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Both controversial and relentless in its depiction of suppression and brutality, Punishment Park was heavily attacked by the mainstream press and permitted only the barest of releases in 1971. However, like Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (1969) and Robert Kramer’s Ice (1969), Peter Watkins’ film has established itself as one of the key, yet rarely seen, radical films of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Giving voice to the disaffected youth of America that had lived through the campus riots at Berkeley, the trial of the Chicago Seven, and who were witnessing the escalation of the Vietnam War, Punishment Park was named by Rolling Stone as one of their top ten films of 1971 and has earned many admirers in the four decades since its release.Set in a detention camp in an America of the near-future, Punishment Park’s pseudo-documentary style (continuing Watkins’ subversive innovations with Culloden and The War Game) places a British film crew amongst a group of young students and minor dissidents who have opted to spend three days in ‘Bear Mountain Punishment Park’.The detainees, rather than accept lengthy jail sentences for their ‘crimes’, gamble their freedom on an attempt to reach an American flag — on foot and without water — through the searing heat of the desert. The pursuit of Group 637 — a lethal, one-sided game of cat-and-mouse with a squad of heavily armed police and National Guardsmen — is contrasted with the corrupt trial of Group 638 by a quasi-judicial tribunal. Unlike Easy Rider’s mythologising of American counter-culture, Punishment Park’s uncompromising stance, and its uneasy parallels with Guantanamo Bay, retain a powerful and prescient message in the post-9/11 present. Rarely seen in the UK, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to celebrate Punishment Park’s 40th anniversary with its first ever release on Blu-ray.
Original Release
05/09/1971
US Release
10/01/1971
Links
Cast
Name | Character |
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Patrick Boland | First Tribunal Defendant |
Kent Foreman | Defendant in the tribunal |
Carmen Argenziano | Jay Kaufman, Tribunal Defendant / Jay Kaufman |
Luke Johnson | Defendant in the tribunal |
Katherine Quittner | Nancy Smith |
Scott Turner | James Arthur Kohler, Tribunal Defendant |
Stan Armsted | Charles Robbins |
Mary Ellen Kleinhall | Allison Mitchner |
Mark Keats | William C. Hoeger, Tribunal Chairman |
Gladys Golden | Mary Jurgens, Tribunal Member / Mary Jurgens |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Patrick Boland | First Tribunal Defendant |
Kent Foreman | Defendant in the tribunal |
Carmen Argenziano | Jay Kaufman, Tribunal Defendant / Jay Kaufman |
Luke Johnson | Defendant in the tribunal |
Katherine Quittner | Nancy Smith |
Scott Turner | James Arthur Kohler, Tribunal Defendant |
Stan Armsted | Charles Robbins |
Mary Ellen Kleinhall | Allison Mitchner |
Mark Keats | William C. Hoeger, Tribunal Chairman |
Gladys Golden | Mary Jurgens, Tribunal Member / Mary Jurgens |
Sanford Golden | Sen. Harris |
George Gregory | Mr. Keagan |
Norman Sinclair | Alfred J. Sully - Tribunal Member |
Sigmund Rich | Prof. Hazlett / Prod. Hazlett |
Paul Rosenstein | Paul Reynolds - Tribunal Member |
Lee Marks | Robert J. Donovan, FBI Agent |
Sandy Cox | Stenographer |
Fred Franklyn | James Daly, Defense Attorney |
Ross Briegleb | Tribunal Doctor |
Joe Hudgins | Chief Tribunal Marshall |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Susan Martin | Producer |