The Last Castle (2001)

Now...this film was weak. I agree, the core antagonist/ protagonist relationship was weak...in fact, very weak. The warden was insulted because he has never really done a tour of duty, so collecting war memorabilia is for the weak. This is his soul motivation to prove himself. Yes, man is that fragile, but it needed to be developed thoroughly to base an entire movie on.

The rest of the flic makes one wonder if these guys are really in a prison. There is almost no conflict among the prisoners...they seem so united and too respectful of Redford's character. The movie lacked energy and intensity. The scene with the rocks that Redford dragged went on and on with no climax that moved me.

In short, this was a good looking Hollywood movie that was boring...you keep wondering why this movie was made. Maybe on repeat viewings it will be insightful...however not by me. I'm glad I borrowed it from the library!

Keep trying Rod!

The acting is very good, as is the cinematography. The editing is very good, as is the transfer to DVD.

Overall, one to put on your second-tier viewing list.

The film starts out with two incidents that it fails to follow up on. The first is a fight in the military prison between two inmates. The music and fight leads you to believe that this will be like a lot of prison films: people leading very hard lives, getting beat up on a daily basis, and having to fight to survive. There was virtually none of this. None of the prisoners are the least bit scary, and you expect them to hug each other by the final scene. Robert Redford is immediately given respect for being a general, and doesn't have to earn anything for himself.

The second surprise is that Redford's situation is left a mystery until halfway through the film. It's alluded to several times early on that he is a 3 star general and he doesn't deserve to be in prison. When it is finally revealed why he is in prison, it is a letdown. You're expecting it to be a fairly prominent part of the film, and he's portrayed as someone who doesn't deserve to be there. The director brushes over the explanation and the viewer learns that Redford, like every other prisoner, DESERVES to be in jail. This makes it very difficult to root for him when he decides to lead a gang of murderers and prisoners in an uprising against the warden.

The other main problem with this film, is that Gandolfini doesn't come off as a very bad character. Unlike the classic prison movies, you have a prisoner who deserves to be in jail, fighting against a warden who is supposed to be evil, but is never developed fully enough to show this.

The whole time through the end of this movie, I kept thinking, these guys are killing innocent American soldiers who were stationed at the prison and are simply following orders. While not many are killed, there are definitely a couple who go down permanently. I'm supposed to be excited about this?

Overall, a lackluster hero, a weak villain, and a lack of a single escape attempt makes this a very weak prison movie. This movie is tailor-made for Dolph Lundgren or Jean Claude Van Damme, not Robert Redford.