30 BIG RED ONE, THE
Reception
After a red carpet premiere in Townsville on 15 April 2010, Beneath Hill 60 opened
nationally the next day and ultimately brought in a total of 9.6 million (AUD) ($6.8
million USD) in foreign and domestic box offices— solid returns perhaps repre-
senting a modest profit after advertising and promotion costs were deducted. The
film garnered 16 AACTA Award nominations among other nominations and awards.
The film did not attract much attention outside of Australia, but most of the reviews
by Australian film critics were positive— although Margaret Pomerantz damned
the film with faint praise: “Perhaps the tension of the situation is not exploited quite
as much as one would hope but this is an ambitious proj ect that will resonate”
(Pomerantz, 2010).Reel History Versus Real History
Closely based on Woodward’s unpublished war diary and other war archive docu-
ments, Beneath Hill 60 achieves a high degree of historical accuracy in its depiction
of equipment, weapons, and uniforms; the look and feel of the trenches and tun-
nels; and the events depicted. It also manages to adopt a tone of quiet realism that
avoids nationalistic self- congratulation (though flashbacks detailing Wood-
ward’s courtship of Marjorie Waddell slow the pace of the narrative). The film does,
however, engage in considerable poetic license in its depiction of Frank Tiffin. There
was a sapper named Frederick “Frank” Matterson Tiffin in the 1st Tunneling Com-
pany, but he survived the war and died an old man in 1962. Little else is known
about him. In the film Tiffin evolves from frightened boy, to intrepid soldier, to
martyr- hero— pure fiction designed to elicit the maximum emotional audience
reaction when Woodward is forced to sacrifice him to complete the mission. View-
ers watching Bill Fraser’s frantic run through the trenches to try and stop the
detonation will be reminded of a similar scene in Peter Weir’s Gallipoli (1981), when
Frank Dunne (Mel Gibson) runs through the trenches in a desperate, futile effort
to stop a suicidal assault that will kill his best friend, Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee).BIG RED ONE, THE (1980; RESTORED VERSION,
2004)
Synopsis
The Big Red One is an American war epic starring Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill
and written and directed by Samuel Fuller, based on his own combat experiences
as a soldier with the 1st Infantry Division (aka “The Big Red One”), from fighting
in North Africa, through the D- Day invasion of Normandy, until Germany’s sur-
render in May 1945.Background
During World War II, Samuel Fuller (1912–1997) enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942
and was assigned to the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division (aka “the
Big Red One”). Fuller saw combat in every major Eu ro pean campaign and was