This has been compared favorably to kubrick's anti-war "Paths of Glory" so I was very curious. It's very good, but a little too british for me. Only Ossie Davis's had-enough-of-this sarcastic soldier seemed logical /dignified.
At the same time, there is, as they say, "alot to like". First, unlike "Paths of glory" this is shot in a desert, not on a Hollywood lot and it adds immeasurably to the story. The actors, like the characters they are playing, are truly suffering in the desert heat. There is some clever writing too, my particular favorite being the crafty warden's way of appealing to the men's masculinity and patriotism to keep them in line. The title refers to the manmade monument to their own sadism the british army has created to teach wayward soldiers a lesson, or murder them via sunstroke, whichever comes first.