Movie: Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 1971)
Last year, in the midst of Covid lockdown I stumbled upon the 1990 'documentary' "My Dinner with Abbie" about the countercultural anarchist Abbie Hoffman. It's basically an hourlong interview with Hoffman, talking about his motivations, ideals and life choices, and a great argument against the existence of The Trial of the Chicago 7. I like Aaron Sorkin and many of the actors in it, but it seems absurd for them, celebrated Hollywood artists running around in the same social circles as some of the most powerful American politicians, to make a film that is ostensibly sympathetic to the Chicago Seven, people who have been knowingly, deliberately and repeatedly harassed and destroyed by the American state. And as the film is designed to win shiny prizes and put money and cultural cachet in the pockets of billion dollar corporations like Netflix, it is basically using Hoffman to prop up the ideas/institutions he was fighting against.
Punishment Park comes much closer to how a film about these activists should look and feel like. It is made in a pseudo-documentary style that rejects the established conventions of the Hollywood of its time. This rugged aesthetic also doesn't sanitise the world around the characters it depicts, while its revolutionaries are portrayed by amateur actors who share many of the ideals of their characters. Furthermore, the film does not shy away away from depicting the violence inflicted on them. It follows a number of Americans (some white, some black) who have been accused of traitorous activities and are found guilty in front of a show trial. They are allowed to choose between going to federal prison for many years or going to Punishment Park, where they will earn their freedom if they reach an American flag in three days, while being pursued by police forces in training. The film cuts between the show trial and the events in Punishment Park, and is presented as an English documentary about the changing character of law and order in America.
While much of its approach is commendable, the film unfortunately fails to really flesh out the various assortment of hippies, pacifists and anti-war protesters it depicts. They never become much more than symbols of the American anti-establishment and of the heated debates of the 1960's. They are strawmen rather than real human beings. The film has the same problem when depicting their conservative opponents and often ends up resembling a filmed version of an exhausting social media discussion. Nothing is stopping you these days from hearing the Ben Shapiro's of the world spout their bullshit whenever you want and nothing the conservative establishment says in this film is much more shocking than what you'd see in the average right-wing corner of the internet. Nonetheless, the directness with which the film addresses the notion that America is a polarised society that doesn't extend its definition of freedom to all its citizens is quite striking.
