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.
set in a detention camp in an america of the near-future, punishment park’s pseudo-documentary style 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.
set in a detention camp in an america of the near-future, punishment park’s pseudo-documentary style 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.
