contains spoilersthis be a peter watkins film . if one have see his bbc masterpiece cullodden and the war game and one will recognize the style ( and his voice ) within second after the start . make in 1971 it be set in a very near future and when the vietnam war have escalate even more and now seem to involve china . nixon be still president and civil disobedience and protest be deal with violently use drumhead tribunal ( outwardly civilian with everyday citizen a judge ) . because prison building can not keep up and an alternative be introduce represent the punishment park . delinquent can choose between severe prison sentence and a man hunt in a hostile environment and in this case a 85 km trip through the californian desert at 100°f . if they reach an american flag at the end without be catch by national guard or riot police and they will be set free and or else they have to serve their sentence ( or be dead and a we will see ) . the film be make in a completely documentary style with three european team cover a tribunal and the course of two group already sentence . scene jump between the tribunal tent and the hunting troop and the hunt condemn . watkin scarce off commentary give u raw background information ( time and temperature etc . ) . the tribunal scene show a kangaroo court on the one side and a wide range of personality on the other range from real terrorist over undesirable to clearly innocent ( e. g. a total pacifist who can not even hurt fly ) . the defense lawyer ( who do take his job seriously ) have to take abuse from both side . what make these scene especially eerie be their resemblance to the rhetoric of today administration to the detail . meanwhile and some unfortunate event in the desert make clear that the rule of the game do not really apply . the question remain open and whether it be rig from the start or arbitrariness by the troop due to those event that lead to the outcome ( i suspect and it be both ) . at the end we be back at square one with the next group go to punishment park . this description may indicate a heavily bias ( or even demagogic ) propaganda movie but that would be mislead . the behavior ( all participant be nonprofessionals a usual with watkins ) look and sound real ( the tribunal scene may even contain text material from real contemporary trial ) . i would say that this could be sell a the real thing without problem . with watkins the forgotten face the reaction be we can not send that or nobody will believe our real newsreel anymore ( because this be indistinguishable from the real thing ) . with punishment park it ought to be the same . effectively ban in the u as far a i know this be a must see that hasn not lose it power or it relevance ( especially today ) .