The camera swoops over the prison walls. Men are walking through the exercise yard to the gate where a prisoner bus has arrived. The current inmates rush to the bookie and place their bets, in cigarettes, on how long the new fish might last.
But wait! This isn't The Shawshank Redemption. Welcome to The Last Castle, Rod Lurie's new action-drama set in a military prison. The film certainly borrows heavily from prison movie conventions - the "new fish" scene being the most startlingly obvious - but overall it is a fresh and entertaining variation on the genre.
Eugene Irwin (Robert Redford), three-star general and world-famous tactician, has been sent to military prison after a court martial for disobeying the Commander-In-Chief. The warden, Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini), initially treats the general with respect. Irwin, however, soon realizes that the man employs questionable methods and a sometimes lethal attitude toward prisoners.
The inmates- all former soldiers themselves- are stripped of all their military trappings; having lost all rank, they are not even allowed to salute each other. General Irwin's natural leadership wins over the other prisoners as he restores their self-respect as military men and begins his struggle - not to escape from the prison but to control it and knock the colonel from power.
Standout performances by both Redford and Gandolfini make the film work, though in entirely different ways. Redford's General Irwin is calm and confident; never worried or surprised. While this might not have been the most varied role for Redford, his charisma and leadership are unquestionable.
Gandolfini, however, takes on a part far different from his most famous work on HBO's The Sopranos. Colonel Winter is a thinking man rather than a battlefield warrior. His office is full of carefully polished military memorabilia, and he is proud of having brought the facility under a tight control. At the same time, however, he is uncertain with himself - he finds the general's reputation intimidating and, as the film continues, even threatening. The struggles between Irwin and Winter are some of the movie's finest points, as the audience comes to see the effect of both the general's plans and Winter's slipping control over the prisoners.
The two leads make up for the film's various smaller shortcomings, but there are flaws that cannot be overlooked. Most of the film's stumbling blocks come from insufficient characterization. In several cases, people make huge emotional turns with little explanation to the audience. Other times, characters get such token representation that they should better have been left out entirely.
For example, Colonel Winter begins with a wealth of respect for General Irwin. "They should be naming a base after him," he says to one of the guards, "not sending him here." Only a few minutes later (and these are not "movie minutes," which may gloss over weeks or months of time, but actual minutes) he has picked Irwin as an adversary because he overhears the general remarking that the colonel's collection of war memorabilia is a clear indication that he has never been on a battlefield. Irwin struggles against Winter for the rest of the film because he believes it is best for the prisoners; Winter fights Irwin, it seems, in large part because he heard the general insult his collection of bullets.
There is also the matter of Clifford Yates (Ruffalo), who begins as an outsider but is eventually drawn into Irwin's rebel cadre. How? No one knows. The audience knows that the bookie will join with Irwin, but only because it serves the plot, not because he's come to some life-altering realization about duty and country.
As for the less necessary characterizations, the introduction of Irwin's family is glaringly unnecessary. His daughter Rosalie (Robin Wright) appears once and makes it clear that she doesn't really know her father and doesn't want to. Later, she sends him a letter with a picture of her son. That's it. Exit Rosalie stage left. If Lurie wanted to make a point about the general's family, he missed it, and cutting moments like her visit could only serve to streamline the film. Moreover, her introduction and Irwin's interest in his grandson add a sentimental note to the movie that is unnecessary and unrepeated.
Like so many prison movies, The Last Castle sympathizes with the prisoners. This makes sense to a point - a movie about a righteous warden punishing vile criminals would be an unfulfilling ride - but it goes too far in forgetting that each of the men in the prison are there for a good reason. Winter makes this very point to Irwin, but it is quickly glossed over, as he is, after all, the villain. In this population of violent, military-trained inmates, there are only two fights: one intentionally provoked by the colonel when he allowed only one basketball in the exercise yard (apparently only to prove his sadism) and one planned by the prisoners themselves as a diversion to keep the guards busy.
In fact, when asked by Winter what he expected to do while in prison, General Irwin replied that he wanted only to serve his time and go home. Wouldn't his first concern be surviving, or at least avoiding being raped? This is prison and he is a prisoner, not a downtrodden fry-cook in a boring, dead-end job who just wants to finish his shift and get home. In a shakedown, the guards find numerous shivs, saps, and clubs, yet the audience never sees the prisoners make use of these homemade weapons. The inmates of The Last Castle are, of course, too nice to fight, cut, kill, and rape each other. For a movie that borrows so heavily from the likes of The Shawshank Redemption, The Last Castle may have missed its mark by not having a single disreputable prisoner.
One last complaint: an introductory monologue is sometimes an effective way to start things off, but no matter how good Lurie thought the monologue was, there was no need to use it both at the beginning and halfway through the movie. Once is plenty.
These flaws should not, however, be overplayed. It seems unlikely that the prisoners would be so well behaved and disciplined - these are soldiers who were put in jail, after all - but that's hardly the point of the film. The Last Castle is about remembering that your life has meaning when you've lost everything you valued; it's even about finding the good in people, about remembering that men in jail are still real men, and about a respect for one's nation. Most of all, this movie is about the character of leadership, and Redford's portrayal of an irrepressible human leader is right on target.
At a time when patriotic sentiment is burning brightly, The Last Castle might find a receptive audience based solely on its respect for the American flag - expect at least one cheer to come from the audience during the show. More importantly, however, the film deserves credit for being entertaining and intelligent no matter the patriotic elements; the inevitable showdown is sincerely clever and well worth the buildup. Money spent on this one is not money wasted.
