3. Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 1971)
Punishment Park is a speuclative pseudo-documentary that is shot to emulate newsreel footage in cinema verite style, directed by revolutionary British filmmaker Peter Watkins. Watkins likes to use the speculative documentary format - which he pioneered - to portray potentialities that are compiled in a way that is designed to encourage reflection of a revolutionary nature (similar to what someone like Wiseman does, less the revolutionary angle, of course). This design is meant to engage the viewer in the critical analysis of the real socio-political circumstances that have been incorporated into the film. This is achieved by mixing together both contemporary and speculated issues and blending them into a realistic looking documentation. Unless you were already privy that film was fiction going in, it's probable that you will leave feeling like you had just watched some sort of bizarre and disturbing documentation of a fucked-up series of actual events. On his website, Watkins recounts how a French film critic from the Village Voice once stated that, The rigorous way in which Watkins has worked this out is extraordinarily believable, and it is impossible to emerge from his 90 minutes of psychodrama unbruised." Jarod Rapfogel elaborates further- in his essay 'The Cinema of Peter Watkins'- noting how Watkins' 'speculative films...are films designed to shatter the audience's false sense of security, to shock them with visions of the sickness at the heart of society and of the possible consequences of this corruption.' It's not until the very last seconds of the credits that the whole thing is revealed to be a façade. The film was shot in the deserts of California with a single camera and 8 person crew in 2 1/2 weeks using a cast of young and non-professional actors on a total budget of $95,000. The information included with the Blu-ray edition of the film notes that, "The 'newsreel' quality of the film was enhanced by de-saturating the color and removing the traditional hard edge of the image through the use of Harrison diffusion filters." On top of this, many of the actors were cast based on their actual lifestyles and political affiliations (hence the endnote in the credits). This enabled Watkins to effectively utilize both scripted dialogue and improvisation- particularly in the hearing portion of the film- which allowed for the development of much more intense and realistically convincing debate scenes. The film takes place in the Vietnam era under Nixon, as bombing begins to encroach into Cambodia. The speculative element comes into play as Watkins imagines that, "the 1950 Internal Security Act (the McCarran Act), which authorizes Federal authorities, without reference to Congress, to detain persons judged to be 'a risk to internal security'", is initiated during a supposed 'State of Emergency'. We subsequently watch how two groups of mostly university student draft dodgers are swept up into the system and subjected to the moral judgment of the state via the jointly- citizen-military- run draft boards. We are observing from the perspective of the European network TV camera crews who are monitoring the whole process, supposedly for the sake of transparency. The film interweaves the experiences of our two groups together. On one hand we are observing Group 637 as they face - and engage with - the quasi-military tribunal somewhere in a tent in the middle of the Californian desert. The draft board members confront and criticize the arrested students about their (in)actions and opinions, while the arrestees use the opportunity to challenge the moral authority of the draft board members and state as a whole (albeit pretty ineffectively). On the other hand, we watch as Group 638 - already condemned to Punishment Park - learn the rules of this twisted reality-tv show-like-game and start on their way. In this portion of the film we actually follow both the convicted dissidents, as well as the police and National Guard forces who will be tracking them down in what has been deemed a 'training' exercise. As we delve further into the film, we discover that the draft dodgers - after being told they are seditious and morally inept - have been given an ultimatum: choose between ridiculously long prison sentences or try to survive 3 days in the Californian Punishment Park facility. Basically, Group 638 are told they have 3 days to make their way 53 miles across the scorching hot desert, without food or water, while being pursued by an armed, bloodthirsty and contemptuous mob of police and guardsmen... in order to reach a giant American flag. If they are caught they face their alternatively dealt sentences. If they resist, it could be even worse. I'm sure you can imagine where things lead without me giving too much away. When things start to turn really violent, it's interesting to watch as the camera crew loses their objectivity, becoming angry and confrontational toward the police and National Guard. This not only gives the film a further air of credence- as being exposed to humans being treated in such a way should anger anyone- but it also gives the whole thing a sort of found footage feel too (considering it would be pretty unlikely for such material to make it onto a network broadcast, one would imagine). In the end- like in real life- we find that the 'justice system' has rigged the game in favour of the state. The members of the group who do manage to make it to the flag in the allotted time find themselves facing a wall of belligerent, heavily armed officers standing between them and the goal that they must reach in order to retain their freedom. Without anything being said, the line of officers charge the surviving members of the group while violently beating and molesting them in the process. Watkins cleverly juxtaposes this moment with images from the hearing during which Group 637 are faced with the previously mentioned ultimatum...with all opting for Punishment Park, of course. The police and guardsmen yell, 'No-one's touching are flag', as they beat the dehydrated quivering masses of draft dodgers that are rolling in the sand. At this point the TV crew starts to really challenge the police concerning their violent and overbearing actions. But the police turn their antagonism towards the cameraman and director- blaming them for everything. With Punishment Park, Watkins has revealed how cinema - when approached deceptively - can actually become a pretty powerful political weapon. This is a really incredible film and one of my all-time favourites. It's an often overlooked political masterpiece that must be seen.