Happy 2009 and welcome to A Law Librarian the Dark, a new column about movies on DVD. In each installment, I will highlight a movie (or a group of movies) that may be suitable for a law library feature film collection or is otherwise of interest to academic law librarians. Movies about lawyers, law schools, litigation, famous trials, crime and punishment, or movies that contain otherwise “legal themes” are all possible topics. I’ll be looking at new movies as well as older “overlooked” movies; serious as well as lighthearted films; and both fiction and documentaries. If you have a movie title that you would like me to discuss, e-mail me at lawyea@hofstra.edu.
For the first installment, I’ve decided to look at an “overlooked” film from the early 1970’s. Punishment Park (Dir. Peter Watkins) is a fascinating “fake documentary” that captures the political and social turmoil of the time period. Released in 1971, the movie immediately received a scathing review from the New York Times declaring it “wrong-headed.” The movie was given a very limited distribution and then almost disappeared until it was re-released on DVD in 2005.
The movie depicts a fictitious reality in which President Nixon declares a state of emergency allowing the government to round up political dissidents (generally anti-Vietnam war protesters, draft dodgers, and members of radical campus groups) into “corrective groups,” detain them without charges, and place them before “emergency civilian tribunals.” Those convicted by the tribunals are given a choice - serving several years in a federal prison or 3 days in “Punishment Park.” In Punishment Park, they are forced to run across several miles of California desert without food or water while being chased by law enforcement officers and National Guardsmen. If they make it to the flag at the other side of the park, they are released. If not, they are sent to serve their prison sentences.
With this rather brutal premise, the movie begins with “Corrective Group 638,” a group of shackled, long-haired dissidents, as they are driven across a desert road. They are being taken to face one of the emergency tribunals, apparently being held in tents adjacent to Punishment Park. In the meantime, the last of “Corrective Group 637” has been sentenced. They begin to run as the law enforcement officers check their weapons and prepare for the chase. The temperature is 89 degrees Fahrenheit. As an off-screen voice matter-of-factly narrates, we come to understand that a group of documentary filmmakers are recording the events. It is through this documentary framework that we see two stories unfold - the story of Corrective Group 638’s hearings before the tribunal and the story of Corrective Group 637’s struggle through Punishment Park.
Of particular interest are the tribunal hearing scenes in which civilian members (patterned after prominent conservative figures such as Phyllis Schlafly) interrogate the dissidents under a giant picture of Nixon. The result is a flurry of verbal attacks and ideological screaming matches that border the ridiculous. Apparently, the tribunal scenes were modeled after notorious contemporary trials – most notably the Chicago 7 trial and the trial of Bobby Seale.
The scenes that make up Punishment Park are emotionally unnerving - especially because the documentary quality makes it seem like it just might be real. That in itself gives us an interesting filter through which to look at this time in history.
In his filmed introduction to the movie (included as an extra on the DVD), Watkins claims that part of his motivation for making this film was the Kent State shootings - he wanted to provoke discussion about contemporary social and political crises. After more than thirty years and so much social and cultural change, Punishment Park deserves a second viewing.
The DVD extras include a filmed introduction by the director, an additional short film by the director, a feature length commentary, an essay on audience responses to the movie, a booklet containing excerpts of a book about Peter Watkins, and images of the original press kit. The DVD was released in 2005 and is produced by New Yorker Video.