Beneath Hill 60

[Christian]

Anyone seen or posted this yet?



This is a very interesting concept for some wargaming, and its nice to see a movie about Aussies in WW1 too!

I know it's a movie so if it needs to go in Open Talk that's okay.

[Schogun]

Looks good! Opens in Australia on April 25th. Who knows when in the U.S.

[Aaron]

Wow, that looks fantastic!

[pcohn]

It reminded me of this 54 mm Diorama from Wingnut Wings:


http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/product?productid=25

[Hammers]

I saw this and I can heartily recommend it. A real nail biter as it is reveal from the start that they are going to use a billion tons of nitroglycerin under that hill. Good friction between plucky Aussies and prig English assholes, which seems to be a stock ingredient in films, lately (King's Speech). Also the inclusion of Bavarian counter-miners which really adds to the claustrophobia, of which I suffer, brrr...

[Plynkes]

Again with this? So all Brits are stuck-up twats, and I suppose every single Australian in history was a salt-of-the-earth larrikin? Yawn. Seen it all before. Already I don't want to watch this.

20% of the Aussies serving in the Great War  were First Generation Australians. Which is to say: they were Brits. But dragging out the same old cliches is always the order of the day when film-making. Easy and lazy. God forbid we have some real interesting characters instead of the usual stock types. The audience might actually have to think.

[Hammers]

Again with this? So all Brits are stuck-up twats, and I suppose every single Australian in history was a salt-of-the-earth larrikin? Yawn. Seen it all before. Already I don't want to watch this.

Touchy...

[Christian]

Fortunately the movie isn't as black and white as you're suggesting, Plynkes. There are some interesting character developments, particularly with the "salt-of-the-Earth" star of the movie. It really does not have a happy ending (although I won't spoil it further).

As far as I understood, the stuck-up twats in the movie aren't so because they're British but because they're officers.

Still a good movie, though.

[Hammers]

Fortunately the movie isn't as black and white as you're suggesting, Plynkes. There are some interesting character developments, particularly with the "salt-of-the-Earth" star of the movie. It really does not have a happy ending (although I won't spoil it further).

As far as I understood, the stuck-up twats in the movie aren't so because they're British but because they're officers.

Still a good movie, though.

Plynkes likes to disagree with my film reviews. I kind of agree with him that this friction between colonials and Blighteans is a bit old (Breaker Morant, Gallipoli, Kings Speech, The Monocled Mutineer), but as you say one, it's a very minor theme. What I want to get across is that I think that a decent war film is a rare and treasured thing and this one I found, all things considered, to be quite enjoyable. It is a true story, it is intense and the difficulties and horrors under ground makes for quite a nail biter. Also, the Germans don't come across as faceless evildoers and I prefer it that way.