''Red Hill'' is a 2010 Australian

Neo-Western The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referre ...

thriller film written and directed by Patrick Hughes in his

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. The film stars

Ryan Kwanten Ryan Christian Kwanten (born 28 November 1976) is an Australian actor and producer. He played Vinnie Patterson from 1997 to 2002 in the Australian soap opera ''Home and Away''. After his stint ended, he joined the American teen drama series '' ...

Steve Bisley Steve Bisley (born 26 December 1951) is an Australian writer, film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Mad Max'' and ''The Great Gatsby''. On TV, some of his better-known roles include Detective Sergeant Jack Chr ...

and

Tom E. Lewis Tom E. Lewis (traditional name: Balang Lewis; 25 August 1958 – 10 May 2018) was an Australian actor and musician. He was an Indigenous Australian from the Murrungun people. His first major role was the title role in the 1978 Fred Schepisi film ' ...

Plot

Shane Cooper (

), a young police officer, relocates to the small town of Red Hill with his pregnant wife Alice (

Claire van der Boom Clair or Claire may refer to: *Claire (given name), a list of people with the name Claire *Clair (surname) Places Canada * Clair, New Brunswick, a former village, now part of Haut-Madawaska * Clair Parish, New Brunswick * Pointe-Claire, Que ...

). On his first day on the job, he is shown hostility from William "Old Bill" Jones (

), the head of the police force, for being unable to find his gun and getting shot on duty when he could not bring himself to fire his weapon on an armed boy. Shortly afterwards, the police learn that Jimmy Conway (

), a convicted murderer who was arrested by Old Bill for killing his wife, has escaped from prison. Knowing that Jimmy will return to town to seek revenge, Old Bill orders his officers and a group of civilians to arm themselves and shoot Jimmy on sight. Old Bill's men prove to be no match for Jimmy, who remorselessly kills officers and armed civilians. The convict encounters Shane but lets him live. When Shane finds Old Bill, he confronts Bill over the fact that Jimmy spared his life and learns that Bill has refused to call for backup from a nearby town. Shane draws his gun on Bill, but again finds himself unable to fire it and is subsequently knocked out and handcuffed to a table. Shane escapes and uses a satellite phone at Gleason's farm to contact the nearby police for backup. During the call Shane discovers Gleason (

Cliff Ellen Cliff Ellen (born 22 March 1936, in Melbourne) is an Australian character actor who played a prominent guest role on the soap opera Neighbours as Charlie Cassidy. His first role was in ''Homicide''. His credits include ''Crackerjack'', ''Garb ...

) on the verge of hanging himself; when Shane talks to him, the farmer reveals that Jimmy Conway is innocent of the murder of his wife. The murder was the work of Old Bill and his men, who set fire to Jimmy's house after raping and killing his wife, revenge for Jimmy's interference in a proposed railroad extension that would have gone through Red Hill. Gleason informs Shane that he has a written document of what really happened, before committing suicide. Now knowing the real reason why Jimmy returned to Red Hill, Shane returns home to get his gun, which Alice found while he was on duty. Near the outskirts of town, Old Bill sets stacks of hay on fire to attract Jimmy's attention. Jimmy arrives and kills Bill's last remaining deputies, but is stopped from finishing Bill off when two of Bill's friends arrive and hold him at gunpoint. Shane also arrives and saves Jimmy by shooting Bill's friends after informing Bill that he knows the truth. The police backup arrives and confront Jimmy as he prepares to get his revenge on Old Bill. Despite Shane's efforts to get him to drop his gun, Jimmy kills Old Bill and is promptly shot by the police. Before dying, the seemingly mute Jimmy tells Shane that his wife was pregnant with his son.

Cast

as Shane Cooper *

as William "Old Bill" Jones *

as Dural "Jimmy" Conway *

as Alice Cooper * Christopher Davis as Slim * Kevin Harrington as Jim Barlow * Richard Sutherland as Manning * Ken Radley as Earl *

John Brumpton John Brumpton (born 28 July 1958) is an Australian actor who has appeared in a large number of local productions. Early life Brumpton grew up in Sydney. He graduated from the University of New South Wales in 1982 with a Bachelor of Surve ...

as Rex *

as Gleason * Jim Daly as Ted * Dom Phelan as Ken *

Eddie Baroo Eddie Baroo (born 25 September 1968) is an Australian actor, screenwriter, singer and guitarist. He is the lead singer and frontman of the band Stodgewood. His notable films are '' Red Hill'' (2010), '' Crawlspace'' (2012), and '' The Dry'' (2020 ...

as Willy * Tim Hughes as Micky Carlin * Ken Connley as Joseph Carlin * Richard E. Young as Dale *

Jada Alberts Jada Alberts is an Aboriginal Australian actor, playwright, screenwriter, director, artist and poet. Early life and education Alberts is from the Top End of Australia, of Larrakia, Yanuwa, Bardi and Wardaman descent. Their mother is Franche ...

as Ellin Conway

Production

Finance for

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

was raised privately. The film was shot over a period of four weeks in

Omeo, Victoria Omeo ( ) is a town in Victoria, Australia on the Great Alpine Road, east of Mount Hotham, in the Shire of East Gippsland. At the 2016 census, Omeo had a population of 406. The name is derived from an Aboriginal word for 'mountains' or 'hills ...

. After the film was shot, an edit was put together and the film was shopped around to find a distributor and funds to finish the film. The film received completion funds from

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

and Arclight Films.

Release

''Red Hill'' premiered at the

60th Berlin International Film Festival The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 21 February 2010, with Werner Herzog as President of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama ''Apart Together'', in comp ...

on 14 February 2010 in the Panorama section. It was released in the United States on 5 November 2010 and in Australia on 25 November.

Reception

The film generally received positive reviews. It holds a 79% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 67 reviews, with an average score of 6.48/10. The site's consensus reads: "Though its attempts to rework genre conventions may fall flat with some, ''Red Hill'' is a beautifully shot, tightly paced thriller that marks a strong debut for director Patrick Hughes".

David Stratton David James Stratton (born 10 September 1939) is an English-Australian award-winning film critic, as both a journalist and interviewer, film historian and lecturer and television personality and producer. Life and career Born in Trowbridge, ...

of '' At the Movies'' gave the film four out of five stars and said "The plot isn't exactly original … but after a deliberately slow start the film gradually builds the suspense and eventually explodes into very well-staged action." Jeanette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' gave the film a positive review, saying "''Red Hill'' wears its clichés proudly and its violence with panache. Patrick Hughes directs and edits his own story with fanatical focus, while Tim Hudson's photography coaxes foreboding from every rust-brown shadow and desiccated blade of grass." Sandra Hall of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' gave the film three out of five stars, saying " Rodriguez has made stuff like this work by demonstrating a healthy sense of self-parody. Hughes has yet to master that. You can also see his climactic plot twist looming from a great distance and these shortcomings add up to a portentousness jarringly at odds with the film's modest intentions."

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Hill 2010 directorial debut films 2010 films 2010 Western (genre) films 2010s thriller films Australian Western (genre) films Australian thriller films Films directed by Patrick Hughes Films shot in Australia Films about Aboriginal Australians Neo-Western films 2010s English-language films