Punishment Park

Punishment Park is a so-called pseudo-documentary that has been called one of the most controversial films ever made (this according to the official film poster) and it may well be. The plot is detailed on wikipedia (and many other resources, obviously).

There is no doubt about which side directer Peter Watkins is on and the film is as black and white as they come, with the obvious bad guys being the conservatives, here represented by a tribunal and law enforcement.

To balance it out a bit there is one person in either group that speaks out against his peers, but their voices are considerably more quiet than the yelling, judgmental tribunal members and the gung ho police and military guys. The court has a defense lawyer that speaks for the people on trial and is duly ignored. One young soldier gives a teary-eyed statement saying that he did not want to kill anyone but his gun went off.

The cinéma vérité style and the fact that Watkins let his actors improvise gives the film a very real feeling. If you didn't know better you could actually believe this to be a documentary, which makes it quite powerful.

5/10