BuzzFlash Reviews
November 22, 2005
Punishment Park (DVD)
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS
"Punishment
Park" is the most powerful film BuzzFlash has seen in recent
memory.
Released back in 1971 and set against the escalating war in Vietnam and the polarization and rage tearing apart the country at home, the film is a timeless and haunting allegory of America in a state of crisis. Anti-war protestors, pacifists, and dissidents are sentenced without trial by government-appointed tribunals. The "prisoners" are then given the option to forgo lengthy jail sentences if they submit to being guinea pigs in a simulated manhunt at "Punishment Park." The prisoners have 3 days to race through the California desert without water to reach an American flag 50 miles away while heavily armed federal marshals and national guardsmen pursue them in a twisted game of capture the flag. Scenes of the prisoners' evading capture and fighting for survival are juxtaposed with contentious sentencing hearings of other dissidents who scream and argue with members of the tribunal – some prisoners are bound and gagged to control their outbursts – as they are forced to choose between prison or Punishment Park.
The film rendered BuzzFlash, like so many audiences, utterly speechless.
The film's distributors and critics alike mostly succeeded in shelving "Punishment Park" after its release because of its raw emotional power. Though stashed away for decades and relegated to college media studies courses, this is a film whose time has finally come.
Shot in a documentary format and infused with hyperrealism, "Punishment Park" is so provocative that some reviewers and audiences ask: "Did this actually happen?" No, the stirring events in the film are fiction, but the powerful message from "Punishment Park" is that it could happen here in America – at least we can imagine it happening – which is just as terrifying.
"Punishment Park" has taken on new meaning since the September 11th terrorist attacks, especially for many Middle-Eastern Americans and immigrants. The notion that individuals could be deemed "enemy combatants" by the government, detained for prolonged periods of time without being charged with a crime, and denied counsel used to be written off as doomsday fiction but is now a frightening reality in America. Think of what America has become since September 11th. The Patriot Act curtails civil liberties and expands police powers and supporters now want to allow federal agents to conduct searches without warrants authorized by federal judges. Heavily armed, private security firms are growing and some, like Blackwater Security, were dispatched to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and operated outside the control of law enforcement officials. The Bush Administration has discarded international law with respect to the humane treatment of enemy combatants. And now it is clear the United States military, private military contractors, and intelligence agencies are engaged in the pervasive use of torture, and such practices have been authorized and condoned by the Bush Administration.
The genius of "Punishment Park" is that it is a metaphorical film, surpassing time and location to examine what happens to the psyche and to a society when extreme polarization collides with extreme power during a national crisis or emergency. As Peter Watkins wrote in an open letter in January 1972: "Punishment Park takes place tomorrow, yesterday, or five years from now."
Peter Watkins was born in England and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and eventually became one of the most innovative filmmakers in the modern era. Remarkably, most of the performances in "Punishment Park" were by individuals with little or no acting experience. The "actors" also improvised their dialogue, and were cast in roles that aligned with their own personal political beliefs, blurring the line between fiction and reality and escalating the tension in the film. Some of the actors portraying police officers worked in law enforcement in real life. And many of the characters interviewed in the film were sharing their sincere thoughts, and often rage, about what was happening in America as the Vietnam War and protests spiraled out of control.
Peter Watkins won the Academy Award in 1966 for his documentary "The War Game", originally a BBC television film on nuclear war that he wrote, directed, and produced. The film's depiction of the impact of a Soviet nuclear attack on Britain caused so much worry within the BBC that it was never shown until years later. The BBC stated, "The effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting."
The astonishing work and career of Peter Watkins also includes such films as Culloden (1964), Privilege (1967), The Gladiators (1969), Edward Munch (1973), The Journey (1987), The Free Thinker (1994), and La Commune (1999).
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