L'École de tous les dangers

I had the same experience other members had with this film. I saw it on HBO when I was eight and it's since become part of me. Like them, I Googled, queried, etc. Unfortunately, my memory failed on the major points and I came up empty-handed. Finally, another member of IMDb came through. Anyway, this film is a lost jewel. It scared the hell out of me as a kid and I hope to see it again if I can find a used copy of the VHS somewhere. The premise is pretty simple. A group of Aussie thugs take a young teacher and her charges hostage, their escape and subsequent fight for survival turns bloody at the end. I still recall holding my breath during the underwater cave scene and never quite being able to hold it long enough. If you get a chance to watch this flick do so. Its ultra-rare and unforgettable.

Point blank this movie flashed me back to 3rd grade spring time or 4th grade fall of 1985. Vividly I remember sleeping over my friends house and telling him about this movie Fortress that I had just seen and he was eager to see it after I went on and on about it. Something was magical that night because about an hour later he turned on HBO and the movie was just starting. I remember we watched it and we both loved it. All through the years growing up it was our little inside laugh.....we would talk about Father Christmas......haha. I thought about the movie frequently growing up but never ever ever saw it again on TV or any channels such as HBO or Cinemax or Showtime. About two weeks ago while looking through my Comcast cable at 3 in the morning I came across Fortress coming on the next day on HBO and I set my DVR to record it and just watched it last night. I felt like a kid again.....and I couldn't believe how my memory flashed back and I knew pretty much everything that was coming up before it happened. I'm 29 years old and haven't seen that movie in 21 years. Wow!!!!!!!! Still Fantastic as it was when I was a child.......... Hope I didn't bore you to death.....maybe some others can relate to my little story and feel the same way about this movie.

Tommy New Jersey

I remember watching this movie every Saturday on TV why my mom cleaned the house. I remember it freaking me out. I love this movie. I was probably 8 at the time. I was talking to people randomly about the movie and people thought I was crazy because no one remembered it. My sister didn't even remember it. Finally two years ago a girl that I worked with was like yeah I know the movie you are talking about. However we didn't know the name of the film. It took me 15 years and a NICE NICE guy from Austrialia (that I meet on in a chat room) to help me find the name of the movie. I also want to say thanks to Amazon.com for being fantastic. I love this movie...I recommend it to anyone. Rachel Ward gives a Fantastic performance as well. Plus this movie is based on a true story.

I am so happy that Google exists, because after 15 YEARS of fruitless searching (including on IMDb, sorry!) I've found this movie again. Images like the swim through the underground cavern and the older couple (?) being horrified by the rabbit masked man have haunted me to the point I thought I had imagined the whole thing. The fairly low-fi quality of the film makes it all the scarier, classic HBO 80's fodder. The fact that I watched it as a pre-teen made the fight for survival of the woman and the children all the more real. The setting of the Outback made their situation seem really perilous, for if there is so much open, empty space around you, it seems you have fewer places to hide (and I think may have sparked my latent fear of kidnapping and lack of hiding places). Excellent (as it stuck in my mind all these years, I guess it had to!)

It's one of those movies you don't get tired of seeing, when my niece was younger, I was watching it and she really liked, everytime she came over from then on we had to watch it, it's just that good. I guess it's the reality of it that makes it so good.