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By Drewsch
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This movie is called Penal Park. You probably have never seen. You may have never heard of it. That’s a surprising touch as it is often considered one of the most controversial films ever. Maybe that’s why you haven’t heard of it. Perhaps it is a film that most people would be happy not to even know.
But with Stephen King The long journey finally makes his way to the big screen – along with some Other movies with similar themes – the time seems more appropriate than ever to give Penal Park The opportunity to be discovered by a new audience.
The story of a penalty park
Penal Park In a fake documentary by author/director Peter Watkins released in 1971. Watkins speculative fiction precedent is that President Nixon is facing unpromised pressures by anti-war forces in the country. In its panic, it announces a state of emergency allowing anyone considered to be a “risk to internal safety” to be arrested and detained by police and military officers.
This does not only include Vietnam War protesters. Many university students are abducted, as well as feminists, civil rights advocates, and those who declare themselves as members of the Communist Party. A wide swath of most young people, often from diverse backgrounds, is overrun to camps and sentenced by a panel of community improvised figures and critics.
Everyone is convicted of some perceived crimes and has a choice: go to prison or spend three days in a game called Punvement Park. As the prison system in this remote future is famously filled with legitimate violent criminals, most prisoners choose a penalty park.
The game from a penalty park
A penalty park is a three -day tour of the California desert where the prisoners are underway before being persecuted by police officers. If caught, they will be returned to present their sentence in prison. They aim to reach an American flag stuck in the desert sand as a promise of freedom.
Of course, some prisoners decide not to play the game and fight back against their holders. This gives them all the impetus they need to kill everyone who stands against them. You get the feeling that this kind of rebellion is something they come to expect from the number of groups they process through a penalty park.
But another group decides not to fight back and try to reach the goal. They do just that but they meet some of those police officers arresting them and beating them without mercy. They go to prison to serve their sentences. You can’t win the game from a penalty park.
Make him feel real because he
The decision for Peter Watkins to frame this as a documentary story makes the cruelty and fatal bleak hit harder. Many of the participants are non -actors who were cast for a sense of authenticity. There is even one second in the film where a gun turned off and the actor did not use the gun knowing that it was not live rounds. Another actor was pretending to be shot and the child with the gun thought he was actually shooting someone.
And Peter Watkins sees that moment for real in the film.
It’s a stunning, cruel, torture, and it is arguably unethical to do. Almost as horrific as the ideas present in the film themselves. Ideas that were reflections of real atrocities that had taken place at the time in America, such as the tragedy of Kent Provincial massacre. They are still reflections of real atrocities that will occur. Real horrors that occur.
So making the story into a documentary film seemed the only way Watkins could push the barrier between reality and fiction in a way that would elicit a strong response out of the audience.
Anyway I thought you might like to watch Penal Park Today. It is clearly influenced on The long journeyA not too far a story in the future for a game where competitors have to cross America for promise. If you want to watch something in preparation for that Stephen King adaptation that still feels shocking, important and relevant after more than half a century, I can recommend thoroughly Penal Park.
