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Punishment Park
Punishment Park
8.5
/10
2,821 Ratings

PUNISHMENT PARK

Directed by Peter Watkins
United States, 1971
Drama, Thriller

Synopsis

Set in a detention camp in the U.S.A. of the near-future, Punishment Park’s pseudo-documentary style places a British film crew amongst a group of dissidents who, faced with lengthy jail time, have opted to spend three days in the ‘Bear Mountain Punishment Park’ in the searing heat of the desert.

Synopsis

Set in a detention camp in the U.S.A. of the near-future, Punishment Park’s pseudo-documentary style places a British film crew amongst a group of dissidents who, faced with lengthy jail time, have opted to spend three days in the ‘Bear Mountain Punishment Park’ in the searing heat of the desert.

Our take

Unavailable for years, Peter Watkins’s allegorical indictment of authoritarian abuses was first let loose on the world in the dying days of the Vietnam War. A pseudo-documentary riff on “The Most Dangerous Game”, Punishment Park has lost none of its blunt-force power, or its incendiary outrage.