Commandos de l'ombre

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.

'Beneath Hill 60' is a true story based on a front-line campaign in Belgium in 1917. This is a war film unlike any other. Not at least that it is about Australian soldiers in a predominately British campaign. There were many others who fought in both World Wars, though you wouldn't know it from most big budget war films we are used to seeing.

Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell) is a late inductee into the campaign on the front who must prove himself to his fellow Aussies who have been in the trenches for some time. It's literally hell on earth. But these soldiers belong to a special unit. The tunnelers. Their job, to subvert the enemy from beneath. They are soon sent to one of the great Fronts of WW1 in Belgium, to an area known Hill 60 which is currently dominated by the Germans. There is a plan in place, but can they pull it off? It's claustrophobic. It's tense. There is constant shelling. The guns shots come from nowhere. You can understand how many were driven mad by it. (Shell shock).

This film works on so many levels. A brilliant taut script by David Roach based on the actual diaries of Woodward who shows us that there is more at stake here than gaining mere inches of ground. There is the tenacity of man. The blunt simple-mindedness which is required to get the job done, but which can also blind some men from the truth. War is stupid. It's a game. And yet they are not merely soldiers but ordinary people. We get an insight into their lives, predominately through Woodward himself, which juxtaposes how horrific war is. We get an idea of the German position too. Often they are faceless enemy's but here we get a little insight into the men on the other side of the muddy walls.

It's a suspenseful film, directed with real flair and I'm surprised to say, mastery of the medium, by actor Jeremy Sims, whose first film, (Last Train to Freo), was rather an languid affair. Once again he works within an tight budget, (like all Australian films, except for that unmentionable one), but he puts you into the mud and the water and the darkness underground. You'll by yearning for your shower, dry bed and a cup of tea; privileges denied to most of these chaps for months at a time.

My only criticism is that Brendan Cowell looks too old for the part. He' s supposed to be 25. I could have gone along with it if I'd been told much earlier. But really he is Australia's best actor (Noise, Love My Way) and plays Woodward to perfection.

The supporting cast is also first class. Steve Le Marquand shows his depth and is totally believable. It's welcoming to see John Stanton back. We don't see him enough in Australian film. He has a strong presence and that amazing voice. He is an underused icon. I barely recognized Jacqueline McKenzie, who looks ten years younger than she is. She is always a pleasure to watch. Her on screen daughter played by Bella Heathcote is a real talent too though Aden Young's brief odd appearance seemed unconvincing. The tunnelers themselves, all work together to bring a on-screen camaraderie and presence. Credit must go to Sims and Roach for this collective working dynamic. Also noted are the chillingly effective 5.1 sound effects and a classy score by legendary composer Cezary Skubiszewski.

If you are from outside Australia, and don't like war films, it is still effective as a thriller and even a love story. It's highly recommended. For Australians, it's a must own DVD for every household. Finally, an Australian film to be proud of. And an important one at that.

An outstanding portrayal of the Messines Ridge battles - a part of the overall series of battles in WWI around Ypres in Belgium. Anyone who knows anything about WWI will recognize the incredible fighting and human misery surrounding the 3 major Ypres battles. For a great depiction of these battles - read A Storm in Flanders - by Winston Groom -one of the best histories of the Great War.

The movie works on all levels - some of the other reviews state that Aussies should see this - I disagree - everyone who is interested in how the free world defended against German aggression need to see this. I am a WWI junkie, but I believe this movie will appeal to a very wide audience.

A few of the good points: Realism - this movie focuses on many small details which give it great credibility: clipping canaries nails; covering your coffee cup when there is an explosion (to keep dirt from falling in); continual rain and mud (can you say Passchendaele?) ; unbelievable living conditions; the cat and mouse game being played under ground where both sides were trying to discover the others mines; prejudice against the miners/sappers as not being real soldiers; and the death of the father (you'll see what I mean).

This is one of the finest war movies I have seen (and I've seen a lot.) I really hope you will take this one in. Then, the next time you are in London - go to the Imperial War Museum for an in depth look at WWI & II. Cheers DonB

Based on the true story of how a platoon of Australian soldiers tunneled under enemy soil during World War I, 'Beneath Hill 60' recounts a slice of wartime history not often told. Most noteworthy is how the film does not just depict battles and explosions, but also the squalid living conditions and claustrophobic surrounds of the soldiers. There is a particularly effective struggle as two Germans invade the tunnel; the scene takes place in pitch black darkness for nearly a whole minute after a lamp is knocked out. Another memorable sequence features disquieting sound effects as a soldier realises that an explosion has deafened him. The film is unusually structured with several flashbacks to the main soldier's pre-war life woven into the mix. Brendan Cowell is solid as the soldier in question and the flashbacks serve well to pinpoint why he felt a need to fight (pressure, expectations, etc), however, they also break up the intensity and immediacy of the trench/tunnel action. Cowell's romance with a teenage girl half his age also makes for an odd inclusion as their age disparity is very prominent (by all accounts this is accurate though). Whatever the case, 'Beneath Hill 60' works almost all the time when focused on the trench/tunnel action. A constant sense of danger lingers in the air, and yet at the same time the film portrays the ability of camaraderie to also develop in adverse conditions.

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.