One of several military prison films, a genre that seemed to be popular in the 1960s, among a field including television series like Hogan's Heroes and Colditz and motion pictures like Stalag 17 and The Great Escape.
Filmed in starkly lit black and white, this 1965 film directed by Sidney Lumet is set in a British military prison in the Western Desert during World War II. The film opens with the arrival of five new prisoners including fallen hero Trooper Roberts, formerly a sergeant major in a tank battalion, played by a young Sean Connery.
Harry Andrews plays Regimental Sergeant Major Bert Wilson, a military version of the By-the-Book Cop who has been in the Army 25 years and who admits he would stand a dead man up and inspect him if he was ordered to. He takes pride in his ability to break prisoners down and build them back up again into soldiers. One of the main techniques is running men up and down over top of a large mound constructed in the middle of the prison camp, for which the film is named: The Hill. RSM Wilson firmly believes Misery Builds Character, and what can make you miserable better than running up and down a hill in 30 pounds of equipment and a gas mask, carrying full sandbags, under the noon hour heat of the Libyan desert?
The film is a Psychological Thriller studying the motivations of both the prison staff and the five new arrivals. As Roberts points out during a sun-baked outdoor inspection, "everyone is doing time here, even the screws." There is no mutual affection between the prisoners who present a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. George Stevens is a former office worker. Even RSM Wilson recognizes the soft-spoken Stevens shouldn't be there. Jacko King is a Black soldier from the West Indies who accepts the British Army's casual racism as just another part of his life. Monty Bartlett is a tubby, balding, petty criminal who "never quite got around" to seeing any action. Jock Mc Grath is a hard-drinking tough guy whose quick temper continually lands him in trouble.
There is no solidarity among the prison staff, either, and the film explores the relationship between RSM Wilson and two of the non-commissioned officers. Staff Sergeant Charlie Harris has become weary of punishing mostly decent men who committed minor military infractions and is suspicious of the sergeant-major's methods. Wilson, knowing his own authority rests on the ability of his staff to keep the prisoners in line, realizes Harris has been kinder to the prisoners than he thinks proper. Wilson turns to Staff Sergeant Williams, a new prison guard, to carry out his program of Tough Love. Wilson is equally wary of Williams, suggesting that he volunteered for camp staff because the Germans were bombing England and it was ironically safer for Williams to volunteer for base duty in the desert. Wilson turns the five new arrivals over to Williams as a test of his abilities.
Commissioned officers outranking Wilson are rarely seen. The prison camp commander lives off base, more interested in the local prostitutes, than his job. "He'd sign his own death warrant if I asked him to," Wilson remarks about the CO. The Medical Officer is also disinterested in thoroughly examining the prisoners to determine their fitness for life in the camp. Wilson uses their casual approach to their duties to his own advantage until a crisis occurs that threatens his position. The crisis is brought about by Williams, who quickly blurs the lines between harsh discipline and abuse. The five new arrivals, initially suspicious and hateful of each other, slowly realize their survival will require mutual co-operation against the excesses committed by Williams and endorsed by RSM Wilson who assures him he "has the back" of all his staff.
The characters all have clashing motivations, heightened by each individual's desire simply to survive the camp to which they have all been consigned. Loyalties shift throughout the film as the characters clash in different ways, culminating in a No Ending which leaves the viewer unsure if anyone won or will ever leave the camp with career and sanity intact.
This show provides examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: when the prisoners riot after Steven's death, RSM Wilson arrives in the cells to take charge. When he orders Staff Sergeant Harris to call in more guards, Harris asks if they should be armed, thinking there will be more heavy-handed discipline imposed by Wilson. Wilson's pithy response leaves Harris (and the viewer) confused: "Where do you think you are, Chicago?" Wilson not only doesn't permit firearms into the cells, he actually releases all the prisoners into the centre of the cell block and confronts them all, single-handedly draining away their anger. Harris is so obviously impressed that he permits himself to joke with Wilson in front of the prisoners and Wilson lets it happen.
