The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Christopher Monger |
Written by | Ifor David Monger Ivor Monger Christopher Monger |
Produced by | Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein Sarah Curtis Sally Hibbin Robert Jones Scott Maitland Paul Sarony |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Vernon Layton |
Edited by | David Martin |
Music by | Stephen Endelman Gwalia Male Choir |
Production companies | Miramax Films Parallax Pictures |
Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $21 million [1] |
The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain is a 1995 romantic comedy film with a story by Ifor David Monger and Ivor Monger, written and directed by Christopher Monger. It was entered into the 19th Moscow International Film Festival [2] and was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. [3]
The film is based on a story heard by Christopher Monger from his grandfather about the real village of Taff's Well, in the old county of Glamorgan, and its neighbouring Garth Hill. Due to 20th century urbanisation of the area, it was filmed in the more rural Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llansilin in Powys.
In 1917, during World War I, two English cartographers, the pompous George Garrad and his junior, Reginald Anson, arrive in the fictional Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw to measure its "mountain", but everyone in town is at church, it being a Sunday. The only exception is Morgan the Goat [Note 1] who manages the local inn and is the only redhead in the village. Most of the men of the town are away at war, and the film implies that the women are visiting the inn and have redheaded children. The cartographers reach the top and do some preliminary measurements and come up with a height of 930 feet, qualifying it as a mere hill. Anson returns and reassures them that they have more accurate measurements to make the next day.
The next day, the entire village mills around the mountain, eagerly anticipating the results. The cartographers announce that the more accurate measurements indicate a height of 984 feet, just 16 feet short of qualifying the "hill" as a mountain at 1,000 feet (305 m). The townsfolk are crestfallen and hold a town hall meeting. Morgan the Goat proposes that they raise the mountain by 20 feet, and the villagers return to the cartographers to persuade them to stay while they build a structure on the mountain, but Anson disagrees and says they have a tight schedule and they will be leaving in the morning. The Reverend Robert Jones, who, after initially opposing the scheme, grasps its symbolism in restoring the community's war-damaged self-esteem, conspires with Morgan to delay the cartographers' departure while they build an earth mound on top of the hill and make it high enough to be considered a mountain.
The next morning, everyone rallies and starts digging earth from their backyards and transporting it to the hill. On the first day, they make a mound that is approximately 14 feet high. Meanwhile, the cartographers' car is sabotaged, with the town mechanic deliberately fumbling around and breaking apart, informing them that a replacement needs to be brought in from Cardiff. When the cartographers try to catch a train from the local station, they are misinformed that the trains only carry coal. Morgan also enlists a local woman, Betty, to entertain the two Englishmen.
At this point, it starts raining and the mud on the hill begins washing off down from 14 to 10 feet. Morgan declares an emergency and asks the mechanic to remove the tarpaulin covering the broken car and take it to the mountain to cover the construction site. The rain continues all night and all day from Thursday to Sunday. On Sunday, Reverend Jones encourages the villagers to finish the work they started. Upon Anson's suggestion, they also cover the mound with sod before the last light. During the works, Reverend Jones collapses and dies from exhaustion and old age, and the mourning villagers bury him on the mountain.
After the burial, the townspeople convince Anson to stay the night at the top of the mountain and measure it at the break of dawn because their train leaves early. Betty, who has gotten close to him, offers to keep him company, and they end up sharing a kiss. When Anson descends from the mountain, he informs the people that the mountain is 1,002 feet high and also announces his engagement to Betty.
Many years later, the mountain has settled down to 997 feet, thus turning back into a hill. The spirit of the Reverend buried on the mountain exhales "a hill" in a groan and all the modern-day townspeople rally with buckets of earth to raise the hill again.
In the script there is a joke which is not obvious to non-Welsh speakers. A mechanic is asked about a nondescript broken part he has removed from a car, and replies "Well I don't know the English word, but in Welsh we call it a be'chi'ngalw." In Welsh, be'chi'ngalw is a placeholder name, like "whatchamacallit" or "thingamajig" in English. [5] It literally means "what [do] you call?", and is a contracted form of "beth dych chi'n galw". The joke is made obvious in the novel published after the film's release.
The film grossed $11 million in the United States and Canada and $21 million worldwide. [1]
In regard to its humorous and affectionate description of the locals, the film has often been compared with Waking Ned , a 1998 comedy film written and directed by Kirk Jones. The movie has resulted in a stream of visitors climbing to the summit of The Garth, and the Pentyrch History Society and the local community council have erected a notice on the mountain to explain its real historical significance. [6]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "Fresh" score of 67% with an average rating of 6.0/10, based on 33 reviews. The consensus states: "With an ample serving of Hugh Grant's trademark charm, a quirky Welsh town comes together to put their town on the map in this feel-good folksy tale." [7]
The 2000 VeggieTales episode "King George and the Ducky" includes a skit called "The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill (And Came Down With All The Bananas)". It quickly spirals out of control with the addition of "The Swede Who Went Up A Hill (And Came Down With All The Strawberries)".
Snowdon, or Yr Wyddfa, is a mountain in the Snowdonia region of North Wales. It has an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon is designated a national nature reserve for its rare flora and fauna, and is located within Snowdonia National Park.
