PUNISHMENT PARK

UK, 1971, 88 minutes, Colour.
Jim Bohan.
Directed by Peter Watkins.

Punishment Park is the work of original documentary maker, Peter Watkins. He emerged as a director of note in the mid-'60s with his reconstruction of the Battle of Culloden and his BBC-banned documentary on nuclear war, The War Game. In the late '60s and early '70s he made a number of films, often with Scandinavian backing, including the ironic Peace Game and a biography of artist Eduard Munch. This film deals with his favourite themes of peace and war, authority.

The setting is the United States, the era the present although a fascist era in which protesters have the option between going to jail and three days. in the desert in Punishment Park. Watkins uses the device of the documentary to introduce a British film team who will photograph the three days of punishment of the offenders. With voiceover commentary, documentary techniques, this is a piece of fiction made to look like a documentary. In later years Peter Watkins was to work internationally for a film about the nuclear issues and peace.

1. The impact of the film? As fiction? As documentary? The work of Peter Watkins? His originality in making documentaries? Television background? Fiction as real and its effect on the audience?

2. The point of view of the film: about the world situation of 1970, about governments, punishment, fascist administration of the law? Stances of right and left? The role of protesters? A partisan point of view? Critique of western governments? Of the USA?

3. The film's use of television documentary techniques? The introduction of the crew and audience awareness of them? Camera styles? Photography techniques? Editing?

4. The voiceover: the tone of the voice (Watkins himself)? The giving of facts, names and dates, times? Mood? Interpretation? How objective was the voice over and commentary?

5. The screenplay written by Watkins and the cast, ideas and improvisations?

6. The world situation: the Indochina war, American repressive laws, the judicial enquiries and status? Courts? Protesters? State of emergency? Boards, their authority, membership? The hearing of cases? Sentences? The setting up of the screenplay as a contemporary moral and political fable?

7. Punishment Park and the American desert: the sun, the water, the landscapes? The destination? The mountains? The time, the resources, the journey, the effort?

8. Group 638: the variety of individuals, their backgrounds, appearance, men and women? Well drawn as characters? Documentary characters? The audience and the television crew following their progress, decline, suffering, thirst, weariness? Sunburnt? Encounters with each other? Clashes? Mutual help?

9. The picture of the guards, their stances? Attitudes to protesters, pacifists? The innocent?

10. The group and its strategies, ability to cope, progress, survival? The documentary attention to detail?

11. Watkins' achievement? His cinematic skill? Imagination? The effect of this kind of moral fable for an audience?