Now Showing: The Last Castle

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The Last Castle

by Cole Smithey

A year after his self-written and directed milestone The Contender, Rod Lurie falls inside Hollywood’s movie machine to direct a lackluster prison/military action picture. Robert Redford exerts his standard workaday acting technique as General Irwin, a three star General sentenced to a maximum security military prison where he leads an uprising against the prison’s immoral warden, Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini – “The Sopranos”). The Last Castle unreels with a numbing lack of dramatic variety, much less any dynamic range from its clichéd cast of prison characters. Even the movie’s themes of power corrupting, and of man’s ability to rise above his circumstances by way of honor, are expressed in such bland tones that the movie starts to feel like just so much white noise.

In the prison saga Brubaker (1980), Robert Redford’s character begins the story disguised as a prisoner before taking his place as a prison-reforming warden. In The Last Castle, Redford sets foot inside prison walls as a legendary United States General, and author of an esteemed book on military strategy called Burden of Command, before settling into his role as a revolt-leading captive. Irwin’s reputation precedes him as Redford’s legend as an actor puts its stamp on the film.

Colonel Winter is a fan of Colonel Irwin and has taken pains to impress his latest inmate with his collection of well-preserved military artifacts, and to acquire Irwin’s autograph on his copy of the Colonel’s book. But the gloves come off when Irwin dismisses Winter’s military assemblage as indication of a man who has never set foot into combat. Winter takes such umbrage at Irwin’s flippant remark that he decides against getting the autograph. As the scene that sparks the fierce rivalry between the decorated Colonel Irwin and the prison’s glory-seeking warden, one wonders why Irwin’s sense of military tact abandoned him at such a crucial introduction.

The answer is as mundane as Redford’s voice-over narration at the start of the movie that defines the elements of a ‘castle,’ concluding with the ultimate importance of its flag. Colonel Irwin is a martyr-in-waiting, and his character needs to be painted into a corner as soon as possible. Irwin befriends a stuttering inmate named Aguilar (Clifton Collins Jr. - Traffic) who in turn becomes the prime example of Colonel Winter’s abuse of power and of Irwin’s ability to instill self-esteem in his fellow prisoners. Once Irwin is publicly disciplined for speaking up for Aguilar, the inmates are ready to follow the demoted Colonel and trade salutes disguised as hair-rubs with their new leader.

It’s finally revealed a third into the movie that the reason for Irwin’s imprisonment is that he disobeyed an executive order during a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight of his men. Irwin makes a show of taking tender responsibility for his culpability, and as a martyr in his own right, when he’s offered a chance to be moved to another jail but refuses. Likewise Warden Winter passes on having his star prisoner removed because he has already been put in a no-win situation.

Gandolfini’s tic-layered characterization of Winter is the strongest link in the movie. With overt articulation of his words yet containing a slight lisp, Gandolfini spells out his character’s psychological repression with cunning grace. He presents such an unapologetic and pathetic example of military power that his pairing against Irwin seems too unbalanced. For Irwin to be such a master of generalship, he blatantly overlooks Machiavelli’s law on allowing an enemy a dignified retreat. As Irwin unites the inmates into a pseudo-military unit, Winter quickly looses grasp of his power to reason and on his ability to command.

The Last Castle falls apart in the third act, when the inmates execute a well-orchestrated attack against their many guards inside the castle walls like an oversimplified game of chess. Every jerry-rigged explosive device fires as planned and the inmate troops work together like a well-oiled machine. But the inevitability of Colonel Winter’s defeat has already been sewn by his corrupt actions and Irwin comes into a more selfish light at the finale, as his passage to martyrdom becomes certain. In the end both rivals have taken advantage of the lesser men around them to elevate their own stature. It’s an example of pride standing in for greed. As Americans discover the importance of the world’s largest oil deposits in Kazakhstan and its relation to Afghanistan, we may all comprehend the ugly imposter of pride shielding greed in much the same way.