Mount Elbert is the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America. With an elevation of 14,440 feet (4401.2 m), it is also the highest point in the U.S. state of Colorado and the second-highest summit in the contiguous United States after Mount Whitney, which is slightly taller. The ultra-prominent fourteener is the highest peak in the Sawatch Range, as well as the highest point in the entire Mississippi River drainage basin. Mount Elbert is located in San Isabel National Forest, 12.1 miles (19.4 km) southwest of the city of Leadville in Lake County, Colorado.
Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant is a village, community and an ecclesiastical parish in the extreme north of Powys, Wales; about 9 miles west of Oswestry and 12 miles south of Llangollen, on the B4580. It lies near the foothills of the Berwyn mountains on the river Rhaeadr. At the top end of the valley is the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall, one of the Seven Wonders of Wales in the old rhyme. One mile north of the town is the hill Moel Hen-fache. The community includes the hamlet of Llanarmon Mynydd Mawr.
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as mountains.
Cadair Berwyn, Cader Berwyn or Craig Uchaf is a mountain summit in north-east Wales with a height of 832 metres (2,730 ft) above sea level. It is the highest point in the Berwyn range, the highest in North East Wales and the highest significant summit in Wales outside the National Parks. Cadair Berwyn and Foel Cedig to the west are the two Marilyns that form the Berwyn range. The undulating plateau of the range also includes a large number of other summits above 2,000 feet (610 m), including satellite summits of Cadair Berwyn and many which are classed as Nuttalls.
The Black Mountains are a group of hills spread across parts of Powys and Monmouthshire in southeast Wales, and extending across the England–Wales border into Herefordshire. They are the easternmost of the four ranges of hills that comprise the Brecon Beacons National Park, and are frequently confused with the westernmost, which is known as the Black Mountain. The Black Mountains may be roughly defined as those hills contained within a triangle defined by the towns of Abergavenny in the southeast, Hay-on-Wye in the north and the village of Llangors in the west. Other gateway towns to the Black Mountains include Talgarth and Crickhowell. The range of hills is well known to walkers and ramblers for the ease of access and views from the many ridge trails, such as that on the Black Hill in Herefordshire, at the eastern edge of the massif. The range includes the highest public road in Wales at Gospel Pass, and the highest point in southern England at Black Mountain.
Pentyrch is a village and community located on the western outskirts of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The village gives its name to a Cardiff local authority electoral ward, Pentyrch, which covers the village and immediate surrounding area. The Pentyrch community includes the neighbouring village of Creigiau and Gwaelod y Garth. People living in Pentyrch are commonly known as "Penterchyians".
Kenneth Griffith was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker. His outspoken views made him a controversial figure, especially when presenting documentaries which have been called "among the most brilliant, and controversial, ever made in Britain".
Taff's Well is a semi-rural village, community and electoral ward located at the south-eastern tip of Rhondda Cynon Taf, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the north of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Known locally as the 'Gates to the Valleys', it is separated from Gwaelod-y-Garth by the River Taff. Taff's Well is distinguished because it contains the only thermal spring in Wales. The tepid water is thought to rise along a fault-line from the Carboniferous Limestone, in somewhat similar manner to the warm springs at Bristol and Bath. Various religious groups regard it as a spiritual site.
Llansilin is a village and local government community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales, 5 miles (8 km) west of Oswestry. The community, which includes Llansilin village, a large rural area and the hamlets of Moelfre and Rhiwlas as well as the remote parish of Llangadwaladr, had a population of 648 at the 2001 census, increasing to 698 at the 2011 Census. There is also an electoral ward including the nearby village of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant with a population of 2,295.
Garth Hill is a hill located in between the communities of Llantwit Fardre and Pentyrch in Wales. The Garth can be seen from nearly the whole of the city of Cardiff and the Taff Valley, and on a sunny, clear day as far as Weston-super-Mare across the Bristol Channel in southwest England. It lies adjacent to the Taff Vale with the village of Pentyrch on one side and looks down onto the small villages of Gwaelod-y-Garth and Taff's Well. The Garth has a number of tumuli on its top. These are burial sites dating from the early to middle Bronze Age.
Pontycymer, also spelt Pontycymmer, is a former mining village in Wales. It is situated in the Garw Valley, in Bridgend County Borough, about 7 miles or 11 km north of the town of Bridgend.
Christopher Monger is a Welsh screenwriter, director and editor, best known for writing and directing The Englishman who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain and writing the HBO biopic Temple Grandin. He has directed eight feature films and written over thirty screenplays.
Robert Pugh is a Welsh actor, known for his many television appearances, including the role of Craster in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
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Mynydd y Glyn is a mountain in South Wales, between the towns of Pontypridd and Tonyrefail. It has a height above sea level of 377 metres.
David Lloyd Meredith was an English actor. He came from a Welsh family background, but was born in London.
Hay Bluff is a prominent hill at the northern tip of the Black Mountains, an extensive upland massif which straddles the border between south-east Wales and England. The mountain sits at the point where the main northeast-facing escarpment of the Black Mountains meets the northwest facing escarpment, the next peak to the west being Twmpa. The flat summit of Hay Bluff which is marked by a triangulation pillar at a height of 677 metres (2,221 ft) overlooks the middle Wye Valley and the book town of Hay-on-Wye.
The 19th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 July 1995. The Golden St. George was not awarded.
The Englishman who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain (novel) is a 1995 novel by Christopher Monger.