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IMDbPro

Punishment Park

  • 1971
  • 12
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
8K
YOUR RATING
Punishment Park (1971)
Pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews's news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies, draft dodgers, and anti-establishment types across the desert in a type of capture the flag game. The soldiers vow not to interfere with the rebels' progress and merely shepherd them along to their destination.
Play trailer1:41
1 Video
48 Photos
Political ThrillerDramaThriller

"Punishment Park" is a pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews's news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies, draft dodgers, and anti-establishment types acro... Read all"Punishment Park" is a pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews's news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies, draft dodgers, and anti-establishment types across the desert in a type of capture the flag game. The soldiers vow not to interfere with t... Read all"Punishment Park" is a pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews's news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies, draft dodgers, and anti-establishment types across the desert in a type of capture the flag game. The soldiers vow not to interfere with the rebels' progress and merely shepherd them along to their destination. At that point, ha... Read all

  • Director
    • Peter Watkins
  • Writer
    • Peter Watkins
  • Stars
    • Patrick Boland
    • Kent Foreman
    • Carmen Argenziano
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Peter Watkins
    • Writer
      • Peter Watkins
    • Stars
      • Patrick Boland
      • Kent Foreman
      • Carmen Argenziano
    • 60User reviews
    • 73Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:41
    Trailer

    Photos47

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    Top cast61

    Edit
    Patrick Boland
    • First Tribunal Defendant
    Kent Foreman
    • Defendant in the tribunal
    Carmen Argenziano
    Carmen Argenziano
    • Jay Kaufman, Tribunal Defendant
    Luke Johnson
    • Defendant in the tribunal
    Katherine Quittner
    Katherine Quittner
    • Nancy Smith
    Scott Turner
    Scott Turner
    • James Arthur Kohler, Tribunal Defendant
    Stan Armsted
    Stan Armsted
    • Charles Robbins
    Mary Ellen Kleinhall
    Mary Ellen Kleinhall
    • Allison Mitchner
    Mark Keats
    • William C. Hoeger, Tribunal Chairman
    Gladys Golden
    Gladys Golden
    • Mary Jurgens, Tribunal Member
    Sanford Golden
    Sanford Golden
    • Sen. Harris
    George Gregory
    • Mr. Keagan
    Norman Sinclair
    Norman Sinclair
    • Alfred J. Sully - Tribunal Member
    Sigmund Rich
    • Prof. Hazlett
    Paul Rosenstein
    Paul Rosenstein
    • Paul Reynolds - Tribunal Member
    Lee Marks
    Lee Marks
    • Robert J. Donovan, FBI Agent
    Sandy Cox
    • Stenographer
    Fred Franklyn
    Fred Franklyn
    • James Daly, Defense Attorney
    • (as Frederick Franklyn)
    • Director
      • Peter Watkins
    • Writer
      • Peter Watkins
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews60

    7.78K
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    Featured reviews

    10noelartm

    the more things change, the more they stay the same...

    To think this film was made the year I was born. To think people are still having their constitutional rights taken away, now in the name of "homeland security". To think this movie was intentionally banned from the American public. PUNISHMENT PARK addresses the political divide in the United States better than any movie I've ever seen. Had it been more widely seen, would it have changed anything? A movie like this is so polarizing, it has the potential to cause riots. It shakes you up and forces you to take sides. It makes you face the issue: are you for the people's right of dissent in a time of war, or for the constitution being compromised in the name of "national security"? The protagonists are forced by the government to race to the American flag in a game that undermines the very ideals the flag stands for. The acting is totally convincing. So much so, I can't see any acting going on here at all. If this is a scripted documentary, it's more convincing than any reality show on television today. PUNISHMENT PARK is possibly the most important film ever made. It really makes you think.
    10Captain_Couth

    Peter Watkins' Masterpiece.

    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+
    10Jenabel_Regina_del_Mundo

    another chillingly accurate depiction of days of future present from Watkins

    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.
    Djangokitty

    Amazing film!!!!!!

    As someone who was dealing with the draft board the year this was made, I was absolutely astounded by the truth of it's vision. The haircuts, clothes, figures of speech, that was what it looked and felt like at the time. Contrary to popular memory, everyone wasn't a hippy with a few "bad" people who were for the war. It WAS scary! I may be wrong, but I do believe that most of the dialogue of the trial section, anyway, was written from various quotes such as from the trial of the Chicago 7. If you want to see something amazing, imagine that on national TV!!! It was on national TV!!!!

