Beneath Hill 60 (2011)

It's 1916 on the western front. The battle has stalemated by trench warfare. Australian miner Oliver Woodward is the new commander of an Australian tunnel platoon. He was courting 16 year old Marjorie Waddell, 10 years his junior, when he joined the new mine wars. The underground world is a rarely seen battlefield of intense paranoia and constant death.In many ways, this world reminds me of a wartime submarine. There is also plenty trench warfare and above-ground fighting. It would be great to have more delineated characters. A lot of time is spent on Woodward with his flashbacks. Brendan Cowell plays it with stoic heroism. The others tend to blend together. This is a compelling world of combat and takes the fighting to different places.

The way Townsville has been transformed into a battlefield is astounding enough. The trenches and underground tunnels that feature in the movie are frighteningly real and the Townsville team has done an amazing job replicating the bleak European countryside scattered with trenches as it were then. Careful attention has been paid to the costume and dress of the time with the getup pulling off marvellously. the screenplay has been drafted tightly with the action and suspense maintaining throughout the whole drama. The flashbacks to Woodward's time in Australia are expertly spliced and provide a welcome relief to the eyes from the dark, dinghiness of the pits. the acting is good all round, particularly Edward Woodward's character. The exception is the young girl who cannot act to save her life but luckily she's not in it very much. Watch out for The young boy that plays Tiffen. He is the next Heath Ledger and puts in a fine performance. Overall, an excellent movie that also provides a great educational tool about the underground maneuvorings of the war.

This is my first film review on this site as a student, so bear with me.Being a massive fan of several modern war films, i was rather impressed with the production values on show here. This movie never felt like set design; the mud, the blood, the dirt and the trenches all instantly transported the viewer to the western front World War I. To see how far Australian film has come along in the last decade has really impressed me, to be able to move away from schlocky World War I television mini series of past years to a film of this caliber is truly an amazing thing, and the whole production crew for this film should be very proud of the final product that they have produced.The picture and sound would easily make it comparable to any Hollywood releases of this era in film, and it is nice to see Australia able to technically compete with the rest of the world in that regard.I think the script and cast were criticized perhaps too harshly by some, i found that the script perfectly mixed both the central love story of the main protagonist's sweetheart back home and the mess that was the war. Many movies (Pearl Harbor and Saving Private Ryan for instance) often make the mistake of having sequences of reflection/discussion that last too long, often bringing out an unfortunate feeling of Hollywood plot cheesiness. The former film indeed swamped so much romance into the film it felt the war was lost in the final product. There is enough flashes to the protagonists home, to his sweetheart and happier times to help the audience not be "war wearied" by the continuous darkness of the trenches without detracting from the point that this is a movie about war. At no time did any individuals musings of home, tears for the lost or moments of weakness feel out of character or like it was just added into the story in an effort to reach audiences. At the same time there is not too much of these scenes to remove the viewer from the war front long enough for the tension of the situation to be removed. I think the director has masterfully combined the two in a way that many better known directors often don't succeed at doing.It was very interesting to see also the interactions between the Australian and British troops in this movie, and I think one of the testament scenes in this movie would be the passing of a bottle of wine to the moving Australians to the remaining British troops on the line in a sign of solidarity. There have been some opinions that this film brings into light the British rather unfavorably but I don't think this was the intention of the director. If anything this film is very much about mate ship, and how in the end its not the officers keeping you and your men alive through this war, but each other.I would encourage all Australians to see this movie and support its work, but I would also encourage foreigners to view this movie, it is a tense and exciting story well worth your time. In closing, to be honest i never really viewed this as an "Aussie Movie" the whole time i viewed it, but simply as a movie. And i think that is the biggest triumph of Australian film to be able to remove a nationality from a film and to make it universally enjoyable by all.

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.