Punishment Park - Movie Review Example

Produced in 1971, the Punishment Park is a British pseudo-documentary that chronicles the actions of the American government and military during the Vietnam War. The film revolves around the activities of the police and the National Guard as the two forces peruse a counterculture group across a great desert in North America. Just as any other film, Punishment Park employs several film production features and elements to earn the effectiveness of communication. Unlike any other film gene, pseudo-documentary strives to provide reflections of actual events (Nelmes 22). The film does this by depicting the immense hostility of the government agency against the counterculture. The success of communication and portrayal of the community in a film relies on the director's employment of such elements as light, characterization, visual contents, and camera movements among others as the below review of Punishment park reveals.

As stated earlier, pseudo-documentaries are dramatized realities. The director recruits the actors to play specific roles in the film, and the plot of such dramatization is always actual events that the producers would wish to communicate to their audience but cannot use the actual victims. While the directors may manipulate the plot to enhance the film's relevance among the audience group, they maintain the essence of the film to the actual events they wish to portray. The same is the case in Punishment Park as the director portrays actual events that transpired during the Vietnam War. The films capture the most traumatizing and inhumane treatment of people within America, the leading democracy. Additionally, the film portrays abject neglect of human rights during the time when President Nixon orders the detainment of people perceived to be enemies of the state. Such a blanket definition of the enemy leaves the population vulnerable as anybody without effective identification documents qualifies as an enemy.

To enhance the communication of the graphic nature of the film, the director employs visual content strategically thus achieving relevance and effectiveness of communication. Among the elements that the director employs include characterization, the film stars Patrick Boland acting alongside other established actors at the time. The selection of the talents contributes to the success of the film, which relies on the effectiveness of each cast. The cast in the movie fit their roles perfectly thus portraying the essential features the director hoped for in the idea. The relevant cast influences the cast as they depict the inhumane nature of the government’s policy during the Vietnam War. Through the cast, the film depict both intriguing and disturbing features in President Nixon’s secret operation in Cambodia in a bid to counter the growing antiwar movements.

Among the most intriguing features of the film is its portrayal of the desert. The director employs numerous features of film production to ensure that he develops realistic scenery representing the desert. The expansive sand and the enduring setting thus come naturally. The setting is an important aspect of a film that the director achieves by shooting the film in El Mirage Dry Lake in California. An effective setting is important in a film that is a pseudo-documentary. In such films, the audience demands an actual or near-actual representation of historical events. The setting thus becomes important since the audience would demand some similarity of the setting to the exact location of the historical occurrences.

The most disturbing feature of the film is the maltreatment of the minority group by government officers. The setting is harsh as the heat becomes unbearable, they lack basic needs such as food and water but must run for their lives in the expansive sand and soaring heat of the desert. It becomes ironic that the government of the United States a country considered the most civilized and with vibrant civil rights groups would permit such inhumane treatment of people without trial. The director portrays such effectively by developing an effective plot. The plot refers to the storyline of the film. The film follows the events in the desert following the declaration of a state of emergency by President Nixon.

Besides the effective selection of the characters, the director uses effective costumes that revamp communication in the film. Costumes are the clothes used by the cast in the film, as a fundamental aspect of the film costumes help communicate. The accused face harsh treatment and the director portrays these through various means including the use of costumes. Dressed in tattered clothes, the accused survived the cold desert nights without any warm clothing. The director portrays them as they shiver and near death, in the freezing cold desert nights. The costumes help communicate the harsh climatic conditions a feature that makes costumes fundamental in film production. 

In retrospect, the success of a film in communication relies on the directors’ employment of the various visual elements and among other stylistic features of film production. Punishment Park, a pseudo-documentary is a perfect portrayal of these as the director employs numerous features and film production elements including costumes, light, and talent selection to revamp the visual content.