Over twenty years ago I caught an unknown Australian film on channel 4 one night set in a maximum security prison . The passage of time meant I even forgot the title but neither the bleak , oppressive atmosphere or certain scenes . It was one of those films that hits you with the impact of a sock filled with billiard balls and like so many things from the past the memory can play tricks on you . Things that become ingrained on our memory aren't the same viewed years or even decades later so sitting down to watch GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD I was all prepared for much disappointment . I needn't have worried because it's the same bleak , brutal and very depressing film I remembered
It should be pointed out that this film is definitely not for everyone . If you're one of those people who award ten out of ten to the uplifting mawkish fable of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION then give this a very wide berth . If you're only interest in movies involves the cinematic telling of a story then you'll probably not like this either since it really isn't about narrative storytelling . If you think the HBO show OZ was a good show but started to lose it due to more and more outlandish plots being introduced then make sure you don't miss GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD , but again I should warn you of the depressing tone
The story takes place in the aftermath of a prison incident and shows the events leading up to it . It starts off with Wenzil arriving at a maximum security prison and from the outset conveys the fear and loneliness of being a new arrival in prison where ones peers are effectively facing the rest of their natural life inside and therefore they have nothing to lose
The film quickly loses character focus and you expect the story to be seen through the eyes of Wenzil . In some ways Wenzil is the central character but that's only due to the fact that he's the first character we see and is also the last character seen too but the film really doesn't concern itself with this and often subjects the audience to both prisoners and guards spoken thoughts overlaid with scenes of not much happening . It's a film more to do with the existentialist dead end of imprisonment and does so brilliantly
It's also a film that has an understated on screen attitude to violence . A gang rape is merely alluded to , a description of a torture and murder of a prisoner by two fellow inmates is told via voice over but is still nevertheless shocking . All this takes place in a movie that has a very uncanny and disconcerting atmosphere that is overwhelming . The prison itself resembles an anti-septic sterile place you'd expect to see in 2001 or THX1138 , almost as though the characters have been lifted from the real world in to a cruel system of another dimension which is probably the effect director John Hillcoat wishes to force upon us . He succeeds too and it wasn't till after I saw this again after a gap of 20 years that I learned Hillcoat also directed the bleak apocalyptic drama THE ROAD . Some films you watch in the cinema with a large box of popcorn . With Hillcoat you need a large dose of Prozac
Some things don't entirely work . It's difficult to believe that the state would assign a serving police officer to protect an inmate in case he gets attacked by guards , but then I didn't go and research the Australian prison system . The guards of course are either corrupt or violent bullies but it is part of prison folklore the world over that the guards have the biggest and hardest gang . Considering the screenplay has five different writers and convention dictates that the more writers a screenplay has the worse it will be GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD is a very powerful and disturbing movie that will stay in the memory for a very long time
It should be pointed out that this film is definitely not for everyone . If you're one of those people who award ten out of ten to the uplifting mawkish fable of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION then give this a very wide berth . If you're only interest in movies involves the cinematic telling of a story then you'll probably not like this either since it really isn't about narrative storytelling . If you think the HBO show OZ was a good show but started to lose it due to more and more outlandish plots being introduced then make sure you don't miss GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD , but again I should warn you of the depressing tone
The story takes place in the aftermath of a prison incident and shows the events leading up to it . It starts off with Wenzil arriving at a maximum security prison and from the outset conveys the fear and loneliness of being a new arrival in prison where ones peers are effectively facing the rest of their natural life inside and therefore they have nothing to lose
The film quickly loses character focus and you expect the story to be seen through the eyes of Wenzil . In some ways Wenzil is the central character but that's only due to the fact that he's the first character we see and is also the last character seen too but the film really doesn't concern itself with this and often subjects the audience to both prisoners and guards spoken thoughts overlaid with scenes of not much happening . It's a film more to do with the existentialist dead end of imprisonment and does so brilliantly
It's also a film that has an understated on screen attitude to violence . A gang rape is merely alluded to , a description of a torture and murder of a prisoner by two fellow inmates is told via voice over but is still nevertheless shocking . All this takes place in a movie that has a very uncanny and disconcerting atmosphere that is overwhelming . The prison itself resembles an anti-septic sterile place you'd expect to see in 2001 or THX1138 , almost as though the characters have been lifted from the real world in to a cruel system of another dimension which is probably the effect director John Hillcoat wishes to force upon us . He succeeds too and it wasn't till after I saw this again after a gap of 20 years that I learned Hillcoat also directed the bleak apocalyptic drama THE ROAD . Some films you watch in the cinema with a large box of popcorn . With Hillcoat you need a large dose of Prozac
Some things don't entirely work . It's difficult to believe that the state would assign a serving police officer to protect an inmate in case he gets attacked by guards , but then I didn't go and research the Australian prison system . The guards of course are either corrupt or violent bullies but it is part of prison folklore the world over that the guards have the biggest and hardest gang . Considering the screenplay has five different writers and convention dictates that the more writers a screenplay has the worse it will be GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD is a very powerful and disturbing movie that will stay in the memory for a very long time