A highly decorated U.S. ArmyLieutenant General, court martialed and sentenced for insubordination, challenges the prison commandant, a colonel, over his treatment of the prisoners. After mobilizing the inmates, the former general leads an uprising aiming to seize control of the prison.
The film was released in the United States on October 19, 2001. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a financial disappointment, grossing just $27 million against its $72 million budget.
Plot
After pleading guilty to violating a presidential order, which resulted in the deaths of eight soldiers, Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin is sentenced to 10 years in a military prison, once a fortress, overseen by Colonel Winter.
Winter greatly admires Irwin and initially treats him with respect, until he overhears Irwin criticizing Winter's prized collection of military artifacts as something no true battlefield veteran would have. The other prisoners tell Irwin that Winter is an especially oppressive warden, and that several prisoners have died as a result of rubber bullets "accidentally" being fired at their heads. Determined to serve his time and move on, Irwin declines to get involved.
Corporal Ramon Aguilar is harshly punished for saluting, which is banned by Winter as the prisoners are no longer soldiers. Irwin interferes, resulting in a beating from the guards. As punishment, he is ordered to carry several heavy rocks across the yard in blistering heat, but succeeds and wins the support of the other prisoners.
To pass time, the prisoners are rebuilding the original castle wall in the yard. Irwin helps Aguilar convince them to tear it down and begin again so it can be built properly. This brings the men closer together. Witnessing this, Winter has the wall demolished. Aguilar attempts to stop the destruction and is killed by the guards.
Irwin has the inmates assemble as if they are soldiers in a regiment to pay their respects to Aguilar, but they're careful to use code instead of ranks and disguise their salutes. Winter offers some small concessions to Irwin to keep the peace, but Irwin calls him a disgrace and demands his resignation.
Winter recruits Yates, the prison bookie who is deeply skeptical of Irwin's leadership, to spy on his activities in exchange for an earlier release. Irwin and his followers resolve to overthrow Winter and take control of the prison to alert the military to Winter's many crimes.
When Irwin's friend, Brigadier General Wheeler, visits him, Winter receives a letter demanding that he resign, otherwise the prisoners will kidnap Wheeler. Winter quickly has Wheeler evacuated, only to discover the letter was a bluff that Irwin used to gain intelligence on how the guards would react during an actual uprising.
Yates tells Winter that Irwin plans to overthrow him and raise Winter's own flag upside down to signal distress, revealing that he has stolen it already and has sided with Irwin. The uprising commences, with the prisoners using improvised weapons to capture the prison's armored vehicle and helicopter. They call Wheeler's headquarters and inform him of the riot. Winter ultimately regains control of the prison after he orders the use of live ammunition, and the prisoners reluctantly comply at Irwin's insistence.
Irwin refuses to return the flag to Winter, telling him it doesn't belong to him, and walks away toward the flagpole. Desperate and furious, Winter orders his men to shoot Irwin, but they refuse, so he opens fire on Irwin himself. As Irwin bleeds to death, the guards and prisoners see Irwin has raised the flag right side up and salute it. Wheeler arrives and Winter is taken away in handcuffs.
The inmates build a new wall as a memorial to their fallen comrades. Aguilar and Irwin's names are among those carved onto the castle wall.
Robin Wright as Rosalie Irwin, the general's daughter (uncredited)
David Alford as Corporal Zamorro
Production
The castle-like appearance of the former Tennessee State Prison
The film was shot mainly at the 103-year-old former Tennessee State Prison in Nashville, which had previously been used for filming in The Green Mile and Last Dance, and was chosen because of its Gothic and castle-like appearance. The state of Tennessee offered to provide the location rent-free, with exemption from the state's 6percent state sales tax.[3]James Gandolfini earned $5million for co-starring in the film after finishing the third season of The Sopranos in March 2001.[4]
A crew of 150 worked on refurbishing existing buildings and constructing new buildings in a time limit of nine weeks. A wall 61 metres (200ft) long and six metres (20ft) high was built, serving as the prison's entrance. A metal walkway and two towers were also built as vantage points for the guards. The film required an office with a large window through which the warden could watch the inmates; this was constructed by the production crew. Director Rod Lurie insisted on having the prisoners' cells face each other, but this is not the case at the Tennessee State Prison. To solve the problem, production designer Kirk Petruccelli created cells in a warehouse near the prison.[5]
Cinematography
To show the balance of power, the film crew used multiple cinematography techniques involving different displays of color, lighting, camera and costumes. In the warden's office intense color was used to reflect freedom or power, in contrast to the washed-out colors from the less powerful yard. The contrasts shift as the story progresses, showing the increasing power of the prisoners. The American flag in the yard is described by Petruccelli as "the heart of The Castle" and is the only exemption to the washed-out color palette.[5]
Cinematographer Shelly Johnson, in collaboration with director Lurie and the design team, also used lighting and camerawork to signify the shifting of powers. For example, the yard is at first naturally lit and more influenced by daylight, in contrast to Winter's office, which is artificially illuminated by lamps. As the film progresses, the office is more fully infiltrated by exterior light through a broken window. The shift of power is also emphasized through camera techniques. Hand-held cameras were used when filming in the yard to make the audience feel as if they were "participants in the action". However, a very precise, sterile camera composition was used in the warden's office. The prisoners' world gets more precise during the film, while the colonel's world is filmed more loosely.[5]