    Great movie!!!
    9joepublic

    The Punishment Is Worth It *Spoilers*

    Set in a California detention camp in an indistinct future, an English film crew capture proceedings as young students and political dissidents are put on trial under a fictional 'Insurrection Act' that allows the United States government to suspend civil liberties for its own citizens in cases of emergency without the right to bail or the necessity of evidence. In such cases the government is authorised to apprehend and detain anyone they believe may engage in future activities of sabotage. The group on trial includes a feminist, a black panther and a folk singer.

    Those convicted by the a Conservative tribunal have the choice of a lengthy prison sentence or three days in Punishment Park, in which they can attain their freedom by reaching an American flag in the desert. They must accomplish this without food or water. They are also to be pursued by armed National Guards and police who can return them to the camp if captured to face the penal sentence attributed to each person convicted. The reality is different; those that choose Punishment Park are hunted and killed or brutalised with no hope of gaining their freedom after a policeman is found dead in the park. The park seems to be a training ground for the police and guards who need to master these acts of suppression so they can be put to use in open American society.

    Shot on 16mm and in the documentary style developed by Watkins, in his celebrated Culloden and the controversial The War Game for the BBC; he interacts with the prisoners and guards and observes the unconstitutional trial, inter cutting between them to create a totally convincing political movie that still remains vital and relevant. Using his knowledge of the medium, Watkins has produced a driving, relentless and ultimately frightening film portrayal of an entirely fictional American political detention camp that would not convince if it wasn't for his flawless construction. Many of the actors are amateurs improvising with broad characters. The sparks fly in the trial scenes in which each case is heard, in part to the fact that Watkins kept those on trial away from the jury until the filming of those scenes. Watkins also claims that the actors are often expressing their own opinions which certainly explain the ferocity as well as the believability of their performances.

    The film has been heavily criticised for polarising the opinions of those that see it. It has been claimed that the film is reactionary and unequivocally represents that conservatism and war are the root of America's social problems. While these criticisms may be valid it is important to consider that the film is working on a fictional, metaphorical level and it is perhaps the realism that the film so cleverly constructs that encourages such a heated opinion on its content. In fact the films most important theme is the problem of polarisation itself. The 'conservative' judges and brutal law officers are on one side and the 'liberal' convicts are clearly on the other with no concessions made on either side. This seems to be what the movie is really about. The new law and the park itself is the outgrowth of a situation where mediation between the two political positions has been lost.

    Made during and in protest to the Vietnam War and the treatment of those who opposed the war in America the films main themes of Governmental persecution of its own citizens and Conservatism impinging on civil liberties still strike the same chord in the era of the Patriot act and the identity card. It also strikes a disturbing chord with news footage of Guantanamo Bay and the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of Allied forces.

    The threat of internal 'terrorism' is such a volatile issue that the film cannot fail to connect with current attitudes to the subject. Not surprisingly the film has had a checkered distribution history, being marginalised to an extreme due to its content but the disturbing fact that this movie is that can still remain so relevant today suggests that the wait has not been for nothing. Punishment Park is a film that has had to fight to be seen anywhere and it demands your attention.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Many of the "actors" were not acting in a traditional sense. In the introduction, Peter Watkins says many protesters were real-life protesters, and most soldiers were real-life conservatives. All improvised lines based on their opinions. There were no rehearsals.
    • Goofs
      In her tribunal closing statement, Alison Mitchner makes reference to the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, and uses the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". This phrase is in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.
    • Quotes

      Mary Jurgens, Tribunal Member: [shouting] You are immoral!

      Jay Kaufman, Tribunal Defendant: I am not immoral.

      [she continually interrups with shouting]

      Jay Kaufman, Tribunal Defendant: You want me to tell you what's immoral? War is immoral! Poverty is immoral! Racism is immoral! Police brutality is immoral! Opression is immoral! Genocide is immoral! Imperialism is immoral! This country represents all those things!

    • Crazy credits
      There are no opening credits at all. The title doesn't appear until halfway through the closing credits.
    • Connections
      Featured in Hagan Reviews: Punishment Park (2017)

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    FAQ15

    • How long is Punishment Park?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 4, 2007 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Strafpark
    • Filming locations
      • San Bernardino Mountains, California, USA(Location)
    • Production companies
      • Churchill Films
      • Françoise Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 31 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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