Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park

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Movie of the Month
April, 2016

Punishment Park
(1971, Peter Watkins)


With Donald Trump's run for the presidency being one of the world's biggest current stories, I thought I'd introduce a movie that shows what can happen when the wrong person is in power. Punishment Park is a mockumentary/thriller in which The United States starts a new process to bring activist and protester types to justice under Richard Nixon. This is not an attack by me against Trump, but he certainly has talked of changing laws and breaking laws, and has used the type of language that someone who would attempt radical solutions would use. People need to be very careful who they elect into power, because the events portrayed in the movie Punishment Park are not that far-fetched under the right or wrong type of leadership.

"I'd like to punch him in the face."

-Donald Trump about a protester



Very interesting choice Cricket! I think I've heard of this one once before, but don't know much about it. Looking forward to it!

Is it on Youtube by any chance?



Very interesting choice Cricket! I think I've heard of this one once before, but don't know much about it. Looking forward to it!

Is it on Youtube by any chance?
Not sure about YouTube, but I put a link for Dailymotion in the first post.



Oh was that there before? I must've completely missed it!

Thanks for the link, I'm gonna be giving it a watch pretty soon. Expect a review in a week or 2!



Oh was that there before? I must've completely missed it!

Thanks for the link, I'm gonna be giving it a watch pretty soon. Expect a review in a week or 2!
Hope you like it; I sent Yoda a pm to fix the thread title for me



Will finally watch one of these with this. Must say though Nixon was one of your better presidents; IMO the only presidents who pushed through more positive legislation in the 20th Century was both Roosevelts, Wilson and Lyndon Johnson. He was also the first president to move on the environment and made nice with China. I've never understood why he is so hated and Johnson isn't really when he was the one who expanded the Vietnam War, i get Watergate but IMO that wasn't some big atrocity if it was that he lied then i don't understand how Clinton still has a pretty good reputation today.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I just finished watching Punishment Park, and I hate that I'm the first person to review it because it didn't really do much for me. Keep in mind that I don't really watch many documentaries, and this definitely has a documentary feel to it, so that's at least part of the reason that I didn't care for it. It also feels like a political statement, and I'm not really into politics either, so that didn't help either. Plus, it feels like it was made by the people who make the TV show "Cops", which I also don't like, so that's three strikes against it for me.

It just felt kind of long and boring to me, and it seemed to keep repeating the same stuff over and over again. It felt like I was watching a very long episode of "Survivor", but these people never even had a chance.

Obviously this wasn't my type of movie. I didn't hate this movie. It just didn't hold my interest, and it seemed to drag on too long for me, but don't let my opinion stop anyone from watching it. Remember, I hated Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and a lot of other very popular movies too.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Most of Watkins' movies are cautionary political tales, or warnings, shot in semi-documentary style, about what could happen if the bomb dropped (The War Game) or fascism becomes the norm in a former democracy (Punishment Park).They also tend to have sci-fi elements. I've also seen his Privilege and Edvard Munch. Anyway, I highly recommend Punishment Park as a thought-provoking thriller which should have you screaming at your screen for one or more reasons. It's also available for free with Amazon Prime.
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Should be able to watch this in a few days. A couple things came up that's taking me a bit longer getting to it but I should be able to soon.



Hey cricket what happened to the Dailymotion link? I'm trying to watch this now but can't find it yet.

Edit: nvm found it. Watching it now!



Yeah I need it, I've been watching the out of sync vid and it's brutal.