the film never shys away from the awkward analysis of the male character and never stereotypes them into easy to digest formulas. I don't think theres much to like here either but then I don't watch film for just entertainment so constraints like being able to like a film don't sway me in my admiration for a film.

Simon

donna

IM afraid I look for happy endings and when i saw this film , I left the cinema uneasy . maybe I like sugar coated films more.

charliekane

Rather a neglected actor but superb in both this and The Offence (also with Connery), Ian Bannen has a wonderful moment when he has tried to persuade his superiors into laying off the men, and shows his frustration outside the door - impotent rage. A fine actor, who tragically died in a car crash at the age of 71 a few Christmasses ago.

christoph404

Brilliant film and as Third Man points out,it would seem the tradition of "beasting" in the British army is alive and well as three army officers are presently on trial for manslaughter after a soldier died of heatstroke or hyperthermia as it is properly called at Lucknow Barracks in Tidworth on Salisbury Plain after being subjected to almost identical punishment as depicted in the film. Accused Sergeant Russell Price prided himself in being the most hated officer in the regiment. It makes the film very topical even 40 years later and quite disturbing to learn that this sort of thing actually still goes on in the British Army.

Third Man

A very fine actor who got a Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 'The Flight of the Phoenix' (1965) - he did play a rather subdued role in The Hill, not much scope for his range of acting but what he did have, he made with very well. His Harris character was one of being reserved or restrained and like you say when he had to say something he could not quite pull it off but you could see it simmering beneath the facade - impotent rage indeed.

Simon

Colonel Blimp

THE HILL is one of my all-time favourites, and, because TCM seems to show it every 48 hours, I seem to have seen it (or bits of it) more than any other film!

The acting is superb and the absurd pettiness of the 'screws' is painful to endure ... needless to say, unavailable on DVD in the UK but it is out in the US, and a very nice copy it is, too.

kelp

As Ex-Guards, I can assure you that Harry Andrews RSM was as real as it gets, a near perfect piece of acting. I recall a similar man at Caterham Depot. An excellent film from start to finish.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU MAY GET IT!

Automotivehistorian

My Dad, who was in the Mid-East from 1946-8 says it was very accurate. He remembers having to take a prisoner to Colchester Glass-house (the remaining military prison) and even the escort had to double-march! Dad was in the next bed in British military hospital in Alexandria to a Staff Sergeant prison officer who had broken his hand beating up a prisoner!

Eventually those 'detention wallahs' left in the prisons out in the Mid East when we left Palestine etc. were just dumped on to units still serving and the prisons closed. Dad said they were often thugs, thieves, and general scum that the draft had trawled-up.

kelp

That is true about Doubling at the Military prisons. I too have been on ESCORT with AWOL's, taking them to either Colchester or Shepton Mallet Military nick, and immediately you entered you were on 144 paces a minute! Caterham, as any Guardsman will tell you was run under similar lines. basic twelve weeks was hell. They closed it down, and moved us to Pirbright Guards Depot in Surrey.
But I digress. THE HILL remains an excellent film, superbly written, and a reminder of what used to happen. I can't help thinking, what if our prisons of today had a deterrent?
Cue Steve..................

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU MAY GET IT!

christoph404

Well I guess physical punishment that could result in death could be seen as a pretty strong deterrent for being undisciplined or going AWOL!! It seems very extreme to me and out of proportion to the misdemeanors involved.

stevie boy

The Hill & The Offence, 2 films where Connery really did act before he became a parody. I believe old Sean has wasted his talent unlike Caine who has made some goodies between the dross.

Third Man

If we look at The Hill in the perspective of military psychology and that of deconstructing a man and then rebuilding him up to the requirements of the accepted norm within the military group then Lumet’s film is telling us that the individual matters, it is powerful enough to rebel and buck the system. So the human being is cast as a singular entity instead of being an integral part of the system but on the other hand is Lumet telling us that for the system to work it ultimately needs the compliance of the individual to work properly otherwise it falls apart - something that I think in this case it does but by the end there is another reversal in play - Lumet gives us a taste of personnel expression within a rigid and authoritarian power and gives exceptionally high levels of character analysis to lots of different people, therefore giving power to the individuals all the way through the film but at the end are we seeing might-over-right and the perspective of as individuals we will never be able to take on the powerful establishments?

Kubrick also with Full Metal Jacket another of his films shot in the UK was about the stripping down of men’s characters and building them up into fighting units albeit in his film civilians are turned into war ready fighting machines rather than in Lumet’s The Hill insubordinate soldiers where being stripped down because of their non-compliance so therefore harder to re-educate so maybe the punishment reflected that tougher assignment that in being a lot more harder destructive to the human psychology as well as physicality in order to get them back on track. Kubricks film goes through the trial and error of getting soldiers ready to go to war - where they do eventually end up and ends up with soldiers singing while on duty going through the ruins of a Vietnam city the theme tune from the Mickey Mouse Club, this always reminds me of The Hill as well for as the reference to Mickey Mouse in this context means:

Something - or someone - that was petty, stupid and senseless.

Both of these films are great to watch together both have very ambiguous endings that could be seen as very similar outcomes - that of the soldiers who all know their part of some barmy army but have very little power to stop it or win their freedom from it.


Simon