Even watching it, only the other day, this ultra prison future, set in the near future, still retains it's originality, and freshness, like it always has. It's a unique one of a kind prison flick, with mostly unknowns. A younger David Field, the main star, is one of many prisoners who's pushed by a most hardened bunch of screws, who don't take crap, the main one, looking cool in shades, and chewing gum, a no nonsense, if there ever was one. The prison is very modernized, some dorms, looking like holiday homes. Very like Stir, this film works on the same premise basically, with a couple of different angles. Being the future, these prisoners are the worst of the worst, ones that can't be rehabilitated. Violence runs heavy and hits hard, one unrelenting stabbing scene of a guard, by a prisoner, graphically violent, as the film nears it's climax. Too near the end, not helping the situation, a score of crazy cons join the other prisoners, a ranting hate filled Cave, the lead, I'll never forget, as I will crazy prisoner, Gill's monologue while caged, after the prisoners have been robbed of their possessions, hence the prisoner's bloodshed and rioting. One warden does himself, which results in the retaliation against a black prisoner. I enjoy this movie so much. It's one of a kind and always will be, thanks to multi talented Cave, who knows how to make great films, this 89 one being his debut, and his baby. From it's exterior establishing shot, it's visually intriguing, with it's hills in the backscape, while the prisoner's locale, looks like situated in some wasteland. It could be anywhere. That's what's coolly admiring about it. We too have a cross dresser amongst our prisoners, which makes for a few laughs, where really, I found it downright sick and disgusting, a little too much. But no holes barred films like this are great. I love em'. Honestly, just see this great film once for the experience, with great acting and script, and an awesome score.

Civil Death: In Roman law, a person convicted of a crime where the punishment included loss of their legal rights. A person without civil rights - a civil dead.The story set in high tech prison, in the middle of Australian desert, follows an outbreak of violent crimes that has resulted in total lock down. Director John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless, Proposition) combines narrative techniques in order to depict the chain of events in most realistic fashion. Very gruesome, depressive and claustrophobic tone of the film combined with scenes of violence makes this a good candidate for Extreme film lists. As you can imagine, Ghosts...is not an entertaining film, quite the contrary. Its raw, stripped, matter-of-fact cinematography rarely provides solace and sense of dread, panic and tension never quite ceases.The film is very offensive, sweaty, macho, filled with testosterone despair as much as the characters it follows around relentlessly, in an honest and not quite polished attempt to raise some important social questions. The fact it's based on real events makes it even more sickening.Most of us have seen good share of prison films, and you usually know what to expect. We know about rumors of drug smuggling, gangs, sexual assaults and all the other chilling stuff that follow these threatening institutions. But you usually don't get fed most intimate and gruesome of details you don't wanna know about when mainstream cinema's concerned. This film, however....thrives on it. We get sort of exclusive and non squeamish insight into inmates' every day life, with all the filth that follows.Nick Cave has co-written and played a small part here, as crazy Maynard. He also wrote the haunting score, that stresses the sense of paranoia and despair even more.With the help of camera's clinical precision we witness all the things we've been fearing exist within the walls of high security correctional institutions, and more. Rape, drug use, murder, suicide, beatings, you name it. But, there seems to be the point in displaying all the atrocities, even though the camera rarely insists on lingering onto scenes of violence, sometimes seems as if gets "forgotten", but even so, controlled. There is a political implication here. Apparently, the government has used the prison's clashes and state of complete lock down to justify the construction of even more high tech institutions. Men are being held in their cells and void of the recreation, TV and other pass times, so the anger builds leading to more violent outbursts. Prisoners are brought in and eventually released as even bigger danger to society than they were before. So, the circle of violence continues.Took me whole afternoon to finish this dramatic testimony and sort of brief anatomy of violence. In case you were wondering there are, and will be gorier, more graphic depictions of dark part of humanity. But rarely so stuffy, depressing and realistically brutal. You know the phrase some people use when they want to stress the filthiness of the video/film: "made me want to take a shower afterward". Well, this one sure did, testified!

ghosts of the civil dead was an excellent, but slow moving movie. They made the decision to depict most of the violence through typed prison reports, giving the movie a slow-building pace. You are also never introduced to any characters which gives the movie a weird feel. Finally, there is not so much a story as a series of events loosely connected, but all building to a point, that is the riot and subsequent lock down that the film begins with. Anyway, it definitely is a good film, with excellent performances by David field (who gets raped and has the word c*nt tattooed on his forehead) and nick cave (who spends the whole time ranting and raving and smearing his blood on the wall). Also, the guy with the dreadlocks is truly scary when jumping on top of the cage after stabbing the guards. In conclusion it was excellent cinematic style, but i couldn't help feeling that it would have been nice to see some things rather than hear about them.....

As others have said, this is a disturbing and frightening film. For me, it raised questions about exactly who are the barbarians in our "civil" society and at what point can it be said that we are no better than "them". Some with no knowledge of conditions in modern prisons dismiss this as a brutal movie out for shock value and nothing else, but it is based on a true story. One previous comment says it was filmed in NT (Australia) and based on events that happened in an outback prison. However it was based on the testimony of David Hale, a warder at USP Marion, Illinois, USA, who spoke out about the management tactics and treatment meted out to both prisoners and staff at the prison - tactics which culminated in a lockdown after two people were murdered in one day. When Hale spoke out he was branded a drunk, a drug user and mentally unstable in order to discredit him. (If the soundtrack is still available, it is worth a listen. It features an extensive interview with Hale.)The cast features four professional actors and two musicians (Cave and The Reels' Dave Mason). The rest are predominantly ex-cons with about a dozen ex-cops, ex-warders and tough types found hanging around in local Melbourne gyms thrown in. It was workshopped for several months before filming began. You will not see a more realistic picture of life in prison - unless you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in one.