Punishment Park

Peter Watkins's Punishment Park is probably the most radical sci-fi film ever produced. Punishment Park tells the story of a group of political prisoners (actually 2 groups), of leftist persuasions, who are taken to a government park and used as training material for police exercises. Perhaps the most famous scene in the movie is a straight-by-the-numbers repeat of the gagging of Bobby Seale, an infamous act that occurred in the 1968 Chicago trials, when Seale, a black man, was ordered gagged by a judge. Watkins used a number of experimental techniques in the film, the most interesting of which is the use of amateur actors to get more "natural", less acted reactions. Though this amateur acting can be a little unnerving at times, it overall is a success, though not to the extent it was in Privilege, Watkins's even better 1967 movie. Punishment Park was part of the sci-fi bonanza of the late sixties and early seventies - a time period in which science fiction films actually said something about the world, rather than copying it. Watkins is a justifiably acclaimed director, and I sincerely hope that he has not made his last film. Science fiction needs more visionaries in his image.