Punishment Park(1971)
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Punishment Park(1971)
One of the few non-comedic mockumentaries on this list, "Punishment Park" takes place in an alternate version of the 1970s, where prisons are full. President Nixon declares a state of emergency and a new method of carceral punishment arises. The arrested, all anti-Vietnam War activists, can either go to prison or spend three days in Punishment Park. There, they must run across the California desert and try to escape from the federal officers hunting them. It's a survival horror film told through the lens of a mockumentary. Made in 1971, director Peter Watkins criticized the American occupation of the Vietnam War while we were actively occupying the country. It's an incredible subversive film that even today speaks to a terrifying, and not-so-different, alternate reality where speaking out against the government reduces you to nothing more than an animal to be targeted by the authorities. The ending is especially nihilistic in its attitude about escaping the System with a capital S. It's by no means as cheerful as most of this list, but it's an important document of how mockumentaries can just as effectively, and more creatively, reveal horrific truths about the human condition.
Punishment Park was described as being "banned in the United States," but it is probably closer to the truth to say that it has simply never been shown here commercially. It premiered at Cannes to highly polarized opinions; the New York Times wrote (in a review that feels like Peter Sotos come 30 years early), "[it is] a movie of such blunt-wrong headed sincerity that you're likely to sit through the first 10 hysterical minutes of it before realizing that it is essentially the wish-fulfilling dream of a masochist. Because all literature, including futuristic nonsense like this, represents someone's wish-fufilling dream, I can't help but suspect that Wakins' cautionary fable is a wildly sincere desire to find his own ultimate punishment." The near-incoherence of this aside, I have to wonder why they were so eager to read in some hidden motive on Wakins' part for making it. Rolling Stone voted it one of the ten best films of 1971, while Playboy groused, "Seldom has the cause of peace and freedom been served so mindlessly" -- which assumed, incorrectly, that the movie was a knee-jerk vindication of the left. Seeing Punishment Park released to video makes me wonder how many of Watkins' other, little-seen movies will come to the surface. Aside from The War Game, he has also made Privilege, an openly fictional movie about a future world church / government using pop music to control the masses -- another idea that today, like Punishment Park, seems to have undimmed relevance.
Much of America's left wing, be they Civil Rights activists, feminists, conscientious objectors, or communists, are rounded up and arrested en mass, with their resistance towards the war being the official excuse. With prisons and courtrooms being filled with loads of people ending up on the wrong side of this governmental overreach, special "emergency tribunals" are set up, and are essentially given free range to dole out more unusual forms of punishment to lighten the load of the prison system.
The story is told from the point of view of a British and West German documentary crew, as they follow two groups of poor souls subjected to this fight for lives.Tropes: The Bad Guys Are Cops: They sure are, and they take open and sadistic glee in being the enforcement arm of Nixon's oppressive government. Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Invoked. The right-wing corrupt government openly say that the left-wing intelligentsia won't defend their countries. The Cake Is a Lie: It is impossible for the prisoners to "win" Punishment Park. Everything is controlled from start to finish by the corrupt government, and they won't allow anyone to win. No matter how well the participants do, they are surrounded by police and hauled off just as they are about to reach the flag. The part
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