Ghosts... of the Civil Dead | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Hillcoat |
Written by | Nick Cave Gene Conkie Evan English John Hillcoat Hugo Race |
Produced by | Evan English |
Starring | David Field Chris DeRose Nick Cave Dave Mason |
Cinematography | Paul Goldman Graham Wood |
Edited by | Stewart Young |
Music by | Nick Cave Blixa Bargeld Mick Harvey |
Production companies | Correctional Services Outlaw Values |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | A$1,680,000 [1] |
Ghosts... of the Civil Dead is a 1988 Australian drama-suspense film directed by John Hillcoat. It was written by Hillcoat, Evan English, Gene Conkie, Nick Cave, and Hugo Race. It is partly based on the true story of Jack Henry Abbott.
The story is set in Central Industrial Prison, a privately run maximum security prison in the middle of the Australian desert. An outbreak of violence within the prison has resulted in a total lockdown. A committee is appointed by the prison's governors to investigate the cause of the outbreak, but their findings are in stark contrast to the facts behind the riot.
It is revealed that both the prisoners and the guards are slowly and deliberately brutalised, manipulated and provoked into the forthcoming eruption of violence by the government and the private company that runs the prison, in order to justify the construction of a new and more "secure" facility.
The script was based on the book In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Henry Abbott and research done with David Hale, a former prison guard at Marion, Illinois. The film was shot at a disused aircraft factory in Melbourne [2] in October and November. [3]
In Roman law, a person convicted of a crime where the punishment included loss of their legal rights as a person was civiliter mortuus, a person without civil rights.
Award | Category | Subject | Result |
---|---|---|---|
AACTA Awards (1989 Australian Film Institute Awards) | Best Film | Evan English | Nominated |
Best Original Screenplay | Nick Cave | Nominated | |
John Hillcoat | Nominated | ||
Hugo Race | Nominated | ||
Gene Conkie | Nominated | ||
Evan English | Nominated | ||
Best Actor in a Leading Role | Mike Bishop | Nominated | |
Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Bogdan Koca | Nominated | |
Best Editing | Stewart Young | Nominated | |
Best Original Music Score | Nick Cave | Nominated | |
Mick Harvey | Nominated | ||
Blixa Bargeld | Nominated | ||
Best Sound | Bronwyn Murphy | Nominated | |
Rex Watts | Nominated | ||
Peter Clancy | Nominated | ||
Best Production Design | Chris Kennedy | Won | |
Best Costume Design | Karen Everett | Nominated | |
Beverly Jasper | Nominated |
The spoken line "Welcome to Central Industrial. We are the future" has been sampled by Future Sound of London in their song "Central Industrial" on their Accelerator album; [4] also sampled by Woob in their song "Void, Part One" on the album em:t 0094, [5] and by Jam and Spoon in their remix of Moby's "Go". [6]
Sonic Subjunkies samples various parts of the film in their songs "Central Industrial" and "Central Industrial II: The Lockdown".
Therapy? opened the song "Nausea" (the first one on their 1992 album Nurse) with a sample of Nick Cave shouting "Here I am, motherfuckers!" in the film.
Nicholas Edward Cave is an Australian musician, writer and actor. Known for his deep baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love, and violence.
Nurse is the first major label album released by the rock band Therapy? It was released in 1992 on A&M Records.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are a rock band formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and German guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey, guitarist George Vjestica, touring keyboardist/percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit, and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos. Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward", they have released eighteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.
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Henry's Dream is the seventh studio album by the Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 27 April 1992 by Mute Records.
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Jack Henry Abbott was an American criminal and author. With a long history of criminal convictions, Abbott's writing concerning his life and experiences was lauded by a number of well-known literary critics, including author Norman Mailer. Due partly to lobbying by Mailer and others on Abbott's behalf, Abbott was released from prison in 1981 where he was serving sentences for forgery, manslaughter, and bank robbery. Abbott's memoir In the Belly of the Beast was published with positive reviews soon after his release. Six weeks after being paroled from prison, Abbott stabbed and killed a waiter outside a New York City cafe. Abbott was convicted and sent back to prison, where he killed himself in 2002.
In the Belly of the Beast is a book written by Jack Henry Abbott and published in 1981.
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