North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objective. It's The Hill, a manmade instrument of torture, a tower of sand seared by a white-hot sun. And the troops' tormentors are not the enemy, but their own comrades-at-arms.
Acting
Connery shatters his Bond image completely.
Direction
Lumet's camera traps you in the heat.
Cinematography
Oswald Morris makes sand feel suffocating.
Director
Sidney Lumet
Sean Connery
Joe Roberts
Harry Andrews
R.S.M. Wilson
Ian Bannen
Harris
Alfred Lynch
George Stevens
Ossie Davis
Jacko King
Roy Kinnear
Monty Bartlett
Jack Watson
Jock McGrath
Ian Hendry
Staff Sergeant Williams
Michael Redgrave
The Medical Officer
Norman Bird
Commandant
Neil McCarthy
Burton
Howard Goorney
Walters
Tony Caunter
Martin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Connery insisted on doing the hill runs himself and collapsed twice from heat exhaustion. Method acting or stubborn Scottish pride? You decide.
Released the same year as 'The Sound of Music' — while audiences sang about hills alive with music, Lumet showed hills that kill men slowly.
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