Punishment Park

You can't watch a film like Peter Watkins' "Privilege," a story of the exploitation of a pop music performer by big business, the state, and even organized religion, without thinking of creatively degenerate commodities like Michael Jackson or Britney Spears, who hawk corporate giants like Pepsi or some other poison for money. Or any number of entertainers, in music or movies, who become tools of political parties or commercial religious interests like Scientology and Kabbalah. A film like Privilege must have seemed almost like science fiction when released in 1967, so fantastic was its premise. Today we tend to take celebrity endorsements for granted, giving little thought to its more alarming implications. Watkins' vision has not only become reality, we tacitly accept this reality as "normal." Now consider Punishment Park. As Privilege challenges the viewer to examine what is being sold to us, and why, Punishment Park demands that we reckon with what is being taken from us, and why. Heaven help America, and for that matter the world, if contemporary politicians get their hands on this film. It is already so close to reality, that in viewing it recently, I experienced a genuine, nauseating feeling of anxiety. Watkins again skillfully employs a documentary-style narrative. Whereas in Privilege some rough edges to this technique were apparent, in Punishment Park it has been honed to sharp, seamless perfection. The sense of realism is enhanced by disarmingly unpretentious, economical, believable portrayals by the entire cast. This is the kind of acting Hollywood has completely turned its back on, to its detriment, in favor of cosmetically perfect image projections. The cast has first-rate material to work with in Watkins' screenplay. Many cinematic visionaries have tried to shake the viewer out of their complacent, false sense of security. No one has ever achieved this result with such stark and chilling accuracy as Peter Watkins does here. "What seems quite clear now, is that instead of trying to bring the estranged and excluded Americans, such as these people, back into the national community, the Administration has chosen to accept and exploit the present division within the country, and to side with what it considers is the majority. Instead of the politics of reconciliation, it has chosen the politics of polarization." To paraphrase one of the characters, we don't have to call them pigs because they know what they are. Better than we do.

Certain aspects of Punishment Park are less than perfect, specifically some of the acting. However I feel that this is probably the most important movie of the "war on terror" era. I grew up hating hippies and in some respects I still do. It wasn't until the United States was started down the path of an unnecessary and deceitful war in Iraq that I began to see the world through their eyes. I can feel what they must have felt. Although the film is somewhat dated, watching it brings those uncomfortable emotions about our present situation right to the surface. It's clear enough early in the film that Punishment Park is designed to be a concentration and death camp for all the "unpatriotic" elements of American society. This is certainly an exaggerated and extreme view of our polarized society, but it is CREDIBLE. At times I find myself believing that the USA could easily slip into fascism. As I watched this film I could only think about how I hear similar sentiments from people on both sides of the political spectrum almost daily. This movie is a raw, concentrated distillation of America's PRESENT political scene. I am both impressed and saddened that something this relevant (and yes, accurate) was filmed more than 30 years ago. If you take a more moderate view of the movie and choose to believe that this couldn't happen here, look more closely at Guantanamo Bay, some of our "enemy combatants," the rumored CIA secret prisons and the many incidents similar to the one in Greensboro, NC in 1979 (8 full years AFTER the making of this movie).

