Ostatni bastion

I realized that these American prison dramas tend to follow a predictable pattern: the main hero is unfairly sentenced, the prison is ruled by a messed-up sadist, a younger inmate who idolizes the main hero ends up dead on the orders of the sadistic scumbag, and justice eventually prevails. Today, I was disheartened to find that this film differed from the usual pattern only in the setting of a military prison, with the approach remaining unchanged. Even this single deviation didn't work in its favor, leading to expected melodrama and genuine American patriotism, which I find tiresome, to put it mildly. What saves this is that I've got a soft spot for Robert Redford; without him, I'd have settled for two stars. / Lesson learned: When piloting a flying vehicle in battle, ram like Amet-khan Sultan, but don't forget to approach the target like a snake. 3*- (26.07.2022)

Twenty-one years after Brubaker, Robert Redford is behind bars again. This time as a principled, fair and charismatic general. When he experiences the regime that the prison management imposed, he begins... And you know the rest... There’s nothing original here, simply a solid picture which gives you nothing, but takes nothing away, either. (31.01.2007)

An excellent psychological battle of two minds, set in perhaps an overly patriotic environment. But still, the acting performances are excellent, the final climax of the conflict and Goldsmith’s amazing music make The Last Castle a great watch. (22.12.2011)

The Last Castle is a movie that a lot of people talked about. They talked about it with a great deal of respect. And they weren’t even talking about the cast, but rather about the movie and the plot as such. This movie had always been on the back of my mind and then the opportunity presented itself for me to see it. Well and I must admit that this movie is great. It may be quite crazy when it comes to the realism of the story. But when it comes to the screenplay, it’s the best work I’ve seen from the year and actually one of the best I’ve ever seen. Everything is done properly. You will fall in love with Robert Redford immediately. You will fall in love with all the criminals who are suffering through all the terror in the prison. What can you do, it’s a prison for murderers and god knows who. But here, you will barely notice that. The authors simply want to squeeze emotions out of the prisoners and it all works out incredibly easily. All you need is Robert Redford and you’re good. After a while you will start believing that that shitty warden, who is portrayed by Gandolfini, is a heck of a motherfucker. And he sure is. Well, and then it’s all more or less clear. I have to admit that the movie is more deserving of a four-star rating, but when I saw the reviews here, I had to add one more star. I’m not really reviewing the realism of the movie or the fact that there is lot of plot-holes in the movie, I was rather reviewing the cinematographic craft and the emotions the movie manages to produce. If nothing else, you could say that movies are most of all about emotions and here they managed that to 120 %. (05.01.2014)