The Hill
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Produced by Kenneth Hyman
Written by R.S. Allen (play) & Ray Rigby (screenplay)
Based on The Hill, 1965 play by Ray Rigby
Starring Sean Connery; Harry Andrews; Ian Bannen; Alfred Lynch; Ossie Davis; Roy ` Kinnear; Jack Watson; Ian Hendry; Sir Michael Redgrave
Cinematography Oswald Morris
Edited by Thelma Connell
Production company Seven Arts Productions
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
If you make up a list of the best movies from the 60s and 70s, chances are about a half dozen of them would be ones directed by Sidney Lumet. Network. Fail Safe. Long Day’s Journey into Night. Twelve Angry Men. Dog Day Afternoon. Murder on the Orient Express. He compiled 46 Academy Award nominations over his career, an extraordinary number, and many of them were for films I didn’t even list here. He’s one of the most accomplished film makers in cinematic history.
But the one I’m reviewing today got no Academy Award nominations, and didn’t do very well at the box office. That was despite having two of Britain’s biggest stars of the day—Sean Connery and Sir Michael Redgrave. The Hill. A tale of a tawdry little WWII punishment camp stuck out in the desert. It did, however, get high critical recognition (see below).
Part of the problem was that Sean Connery, in the midst (1965) of the James Bond frenzy that rivaled Beatlemania in the UK, was wary of being type cast and wanted a more nuanced role. As it was, he still wound up a heroic man of action because even Lumet had to think twice about making James Bond look anything short of heroic and dashing. If Connery’s role was weak and stupid, they probably would have burned Parliament. Granted, the English are usually at their best when someone wants to burn Parliament, but its untraditional to do it on behalf of a Scotsman.
But this was a more nuanced role; instead of serving His Majesty’s Government, Connery’s character was defying it. Even worse, in the eyes of the millions of World War II vets, the RA was being portrayed as the villain of the piece. How dare anyone have James Bond spit on the lads who saved us from Hitler?
Joe Wilson (Connery) is a cashiered Regimental Sargent Major who finds himself in a Liberian British Regular Army punishment camp, convicted of cowardice under fire and insubordination. He defied orders to send his men to a certain and tactically pointless death. He is one of five new prisoners at the camp. The other four are there for the usual stuff: brawling, selling motor pool parts to the Italians, gambling, and stealing (and drinking) three bottles of whiskey from the officers’ mess.
They fall into the clutches of a new Staff Sargent, Williams (played brilliantly by Ian Hendry) who is a sadistic bully. As the movie progresses, we learn that Williams is also power-hungry and a master manipulator, eventually dominating and bullying the prison RSM Wilson (another towering performance by Harry Andrews) and the meek and ineffectual prison Medical Officer (a subdued and complex performance by Redgrave). Staff Sargent Harris (another great performance by Ian Bannon) is the one decent staff member—until Williams manipulates Wilson into betraying him. Then the stage is set for a complete meltdown in the camp. Williams has worked one of the prisoners, George Stevens (Alfred Lynch) to death, and is orchestrating a cover up.
Despite the sheer star power of Connery and Redgrave, this is very much an ensemble piece. Ossie Davis plays Jacko King, a black West Indies British subject who, by colonial law, must be considered equal in the otherwise still-segregated British military. In a role unthinkable by today’s standards, he rebels in the camp, and mocks his captors by stripping naked and – there’s no polite way of putting it – becoming a jungle bunny. (In the movie Davis gets to keep his underpants; but in the book he is starkers). It’s a series of scenes made brilliantly comic by the reactions of all the other prisoners and staff around him, and a courageous performance by Davis.
The film roars to an unforgettable and morally ambiguous climax and then stops. Right. There. A final look on Connery’s face you’ll never forget, and then black screen and “The End.”
History will be kind to The Hill in the fullness of time, and it will be considered one of Lumet’s very best movies. And a cinematic classic.
Available on DVD and torrents.
BAFTA Awards
Winner Best British Cinematography (Oswald Morris)
Nominee Best Film (Kenneth Hyman)
Nominee Best British Film (Kenneth Hyman)
Nominee Best British Actor (Harry Andrews)
Nominee Best British Screenplay (Ray Rigby)
Nominee Best British Art Direction (Herbert Smith)
Cannes Film Festival
The film screened at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.
Winner Best Screenplay at the 1965 Festival (Ray Rigby)
National Board of Review
Winner Best Supporting Actor (Harry Andrews)
Writers’ Guild of Great Britain
Winner Best British Dramatic Screenplay Award (Ray Rigby)