Ghosts... of the Civil Dead
Australia
1988
93 Min
Color
1.37:1
English
Synopsis
Ghosts… is set in Central Industrial Prison, a privately run maximum security prison in the middle of the Australian desert. An outbreak of violence within the prison has resulted in a total lockdown. A committee is appointed by the prison’s governors to investigate the cause of the outbreak, but their findings are in stark contrast to the facts behind the riot. As the viewers see, both the prisoners and the guards are slowly and deliberately brutalised, manipulated and provoked into the forthcoming eruption of violence, to justify the construction of a new and more “secure” facility. —Wikipedia
Director
John Hillcoat
John Hillcoat (born 1961) is an Australian screenwriter and film director. Hillcoat was born in Queensland, Australia, and was raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. As a child, his paintings were featured in the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He has repeatedly worked with Nick Cave and also the band Depeche Mode. His film The Road, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, and was released in the U.S. in November 2009. —Wikipedia
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Justin Oakey
5Jul12
A beautiful, tragic, and painfully honest look at the nature of the American and Australian prison system. Effectively, "Ghosts..." presents the lack of inquiry by administrative powers, the manipulative and abusive ways of authority figures, and (violently) impressionable role of the criminal. Evidently, abuse and malcontent from either direction propagates itself. Overall, a stark and haunting film.
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John Hillcoat's Ghosts of the Civil Dead Review
By Twitchfilm.com on October 17, 2011
With John Hillcoat’s The Proposition hitting North American screens it seems a good time to return to the Australian director’s first collaboration with musician and script writer Nick Cave. Though
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