Costume designer Ha Nguyen also demonstrates this contrast in the clothing of the cast. The film starts with the prisoners having their clothing divided by ethnicity, with African Americans wearing different headwear, Latinos wearing vests and various arm accessories, and the White Americans in cut-off T-shirts. After the arrival of General Irwin, the prisoners start wearing more similar clothing in a "sharp military manner". The uniforms of the prisoners change from the usual chocolate brown color to light grey, because of its muddled look on film and excessive darkness in some scenes. Ha Nguyen also contrasted the non-battlefield ribbons found on Colonel Winter's uniform with the battlefield medals found on General Irwin's uniform (seen only in the opening scene as Irwin is inducted into the prison).[5]
The wall created by the prisoners in the middle of the yard also represents change and incarnation. What is at first a "discombobulated mess" representing the lack of unity among prisoners later becomes a perfect wall, a "powerful symbol of the results of [Irwin's] leadership".[5]
Effects
Special effects supervisor Burt Dalton and stunt coordinator Mic Rodger created the battle weapons used in the final scenes. The trebuchet, used by prisoners to throw rocks, was capable of throwing a 68 kilograms (150lb) rock a distance of 60 metres (200ft) with an accuracy of ten feet around the target. The water cannon had the power to shoot 76 litres (20USgal) of water per second. Some of the cast did their own stunts, including Mark Ruffalo, who performed one scene hanging from a helicopter. Interiors of the helicopter were not created with blue screen effects; instead, a special gimbal was used to hold a full-sized Huey-A type military helicopter. The gimbal was capable of rotating the helicopter 360degrees and vertically moving it 20feet. The gimbal was controlled by a computer, allowing Dalton to precisely set speed and movement; this ensured precise repeatability for multiple takes.[6]
Release
The original poster that was pulled out of circulation
Prior to release, DreamWorks pulled the original poster from circulation, which depicted an American flag flying upside down (a standard distress call), due to concerns about public sensitivity related to the September 11 attacks.[7][8]
The film was released on October 19, 2001, in 2,262 North American theaters, grossing $7,088,213 on its opening weekend with an average of $3,133 per theater, ranking in fifth place behind From Hell, Riding in Cars with Boys, Training Day and Bandits.[9] The release spanned 63days (9 weeks), closing on December 20, 2001, with a total domestic gross of $18,244,060.[1] The film grossed $9,398,647 overseas, with the lowest earning in Egypt ($5,954) and the highest ($1,410,528) in Germany.[10]
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 52% based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Last Castle is well acted and rousing for the most part, but the story cannot stand up to close scrutiny."[11] At Metacritic, a rating website which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 42 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[13]
Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned the cast, describing Redford as "no George C. Scott" and Gandolfini as an unusual choice to play an icy intellectual. LaSalle stated that "'The Last Castle', on the surface, seems like a naive film about a great leader's capacity to inspire", but at closer look "seems to mean one thing but means another upon reflection".[14]Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times saw it as "a dramatic, involving story" but criticized its "loopholes and lapses." Ebert noted that Irwin is no less evil than Winter and that they both "delight in manipulating those they can control." He pointed out that the film fails to portray how the prisoners manufacture the weapons and hide them under Winter's observation.[15] Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine gave the film a rating of one out of four, saying, "Rod Lurie accomplishes the impossible by churning out a flag-waving action yarn even more ham-fisted than Pearl Harbor."[16]
It received 3 out of 5 stars on IGN; the review noted that though a well paced and well acted film, it "suffers from this overall militaristic, streamlined approach."[17]
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said the film's "pretensions lead to a slow, even stately pace, what should be crackling confrontations between Irwin and Winter end up playing more like a tea party than a Wagnerian battle of wills."[18]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a "C-plus" grade, writing: "As staged by Lurie, the drama has all the subtlety and surprise of a showdown between the sissy-bully son of Captain Queeg and a hero who's like a fusion of Brubaker, Spartacus, and Norma Rae."[19]
Variety wrote: "Much of the potential dramatic juice has been drained out of The Last Castle, a disappointingly pedestrian prison meller that falls between stools artistically and politically."[20]
Claudia Puig of USA Today criticized the writing, citing "a losing battle with an implausible script."[21]
Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times wrote: "The movie is exuberant, strapping and obvious—a problem drama suffering from a steroid overdose."[22]
Accolades
The Last Castle won the Taurus World Stunt Award for best fire stunt and was nominated for best aerial work and best stunt coordination sequence.[23]Clifton Collins, Jr. was nominated for an ALMA Award in the "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture" category.[24]
Home media
The Last Castle was released on DVD and VHS on March 5, 2002.[25]
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