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-in-arms.

Sean Connery headlines this stark tale of war inside military prison walls. The inmates are soldiers who once defied, rebelled, talked back. The wardens are sadists who perpetrate cruelty in the name of discipline. The result is shattering as director "Sidney Lumet nails the action... into so taut a frame that an audience can feel every jab in the belly, taste every mouthful of dust" (TIME).