AMC does it again..
as I was painting a mini I had the t.v. on in the background as noise and mild entertainment..
there aren't very many channels I tune into.. History, History International, Food Network, and... AMC.. the American Movie Classics..
tonight I was delighted to watch The Hill www.imdb.com/title/tt0059274/
its rare for a movie to spell-bind me, usually I multi-task with some other endeavor (such as reading, writing, or painting) to keep my brain from spinning around..
From the start to the end I was transfixed.. there was no way it could have been made today. The open racism and racial slurs would never get past the ratings board.. there was not enough violence.. it relied too heavily upon the actors ability. I'm not saying that excellent movies aren't stil being released, they are simply a rare commodity.
The Hill focuses upon a group of British soldiers sent to a military prison for various crimes.. there they are faced with overwhelming hardships, incompetant officers, and outdated rules..
I couldn't really find anything that I didn't enjoy about the movie. The acting was spectacular by basically the entire cast, while the director used their talents to weave a transfixing vision. The crew endured mind boggling issues while filming in Spain from daily temps of 115 degrees to bouts of dystentary (even Sean Connery subcumbed to it) and the extreme conditions were evident in the performances.
I especially liked the 'hero', Sean Connerys character, because he was realistic.. he wasn't an uber soldier.. he wasn't a paragon of virtue wrongly jailed..
He freely admitted that he commited his crime, but he felt justified in what he had done..
he didn't form excuses
he simply thought that the rule book that they were using and living by was dead and that it was causing the needless deaths of his fellow soldiers.. I even enjoyed the ending (which I won't go into in case someone actually decides to rent it)
I'd say it was an 8 out of 10.. maybe even an 8.2