Punishment Park

Through a combination of radical politics and formal experimentation British director Peter Watkins has pushed the limits of the docudrama since the 1960s. Available on a Blu-ray/DVD dual-format for the first time, Punishment Park is his controversial 1971 feature released at the height of the anti-Vietnam protests. Using non-professional actors, improvisation and documentary techniques, this ambitious, if rough-and-ready, film portrays a fictional world in which the Nixon administration has declared a state of emergency and is forcing an assortment of student radicals, black militants, and pacifists to choose between a prison term and playing a deadly game in which they are pursued across the desert by armed soldiers. In these post-Bush times its portrayal of the ruthless use of presidential decree and trial without jury seems more relevant than ever; yet – with its cast of freaks and squares, over-the-top acting and obsolete rhetoric – it has also become a fascinating period piece. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]