Punishment Park is a good film in a sense, but it's so heavily laden with ridiculous and over stated arguments that it's hard to watch. I realize that realistically, the arguments portrayed in this movie are the arguments that people opposed to the government make. As are the arguments made by the government officials and police officers in the film. At the same time, it's very frustrating to watch because of that. One comment in the film I think perfectly describes my feeling. When facing the tribunal, one of the prisoners says "how is using LSD the same as starting wars and killing children". The answer is simple to anyone with a functioning brain, you can answer with a question with a question. How many people die from drug abuse every year? How many people have died because someone got them to use a "harmless, mind freeing" drug? I feel the same frustration with the movie from the opposite angle. The tribunal members are always ranting on about freedom and independence, yet the draft and incidents like the Kent State shootings represent the very anti-thesis of freedom. If your fighting a war thats supposed to be just (I believe it was) how can you possibly justify it with unjust actions? It's things like this throughout the movie that I find make it nearly impossible to watch. Another reviewer here likened the movie to a Clockwork Orange, I would agree. This film has that same, you agree with both sides but your torn because how can we have civilized society without the right to self defense, without the rule of law and punishment for breaking that law? How can we be free if we're constantly shackled by the same laws that protect us? Can there ever be a balance? I think Punishment Park convey's that about as well as Clockwork albeit in a very different style and feel. So why am I rating it six stars and not higher? Simply because of that style and feel. It seems to lack any real conclusion to whats presented and it fails to feel finished, or refined. It feels instead like watching footage of the Oka stand-off or the LA riots (both of which I watched live as a side note), your frustrated, annoyed, angry and sometimes just bored. Your left with the feeling that nothing has really been stated, nothing has been achieved or resolved and that everyone involved is just plain nuts. The people calling for freedom are the same ones locking people up for protesting. The people calling for an end to tyranny are the same people calling for tobacco and gun bans. Those calling for non-violence are grasping at the nearest knife, and those fighting wars for liberty are the ones burning books. It's all just a mess of conflicting ideals coming out of the mouths of people who have a fantastic ability to double talk, and an even greater ability to fight with each other. It's not a horrible movie, but it's far from great and it's not the "protest" film people make it out to be. It's rather an unfinished work that compares to something great in idea but lacks the conviction to finish what it starts...at least with any effect. That said, I can now be berated by all of those who love free thought and the right to self expression. Simply because they love this movie and I don't *insert sarcastic wink here*.

I found `Punishment Park' to be an interesting and thought provoking film. However, I feel obligated to add an opposing viewpoint to this film. First of all, I am not a very political person but I consider myself a Libertarian when it comes down to it. That essentially puts me squarely in the middle of left and right wing ideology. Anyhow, `Punishment Park' left me very confused in the end. *SPOILERS* What is the overall message here? I interpreted it this way: The establishment is merciless, ignorant, and inherently violent. The subversives have a mixed variety of messages from childish hatred of the establishment to genuinely thought provoking ideas. Yet all the subversives defy the establishment in a very bratty `f-you' manner and are ultimately responsible for their own downfall. A good proportion of the subversives are also merciless, ignorant, and inherently violent. If you walk through the desert in 100 degree heat without water for three days you'll live. If you fight the system you will lose no matter what. This is because the system cheats and some of the rebels use violence. Also, none of the rebels have the sense to figure out how to outsmart `The Man'. Thus, everybody loses. Huh? This film could have been so much better if it were just a little more grounded in reality. I felt neither side of the equation was represented fairly or realistically. Who is the good guy who is the bad guy? I hated everyone in this film. My sentence is Punishment Park for everyone! I'd say this is a film worth seeing but with a very critical eye. I don't think the filmmakers got all their ideas straight. It seemed to be created by people who had some damn interesting ideas and a big soap box but no way to make it all click so that their message was clear and believable. I recommend `Das Experiment' for as a more effective way to get a point across in a film.

**** POSSIBLE SPOILER **** What we have here are a lot of angry people, and the more emotional the characters become, the greater the potential for well produced cinema. Anyone who has taken basic Sociology will tell you that there are 2 major philosophic viewpoints a person can take on society. The first being the Marxist perspective: The 'have nots' will eventually rise up against the establishment. The second being Emile Durkheim's 'Functionalism': Every part of society serves a purpose for maintaining it's structure. The need for an economic system, the postal system, business development, the judicial system, the political system, hospitals and even the protesters who help to keep things in check. The hippies in this movie, although angry, were able to articulate themselves enough to present a somewhat intelligent point of view. The educated judiciary council were not able to put forth anything worth listening to. They seemed to be far more concerned with containing the prisoners' behaviours. What really got me was that one of the members of this council was a sociologist. Not only were the Republican right wingers not able to effectively communicate their beliefs, they weren't even able to listen to the prisoners when it was their turn to speak. Sadly everything became little more than a yelling match, and this is where it all became one sided. As far as we know the prisoners were arrested for some sort of conspiracy to commit an act of treason against America. We were not told of any real actions that any of the prisoners may have legitimately committed. The only thing we know is that the prisoners were verbally expressive. So as far as I can see, the people in charge of the sentencing seemed to think that the first amendment was just a joke. So for anyone who has half an understanding of basic Sociology, you may want to skip this movie. It is an overly one sided movie geared towards hippie rhetoric, with heaps of authoritarian counter force thrown in to make the movie's Marxist point that much more vibrant. That is all.

