Fed: Beneath Hill 60 not patriotic war movie: director

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2010
Fed: Beneath Hill 60 not patriotic war movie: director

By Alyssa Braithwaite, National Entertainment Writer

SYDNEY April 12 AAP - Beneath Hill 60 reveals the untold story of how a group of Australian
miners became World War One heroes.

It's being released in time for Anzac Day, but the film's director, Jeremy Sims, says
it was not his intention to make a patriotic war movie.

"I don't like jingoism," Sims told AAP.

"That's one of the reasons in the film that there's a German side of the story that
is told - I didn't want to get involved in making a patriotic war movie.

"And I certainly didn't want to give the impression that we thought the Australians
were braver, stronger, wiser, or any of those things. Everyone was in the same boat."

Based on the diaries of Captain Oliver Woodward, the film recounts the story of a group
of miners sent to the Western Front to dig beneath enemy lines.

They created the biggest explosion the world had seen, and helped change the course
of the war on the Western Front.

Brendan Cowell, who plays Woodward, said everyone involved in the making of the film
was interested in telling the incredible human story.

"(The idea) was more to just remark on this insane time and this spirit of these miners,"

he said.

"They were not real soldiers, they were miners with six days training - so 15 and 50-year-old
guys from Queensland - and they didn't come home from Europe and go, `hey we blew up Hill
60 and created the biggest explosion in the history of the world'.

"They never spoke about it. So we want to tell the story without a big song and dance,
just in a respectful way because I think that would be the only way they'd want it told."

The film was shot in Townsville in 2009, and had a budget of $9.5 million.

The ensemble cast also features Gyton Grantley, Anthony Hayes, Aden Young and a young
rising star by the name of Harrison Gilbertson.

At just 16, he plays a boy of the same age who pretended to be older so he could do
his part for the war effort.

Gilbertson said he hoped other young people his age would go and see the movie and
learn how tough previous generations had it.

"One of the biggest things for me in doing any role that is different and a character
that is in a bad place is the superficialness of this generation, of people on Facebook
and complaining because their internet is being slow, and complaining because the guy
won't talk to them so they're having a go at them over Facebook," he said.

"There's kids living on the streets, and there's kids in Iraq, and I hope people see
it and it reminds them that they're pretty lucky and they shouldn't be complaining."

Beneath Hill 60 opens nationally on April 15.

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