History Film / TheHill

* PetTheDog: Major Sergent Wilson tries to reassure Stevens that if he follows orders, his time at the camp will be over with before he knows it and he can return to a normal life. That might have been true if it weren't for Sergeant Williams' way of running things.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Played with in the case of Sergeant Major Wilson. His rigid, by the book, authoritarian way of doing this seems very unreasonable, but in contrast to Sergeant Williams, he's not a sadist and isn't motivated by any personal ill-will towards the prisoners. He also has several PetTheDog moments towards Stevens and some of the others.

* StaffOfAuthority: RSM Wilson naturally carries a swagger stick as a badge of office. Williams' efforts to subvert his authority come to a head when [[spoiler: Williams provokes Wilson into nearly striking him with the stick]].

Creator/HarryAndrews plays Regimental Sergeant Major Bert Wilson, a military version of the ByTheBookCop who has been in the Army 25 years and who admits he would stand a dead man up and inspect him if he was ordered to. He takes pride in his ability to break prisoners down and build them back up again into men. One of the main techniques is [[TrainingFromHell running men up and down over top of a large mound]] constructed in the middle of the prison camp, for which the film is named: The Hill. RSM Wilson firmly believes MiseryBuildsCharacter, and what can make you miserable better than running up and down a hill in 30 pounds of equipment and a gas mask, carrying full sandbags, under the noon hour heat of the Libyan desert?

Filmed in starkly lit black and white, this 1965 film directed by Sidney Lumet is set in a British military prison in the Western Desert during World War II. The film opens with the arrival of five new prisoners including [[FallenHero fallen hero]] Trooper Roberts, formerly a sergeant major in a tank battalion, played by a young [[Creator/SeanConnery Sean Connery]].

* NonActionBigBad: Sergeant-Major Wilson imagines himself to be running the camp in the absence of the disinterested CO. But as Staff Sergeant Harris tells him in the climax [[spoiler: Staff Sergeant Williams has been subverting his authority and "took over days ago - you just didn't notice!"]]

Harry Andrews plays Regimental Sergeant Major Bert Wilson, a military version of the ByTheBookCop who has been in the Army 25 years and who admits he would stand a dead man up and inspect him if he was ordered to. He takes pride in his ability to break prisoners down and build them back up again into men. One of the main techniques is [[TrainingFromHell running men up and down over top of a large mound]] constructed in the middle of the prison camp, for which the film is named: The Hill. RSM Wilson firmly believes MiseryBuildsCharacter, and what can make you miserable better than running up and down a hill in 30 pounds of equipment and a gas mask, carrying full sandbags, under the noon hour heat of the Libyan desert?

[[caption-width-right:350:'''Roberts:''' "You'd drop a dead man and inspect him if you was ordered to!" '''Wilson:''' ''"You're right!"'']]

* StaffOfAuthority: RSM naturally carries a swagger stick as a badge of office. Williams' efforts to subvert his authority come to a head when [[spoiler: Williams provokes Wilson into nearly striking him with the stick]].

[[caption-width-right:350:Roberts: "You'd drop a dead man and inspect him if you was ordered to!" Wilson: "You're right!"]]