Offering an outsiders’ view on the
sociopolitical problems causing friction in America during the counterculture
era, this film by British experimentalist Peter Watkins mashes together references
to the antiwar movement, the trial of the Chicago 7, and widespread paranoia
about the growth of a police state, among other hot topics. Holding everything
together is a pair of bold contrivances. On a narrative level, writer-director
Watkins invents the notion of American concentration camps for rebellious
youth. And on a stylistic level, as he did in many other films, Watkins uses a
documentary aesthetic even though the events depicted onscreen are wholly
fictional. Punishment Park is
ultimately a bit too obvious and scruffy to generate much excitement—this is
sledgehammer satire delivered by way of undisciplined improvisation from
nonactors. Nonetheless, Punishment Park
is very much a product of its time, meaning that it possesses more historical
interest than it does dramatic interest.
Set in the California desert, the
movie imagines a place where members of the Establishment put “seditious” young
people on trial for political activism. Those found guilty are given a choice
between long prison terms and entrance to something called Punishment Park. The
park comprises 50 miles of brutal desert terrain, and the participants are told
that if they can successfully traverse the distance without being given food or
water, they will be released. Throughout the movie, Watkins intercuts the trial
of a new set of antiwar protestors with the ordeal of the previous set, now
struggling for survival in Punishment Park. Borrowing a trope from the
nihilistic sci-fi movies of the same era, Watkins soon reveals the dark secret
of Punishment Park: National Guardsmen patrol the terrain, contriving excuses
to murder the participants. In other words, Punishment Park is a death
sentence. Had Watkins made the movie in a straightforward dramatic fashion,
with proper characterizations and real actors, Punishment Park could have become one of the definitive pieces in
the youth-culture canon. As is, the movie suffers from the awkwardness and
stridency of a student film. It also recalls the shambolic agitprop of Medium Cool (1969), only without that
seminal film’s close tethers to reality.
At its worst, Punishment Park simply mimics important historical moments—when a
black activist in Punishment Park
gets bound and gagged in a courtroom, it’s a tacky nod to a real-life incident
involving black-power activist Bobby Seale. At its best, the movie allows the
spirited young people playing activists to speak their truth through the prism
of the movie’s story. For example, the “goal” of participants in Punishment
Park is to reach an American flag at the end of the terrain, symbolizing their
return to proper U.S. society. But, as one participant crows, “I wouldn’t walk
around the goddamned fucking corner for the American flag, let alone the
desert.” Watkins captured something here, though he didn’t capture it with
quite enough artistry.
Punishment
Park: FUNKY
2 comments:
Watkins could have gone the easy route and made a more accessible commercial picture, but he didn't want to, and chose the harder route. I think the film was just controversial enough in its time to get banned a couple of times--thought I read that somewhere about it. But, yeah, it's worth looking at mainly for historical reasons, but it does get pretty intense, and it does deal directly head-on with its subject matter in a more serious, non-exploitative way than any Hollywood film would have done at the time.
Here's some interesting opinions on the film from a music site, of all places:
https://rateyourmusic.com/film/punishment_park/
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