Two decades ago the author of this review saw many, if not majority, of his countrymen being aghast at the mere thought of their generals, celebrated war heroes, being treated as criminals. Just as it happened, Croatian video stores received DVD edition of major Hollywood film based on the exactly the same premise. It was The Last Castle, 2001 drama directed by Rod Lurie.
The main character, played by Robert Redford, is US Army Lieutenant Geneal Eugene Irwin, decorated Vietnam War hero and celebrated commander of US forces during campaigns in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia. However, one serious mistake at the very end of his career was enough to deprive him of rank, uniform and ten years of freedom. Colonel Ed Winter (played by James Gandolfini), commandant of the military prison where Irwin would serve sentence, greets him with respect and true admiration. But that would change very quickly, not only because Irwin shows little understanding for Winter’s harsh methods of maintaining discipline, but also because he considers him bureaucrat unworthy of uniform. When Winter tries to confirm his authority with disciplinary action, the prison population starts viewing Irwin as their natural leader. Irwin gradually begins to turn prisoners into his own army and devises bold plan to take over the prison. Winter becomes aware of this, which leads to game that would end in explosion of violence.
At first glance, The Last Castle looks worthy of cult films that have served as its obvious inspiration – The Bridge on the River Kwai and Cool Hand Luke. The whole concept is quite simple, the action limited to a single penitentiary and it all comes down more or less to the conflict of the two main characters. Director Rod Lurie was lucky that the two characters were played by two top actors. Redford, an actor known for his leftist beliefs, is unusually convincing in the role of a hardened military man, although it must be admitted that he has more to thank for his charisma than actual acting abilities. James Gandolfini, on the other hand, one of the actors specialised for roles of villains, tries to add human qualities to Colonel Winter’s character by making him at times even more sympathetic than his opponent; the prison commandant is no bully but actually a refined intellectual who listens to classical music and knows how to find good arguments for his actions. Had it not been for those two actors, the flaws of Scarpin and Yost’s script would have been far more visible. They include supporting characters (good guards, bad guars, a morally ambivalent prisoner who embraces the good, naive and innocent prisoner who gets killed etc.) that employ clichés from the numerous prison films. Black-and-white characterisation in Lurie+s film completely ignores the fact that the “Good Guys” in this fulm are nothing but killers, rapists and bullies, while “Bad Guys” are nothing but professionals doing socially useful work. The film would have been far better had it been a bit of a higher moral ambivalence, and a couple of scenes even suggest that there is actually little differences in moral alignment of Irwin and Winter. But it all gets drowned in series of implausible yet predictable plot development that would lead to final surreal showdown and pathetic ode to American patriotism. It would have been far worse if Lurie had failed to hide the script flaws with skillful dramatic manipulation, suggestive cinematography, use of former Tennessee state prison for locations and good music score of Jerry Goldsmith. The result of all that is passable two hours of well-produced drama, but also a film that will get worse the longer you think about it.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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