A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A different way of telling a story

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This is an absolutely superb war movie, on a par with the best. The flow of events is woven smoothly into the film, with scrupulous attention to historical accuracy. It does for World War One films what the series "Band of Brothers" did for WW2, raising the bar on the entire genre. There are flashbacks throughout the film, the dreariness and terror of trench warfare being contrasted with the lush beauty of eastern Australia. By avoiding huge battle scenes, accuracy is preserved and the intensity of individual experiences given greater strength. Why this film has not gained greater popularity in the US is a mystery to me.

I first became aware of this story - including the real life inclusion of a couple of real-life distant relatives in that unit - when the local newspaper here reported on the making of the movie a couple of years back.Like some of the other reviewers here, I also found this movie to be better in some way than the likes of Gallipoli, Anzacs and Breaker Morant.I would recommend this film to anyone either wanting to simply see a good war movie, and to those wanting to know more about Australia's war history - even "fictionalised" and "dramatised" versions..Comparing this movie to "Hurt Locker" was surely a joke, on those reviewers part: Not only do the two have little in common, this movie is more realistic, and it IS based on real events (and not the twisted stories that end up in many American movies..). ~ and real people, several of whom came from around this region.. And they cover two entirely different eras...Calling "Hurt Locker" a superior movie was a ridiculous and pathetic comparison on a couple of people's parts ~ in reality, they are two completely different movies ~ and I consider "Beneath Hill 60" to be a much better and more worthwhile than that average American offering."Beneath Hill 60" earns Ten Stars from me..

"When this thing blows it will be the biggest explosion the world's ever seen." The incredible true story about civilian Australian miners during WWI. When Oliver Woodward (Cowell) and his men are called to the front lines of Germany in order to secure and protect a series of tunnels that are filled with explosives and is directly underneath the German stronghold of Hill 60 they are tested to their limits. One of the biggest problems facing new war movies is that inevitably they are compared to "Saving Private Ryan". Besideds "We Were Soldiers", this is the only one I have seen that can stand up to the comparisons. I'm not saying it is as good as those but it is pretty close. Much like the other two, the focus is split between the action of the war and the personal struggles of Captain Woodward. The fact that this is about an Australian battle and not an American one is irrelevant to Americans liking this movie. You are so caught up in the story that country doesn't seem to matter (we were on the same side in the war anyway), and you still feel a sense of pride watching the men work. This movie will not disappoint. Overall, one of the best war movies I have ever seen. Watch this, you will be glad you did. I give it an A-.Would I watch again? - I definitely would.*Also try - Saving Private Ryan

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.