This is a very hard review to write, because this is a very hard movie to watch. There's so many different ways to take it, and unfortunately it forces you to take it a particular way even if you don't want to. Punishment Park is about extremes, rightists versus leftists and the destruction inherent. Two camps of protesters are put together, the violent and the nonviolent, and both are punished together by being forced to trek 50+ miles through Death Valley in the middle of summer without water... if they fail, they die. If they succeed... well... The thing is that this movie is hateful. It's utterly predictable, but not in that way where it's condescending or stupidly written, but in that terrible way where you know what's going to happen and don't want to see it, but do. It's entirely a "necessary" product, one that HAD to have been made during the era it was, and unfortunately one that HAS to exist, even if it's simply a terrible experience. What angers me so much about it is that it proves itself. The way it's a pseudo-documentary and it's vastly leftist politics makes it almost insulting, makes you want to just ignore it as the ranting of a zealot. If the people are in the desert, for instance, with a camera crew nearby, why aren't they asking the camera crew for water? And once they start to get desperate, how come they never attack the camera crew? Major difficulty in a movie where the director speaks. Besides, the alien looking extreme rightists in this movie are almost laughably caricaturistic, making one really feel preached to. This movie seems to beg us to not believe it, to feel incredulous that such levels exist. Yet the movie "exists" as it "actually happened" because of people's treatment of it. It was banned in England, pretty much not allowed release in America, and got very little release in very little places. The credits roll, and the director/narrator points out that at least one of his crew was subsequently imprisoned. The treatment of this movie by those in power profoundly reinforces its themes, which is terrible because its themes shouldn't exist. And then I'd love to say that this film should now be forgotten considering the by-gone era, but noooooo!! Current political landscapes and people's readiness to turn Iraq into another Vietnam either by making poor decisions or repeating said fact with slogans on picket signs makes this movie come back to the forefront again, a painful Big Brother, a terrible paean to the fear and hatred that consumed many during that era which people seem eager to reclaim in this era. Basically, it angers me to no end that this had to exist, it angers me more that it's still palpible, but not because of the movie itself but what it represents. --PolarisDiB

Who´s not for the state is against it. Against a constitution which distinguishes itself with being conservative and contradictory in its foundations. "Punishment Park" is a great portrait about the Nixon era, that hasn´t lost anything from its explosiveness till today. This film is banned in America, but it should be seen by everyone - especially by US-citizens...

Realistic Master-Piece. thirty years later, the pictures can look a bit old, but actually, it only accurate the 'fist in the face' effect of the movie. I never saw in my whole life a film like this one. First time I saw it, I didn't know if it was a fiction... And It didn't looked like... That movie is a masterpiece that every single person in the world have to see. It's the best ever society critical movie. The ultimate movie that demonstrate that the system is down. And the system has not change a lot, in thirty years. I think this movie would have to be watched as an education piece.

Done in a mock-documentary style, late 60's subversives and supposed detractors of the mainstream government are arrested and given a choice. Upon sentencing for their wrong doings,there is a choice of going to prison for 7 years to life or spending three days and two nights in a southern California desert at Punishment Park. In the 100 degree heat, the prisoners are to trek fifty some odd miles to an American flag for their freedom. US and state law enforcers will follow two hours latter. If the dissidents are captured it means prison. Appearing in this pseudo-documentary: Carmen Argenziano, Katherine Quittner, Mary Ellen Kleinhall, Stan Armsted, Scott Turner, Patrick Boland and Kent Foreman.

Punishment Park is a brilliant piece of cinema. Shot in the Southern California desert using his patent faux documentary style, Watkins creates a film like no other. He follows two groups of prisoners (one pre-sentenced the other post-sentenced) throughout the picture. After they're tried by a military tribunal, they have the choice of either serving out a prison sentence or they can participate in Punishment Park (a grueling three day hike through the desert with nothing but the clothes on their backs) whilst being hunted down by local law enforcement officers who use the park as a live action training ground). I can't say enough about this movie. Sometimes it feels as if you're watching a real documentary. This is one of Peter Watkins most accessible films. I advise you to look out for it. You wont regret it! Highly recommended A+