The Last Castle (2001)
Directed by Rod Lurie
A court-martialed general rallies together 1200 inmates to rise against the system that put him away.
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What critics say influenced The Last Castle
December 19, 2001 -- "The Last Castle" (U.K. title is "The Tower") is a fairly standard prison drama, along the lines of the 1965 prison drama "The Hill," but with a slight twist: it is also about a war game.
On the other hand, it works nicely as prison drama, avoiding most of the more obvious and cliched scenes of the genre, and cleverly weaving in elements of -- and paying tribute to -- such classics as Sidney Lumet's "The Hill" and David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai."
Instead, he's chosen a comfortable blend of "Dead Poets Society" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai", which casts him as an irresistibly charismatic court-martialled general, facing off against a blinkered, cruel system.
On the other hand, it works nicely as prison drama, avoiding most of the more obvious and cliched scenes of the genre, and cleverly weaving in elements of -- and paying tribute to -- such classics as Sidney Lumet's "The Hill" and David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai."
Colonel Winter has building materials brought in so the prisoners can build a stone wall in the yard — the wall itself serves no purpose, but building it is something to do and it’s constructive (calling to mind The Bridge on the River Kwai).
The brazenly derivative screenplay credited to David Scarpa and Graham Yost recycles elements from Cool Hand Luke, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and even The Bridge on the River Kwai while spinning a briskly entertaining yarn about rebellion and redemption in a maximum-security military prison.
The indolent script labors all over the place in the way it owes its nod to countless other flicks ranging from Redford's own "Brubaker" to "Stalag 17".
While this is a pretty standard prison drama plot structure ("Stalag 17," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," etc.), it eventually changes to a war game plot.
The Last Castle, in other words, is a scene-by-scene retelling of Jules Dassin's classic prison drama Brute Force, except The Last Castle isn't making a worthy statement about resisting the Nazi state.
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Mr. Lurie, who seems more at home in the political world of last year's "The Contender", working from a script by David Scarpa, never creates the emotional tension necessary to propel a story like this to the height of a "Great Escape" or "Cool Hand Luke".
The Last Castle happily trots out a string of clichés familiar from movies such as Cool Hand Luke (Winter makes Irwin repeatedly carry rocks from one end of the prison yard to the other) and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (organising a rebellion against authority, some of the characters etc), yet, to his credit, Lurie makes them work and the pacing of the film carries you along nicely - it’s only later on, after you’ve left the cinema, when you find yourself wondering things such as why, in a prison full of convicts, is everyone so damned nice?
After accidentally insulting Col. Winter's prized collection of military artifacts ("Only a man who has never seen a day of battle collects stuff like this"), Gen. Irwin goes through the obligatory prison movie chestnuts: the scene where the loner sits at the new guy's table; the scene where the jailed bang their cups against the bars in a show of Dead Poets' Society solidarity; and the Cool Hand Luke scenario of digging a hole all day only to fill it in all night.
“Cool Hand Luke” and “Shawshank Redemption” did that too, only doing it much more effectively than “The Last Castle.”
There are similarities to " Cool Hand Luke " and its battle of wills.
Also good are Steve Burton, who plays Captain Peretz, the real power behind Colonel Winter, Clifton Collins Jr., who plays Corp. Ramon Aguilar, the son of a bricklayer, Delroy Lindo of "The Cider House Rules," who plays Gen. James Wheeler, Brian Goodman, an actor who really was in prison once, plays prisoner Beaupre.
The indolent script labors all over the place in the way it owes its nod to countless other flicks ranging from Redford's own "Brubaker" to "Stalag 17".
In Brubaker, Robert Redford played an idealistic warden who took on a corrupt prison system.
The original story, by David Scarpa (with the screenplay co written with veteran scribe Graham Yost), starts off feeling a lot like an earlier Robert Redford film, "Brubaker."
Redford manages to shake off flashbacks to "Brubaker" by creating a tarnished hero.
And before you can utter the phrase "The Dirty Dozen", the film parades out a host of unusual and wacked out convicts that one would guarantee came out of the Stock Characters Department.
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While this is a pretty standard prison drama plot structure ("Stalag 17," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," etc.), it eventually changes to a war game plot.
The Last Castle happily trots out a string of clichés familiar from movies such as Cool Hand Luke (Winter makes Irwin repeatedly carry rocks from one end of the prison yard to the other) and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (organising a rebellion against authority, some of the characters etc), yet, to his credit, Lurie makes them work and the pacing of the film carries you along nicely - it’s only later on, after you’ve left the cinema, when you find yourself wondering things such as why, in a prison full of convicts, is everyone so damned nice?
The brazenly derivative screenplay credited to David Scarpa and Graham Yost recycles elements from Cool Hand Luke, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and even The Bridge on the River Kwai while spinning a briskly entertaining yarn about rebellion and redemption in a maximum-security military prison.
Although the general is drawn as flawed - the reason for his court-martial and subsequent imprisonment being about the only mystery the film has to offer - and the warden's actions are occasionally, if only partially justified - but not to the convincing degree as occurred with Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men" - the characters are too simply drawn as good and bad.