Oldies but goodies

Rico says sometimes you shouldn't go back to revisit favorite things, because they don't always hold up to your memory of them. (Old girlfriends are like that, though Rico would make an exception for certain of them.) Fortunately, the movie The Hill isn't one of them. Having seen it first run (in 1966, probably), it was nice to see it was as good as he remembered.
With such a cast (Sean Connery, of course, but also every great British actor of the era— Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Roy Kinnear, Jack Watson, Ian Hendry, and Sir Michael Redgrave— and one great American actor, Ossie Davis, playing a British soldier from the Caribbean), how could it not?
Black & white, of course, given the era, but it still looks as hot and dry as it would've in color...
It's the story of a punitive brigade in the desert during the Second World War, but it's really one of those timeless men-abusing-men-because-they-can prison stories. Given the shouted British accents, sometimes hard to understand, but still worth watching. (Rico says he cheated and put the subtitles on.)
To Rico, of course, they all sound like his friend Charles O. Hegarty, formerly a sergeant in Her Majesty's Royal Marines, who had the shouting down perfectly when Rico knew him in Nantucket. He's probably gone now (last word from England was that he wasn't well), but his voice will echo in Rico's head forever...
It took Rico quite awhile to finish watching this (other things having intruded), but (while depressing), it was worth it. The acting, as you'd expect from the list of those in the film, was excellent, and the story (if a little exaggerated) all too realistic. The good guys (though few) didn't win this one, but the bad guys (while few, they're very bad) didn't either. Worth watching, in any case...