The Last Castle Review
by Harvey S. Karten (film_critic AT compuserve DOT com)October 22nd, 2001
THE LAST CASTLE
Reviewed by Harvey Karten
DreamWorks Pictures
Director: Rod Lurie
Writer: David Scarpa, Graham Yost, story by David Scarpa Cast: Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Burton, Delroy Lindo, Paul Calderon, Steve Burton
Screened at: Loews Ewalk NYC 10/20/01
A man's castle is not his home, at least not when we're talking about dozens of ex-Marines who are housed in an old building structured like a fortress and serving as a prison for people who messed up in some way while they were doing military service. The castle of the title serves as chess-game metaphor as well in that chess is essentially what two larger-than-life characters engage in--a struggle for power between a pawn and a king, in a way, except that the putative monarch is in such awe of the figure he is superintending that the struggle for power between the two men is hardly on level ground. That the prisoner, 3-star General Irwin (Robert Redford) had received a higher commission that the prison warden, Col. Winter (James Gandolfini) provides the extra dose of zest for the audience to savor. Not a date movie, "The Last Castle" is a superior entertainment well-timed just when the final measure of patriotism, the raising of Old Glory, comes across in no way as a hoary or cornball image.
"The Last Castle" is about two flawed individuals, one, the Colonel, who is blemished by his sadism, by his incorrect view that the prisoners he oversees are without hope of remediation; the other who is sullied by having disobeyed an order from the commander-in-chief while in Bosnia, a defiance that caused six of his men to be executed by the enemy.
As the head of the military compound, James Gandolfini performs in the role of Col. Winter, who spends a good deal of his time looking out the window from an upper floor of the prison (filmed at the now-closed Tennessee State Penitentiary) to observe the work, the play, and the fights engaged in by military men who more often than not are serving long sentences for violations including insubordination and drug smuggling. Winter wears his emotions on his sleeve, or more accurate around his lips. He smiles when he is content but when his smile turns into a grimace, we know that he is mighty angry. He becomes angriest in much the way that most of us lose our cool: when he is threatened. And no one is more threatening to his tenure at the jail than General Irwin, who insults the colonel in short order by remarking to Winter's second-in-command, Capt. Peretz (Steve Burton), that no one with a collection of artifacts as abundant as the warden's could have possibly spent time on the battlefield. When Irwin notes the casual way that Winter inflicts discipline on the men--by forcing Irwin to spend a day dragging twenty-five pound rocks from one part of the yard to another amid bets by the gamblers among the convicts on whether Irwin will succeed and then by ordering the shooting of low-self-esteem stutterer Dellwo (Paul Calderon) simply because Dellwo saluted-- he is determined to force the jailer's resignation. The remainder of the two-hour drama--one which does not overstay its welcome by a single minute--is devoted to a contest: who can manipulate the men better; a fellow inmate who comes to the compound already bearing the respect of the men, or the chief of the prison who is disliked by all?
While "The Last Castle" mimics Stuart Rosenberg's 1967 movie "Cool Hand Luke," which featured George Kennedy's Oscar- winning performance as a prisoner, I see a comparison with my all-time favorite war movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai," David Lean's taut story of British soldiers in a Japanese prison camp who refuse to build a bridge that they are ordered by the Japanese commander to construct but readily follow the orders of one of their own, a British colonel (played by Alec Guinness). "The Last Castle" concludes with a fireworks-style finale made particularly striking because the men take up shields in their struggle with the soldiers who are guarding them in much the way that a 14th century squadron of knights would bear iron protection to safeguard themselves against the javelins and swords of those who'd succeed to climb the castle walls.
Rod Lurie proves his ability to tell a story as he did with "The Contender" and has come a way since directing the low-budget "Deterrence" which was almost laughable in its incredulity. Given the times we are living in, with our war in Afghanistan and our fight against global terrorism, there isn't a moment in this movie that we could call schmaltz, even in its Greek-tragic ending.
Rated R. Running time: 122 minutes. (C) 2001 by
Harvey Karten, [email protected]
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