Beneath Hill 60

After almost 100 years since the start of World War I you would have thought we'd have heard all the stories. Now along comes a new one about a group of unlikely Aussie diggers.

In 1916 a group of Australian miners were sent to Belgium and the front lines to dig beneath German troops and set off explosives. And one particular dig in which they must tunnel under Hill 60 and create the largest explosion the world had seen up to that time.

It must be said that despite being a war film there is very little action. The story is about what is going on below the war underground. But in saying that the film in very thrilling and has many tense sequences. My only real disappointment would be that it took a little too long to get to the main action at Hill 60. I understand that they had to do some set up and establish what these guys were doing but to me there needed to be a little less of that and a quicker journey to the main action. As well as telling us about the guys in the war, writer David Roach has blended in scenes of our hero Oliver Woodward, his life before the war and romance of his future wife Marjorie. This is a very good technique in breaking up the very blokey action of the war and bringing some colour to a brown setting. While good it would have been nice to see some of Oliver's work as a minor in Australia.

Brendan Cowell recently starred in a comedy, but a drama like this is where he excels. Brendan is excellent at giving us a lot of details about his character even in quiet scenes. Oliver does alot of thinking in the film and working out how to dig the right hole and Brendan is great at making these scenes interesting. His team is a mixed bunch of soldiers with some of the usual traits. The best is Steve La Marquand as the tough no nonsense soldier.

Despite a couple of minor quibbles this is quality Aussie film making. Telling a very uniquely Australian story that many do not know about. I encourage all Australians to see it.