Israeli War of Independence. Four soldiers—James Finnegan, Goodman, David and Esther—die securing a Jerusalem hill for Israel. Their stories are told in flashback: during the British Mandate of Palestine, British police officer James was ordered to find Jewish suspects who blew up a radio station. He followed Berger to a house, owned by Miriam. Instead, James fell in love with Miriam, and volunteered for the Jewish army. American Goodman arrived for a tourist visit, but was so fascinated by the Jews he joined them in the war, and when he was wounded, he met Esther. David fought in the Negev desert, and stumbled upon an ex-Nazi who was wounded and died in a cave. The four die, but the UN observers accept the hill as secured for Israel.
Sometimes regarded as the first film of cinema of Israel, included in the book "1001 Movies You Must See", "Hill 24 Doesn't Answer" is biased and idealized, yet still a surprisingly well made film with more than enough good stylistic ideas by British director Thorold Dickinson. The sole opening is already inventive: the heads of four dead volunteers—James, Goodman, David and Esther—are shown lying on the ground, but as each of their names are read out aloud off screen, this is juxtaposed with sudden cuts to each one of them standing up into the frame, alive, as the movie then goes to a flashback when they were alive and called upon in the office to secure the hill from the title in a daring military expedition. Dickinson has also other cinematic techniques which give the movie spark, even though they are sparse: for instance, 19 minutes into the film, Miriam is inside her house, and then approaches closer to the camera, which is followed by an aesthetic match cut to her same position in frame while in another location, the office, sent for interrogation.
Other, "proper" ideas are also well done, such as when a British official, dressed as a civilian, is secretly spying on Miriam, but she just jokingly turns his newspaper upside down, since he cannot read Hebrew script. The story has a lot of sympathy for Jews, even making a parallel with an exodus when the wounded Jewish soldiers have to leave East Jerusalem after the Arabs captured it in the battle, which somewhat strays from the objective point of view at several instances. A major omission is that three of the four protagonists were shown in the flashback, except for Esther who is sadly neglected and doesn't get her own story or a more in-depth character development. The most bizarre flashback involves David, who fought in the Negev desert and captured a man in a cave who turns out to be an ex-Nazi, who admits: "I just want to fight. Anybody... anything! I did not learn anything else!" Despite some banalities, the movie is much more competent than expected, and is honest in its depiction of the rarely talked about creation of Israel, as well as the British Mandate of Palestine which preceded it.
Grade:++
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