Continuing on with my Robert Redford phase, I watched another of his films at the weekend:
The Last Castle (2001)
I caught some of this recently while I was staying at my sister’s. It made enough of an impression on me to want to watch the whole thing and I’m glad I did.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s an action/drama/thriller starring Robert Redford (The Horse Whisperer), the late James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), a young Mark Ruffalo (Avengers Assemble) and Delroy Lindo (Ransom) among others.
This is what it’s about according to google:
“A respected and decorated general's career ends in disgrace when he disobeys orders and is sent to a maximum-security prison dubbed the Castle. Perceiving the injustice at work within the prison system, he rallies his fellow convicts into a rag-tag army and mounts a revolt against the autocratic warden, who runs the institution with an iron fist.”
I thoroughly enjoyed this film! In fact it made me realise I’ve enjoyed every prison-based movie I’ve seen (I watched Lock Up (1989) starring Sylvester Stallone again recently and I’d forgotten how good that was).
Robert Redford as you’d expect is on full form, and James Gandolfini is brilliant as Col. Winter, the Prison Warden - a man who’s never set foot on the battle field and is jealous of the adulation and respect Redford’s character gets from his fellow inmates.
It has a good story, decent characters and a satisfying, action-packed finale that’s a great pay off after seeing the tension between the two main characters build throughout the film.
Sadly the movie bombed at the box office, only making $27.6 million against its $72 million budget. It’s a shame because it’s a really good film.👌
Fun fact: The prison used in the movie is the former Tennessee State Penitentiary located in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s the same prison that was used in The Green Mile (1999) and exterior shots of it were used to stand in for Folsom Prison in Walk the Line (2005).
This is definitely one to watch if you like a good “underdog prevails” type movie.
Seen it? Let me know below.👇 🏰