- Desk Jockey: Private Stevens is shown to be one of these immediately, a meek man who is out of place either in the infantry or in prison. The RSM kindly tells him to obey orders, do his time and get out as fast as he can. It's suggested Bartlett is one of these also, his unmilitary appearance coincides with his confession he never quite got around to serving in combat. His ability to sell motorcycle tires, the reason for being in prison, suggests he spent at least some time in the rear.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Staff Sergeant Williams, naturally, who spends the film shouting and occasionally beating whomever gets in his way. RSM Wilson also counts, though his own handling of troops is more subdued, he relies on the authority of his position rather than his voice, though he is not above shouting to make a point.
- Fallen Hero: Trooper Roberts used to be Squadron Sergeant Major Roberts. He was busted when he refused to continue a suicidal attack and assaulted the officer who ordered him back into a massacre.
- Hellhole Prison: Truth in Television, as British service prisons were notoriously nasty, the intention being to reduce recidivism by making a safe building with a comfy bed and regular food seem somehow worse than serving under fire in the front line. The prison in the film is in the middle of the desert, and the prisoners do everything "at the double" and usually with their full equipment strapped to them, including large pack, rain cape, gas mask, steel helmet, full water bottle, etc. The prisoners sleep on low slung cots in hot cells infested with cockroaches. Sent there for crimes like desertion and theft, the goal is not long term punishment but a short term refresher on the importance of obedience to orders and their sense of duty. "Refreshment" comes in the form of running up and down The Hill with some combination of full equipment, gas mask on, and carrying loaded sandbags.
- Jaded Washout: This is Roberts in spades. He tells the RSM that like him, he was a regular army professional NCO before the war, but came to the conclusion that the rules and regulations that had him sending men to needless deaths were "stupid and out of date." He reveals through dialogue that the reason he is in prison was he pulled his men out of a failed attack and assaulted his commanding officer to try and stop him from sending them back in to certain death. It didn't work, and Roberts later tells that the Troop Sergeant led the survivors back into the battle in Roberts' place. There were no survivors.
- Likable Villain: Slightly played with in that the characters are realistically complicated with varied motivations. Staff Sergeant Williams is the least likeable, showing very few traces of humour. RSM Wilson however starts the film with a touching speech to two men being released from the camp, congratulating them on surviving his imposed discipline and telling them they are true men once again. He affably inspects the new prisoners and even jokes with them, while nonetheless reinforcing the notion that humour is a privilege reserved for the staff. During a riot by the prisoners after the death of Stevens he releases the prisoners from their cells to vent their rage, and ends up joking with the men and Staff Sergeant Harris. Even at the end of the film, as events threaten to overtake him, his reaction is one of disbelief that his authority had so thoroughly been wrecked without his knowledge and the audience can almost feel sympathy for him.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: What Sergeant Williams gets after pushing Private King and McGrath too far.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Sergeant-Major Wilson imagines himself to be running the camp in the absence of the disinterested CO. But as Staff Sergeant Harris tells him in the climax Staff Sergeant Williams has been subverting his authority and "took over days ago - you just didn't notice!"
- Pet the Dog: Major Sergeant Wilson tries to reassure Stevens that if he follows orders, his time at the camp will be over with before he knows it and he can return to a normal life. That might have been true if it weren't for Sergeant Williams' way of running things.
- Police Brutality: Staff Sergeant Williams is a Rabid Cop type in uniform who runs the men ragged on The Hill and beats up Roberts when he doesn't give in to his authority fast enough.
- Reality Has No Soundtrack: There's no music score in the movie, which Lumet had also done in Fail Safe, nad would do in Dog Day Afternoon (except for the song that plays over the opening credits) and Network (except for the music in the newscasts).
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Played with in the case of Sergeant Major Wilson. His rigid, by the book, authoritarian way of doing this seems very unreasonable, but in contrast to Sergeant Williams, he's not a power-hungry sadist and isn't motivated by any personal ill-will towards the prisoners. He also has several Pet the Dog moments towards Stevens and some of the others.
- Staff of Authority: RSM Wilson naturally carries a swagger stick as a badge of office. Williams' efforts to subvert his authority come to a head when Williams provokes Wilson into nearly striking him with the stick.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's left ambiguous if King and McGrath just badly beat up Williams or actually kill him.
