Punishment Park is a 1971 film written and directed by Peter Watkins. Conceived as a pseudo-documentary, it is hands down one of the most intense works ever in political cinema. To set the stage for the film… the Vietnam War escalates with Richard Nixion’s “secret” bombing campaign in Cambodia. Faced with a growing anti-war movement, Nixon decrees through the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 a state of emergency. This authorizes federal authorities, without reference to Congress, to detain persons judged to be a “risk to internal security.”

From Wiki:

With state and federal jails at their top capacity, the convicted face the option of spending their full conviction time in federal prison or three days at Punishment Park. There, they will have to traverse 60 miles of the hot California desert in three days, without water or food, while being chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers as part of their field training. If they succeed and reach the American flag at the end of the course, they will be set free. If they fail by getting “arrested”, they will serve the remainder of their sentence in federal prison.

Watkins took real protesters from the southern CA area, most of whom had no acting experience, and threw them into a simulated production of these supposed camps. What resulted were performances so authentic that many left the original screenings convinced what they’d just seen was real. Even more interesting however were the critical responses the film elicited from viewers…

One of Watkins’ intentions for the film was to provoke strong emotional and intellectual responses. Few people had impartial reactions to the film, the majority of audiences responses were more extreme. As Watkins foresaw, this produced debates after the viewings of the film similar to the debates that take place in the film. There were many extremely negative reactions to film, largely due to the unconventional form or because it was viewed as an indictment against America. Some even linked the film to communism, claiming that the film expresses a Communist philosophy. However, many more people were outraged that a British director would make a film about American political problems in a time of crisis. The film was heavily attacked when it was released at the 1971 New York Film Festival and Hollywood studios refused to distribute it.

If you ever get a chance, SEE THIS FILM. It’s on Netflix, so there you go.

Punishment Park remains relevant to the contemporary body politic. The relation of the state to the individual can arguably still be described as hostile, though in many ways much more under the radar and less overt. Today we have: the invoking of an undefinable threat (war on terror), the creation of Gitmo, the torture of prisoners, the suspension of habeas corpus, a terrorist watch list of over a million names, the internal surveillance system of illegal wire-tapping, decent demonized as treason, the corporate control of media, and on it goes…

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Which brings all this to Nov. 4th. More than just a rudimentary election where we select new officials, I see Tuesday as an opportunity to fundamentally shift this nation’s collective consciousness out of the darkness and into, let’s say, less darkness. I hold no utopian notions of a “change” in this country where we all hold hands and bask in the sunshine of an Obama smile. How boring that would be.

More pragmatically, the only real meaning or truth I see derivable from this election is in the process of the election itself. On one day (and many early voting days) every four years there is a macro movement of thought in America, where all our individual finite experiences formulate into one pluralistic expression. From this expression we don’t get a transcendence (are the Obama-maniacs listening?), we get a transition. To quote William James, “The only function that one experience can perform is to lead into another experience.”

I remain hopeful our next experience will be more positive than our previous. What I’m ecstatically hopeful about is the collective expression taking place Nov. 4th.