Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988)

Simply Perfect

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is by far the best prison movie out of all the prison movies. Their are no stars in the film, its a real film made to show how messed up a group of humans can be towards each other when society traps them in a cage. Its sharp and to the point, their is no drama heartthrob cinematic scenes, its a movie about how prison can actually be and was in certain areas of the world. It has that artistic viewpoint of reality unlike 99% of the other prison movies that are just simply made for the screen. This is made to touch your soul and tingle your senses and leave you with a real human feeling.

I've been trying to complete a review for this film for over a year, but have found it hard to really pin down what makes this such a unique and fascinating piece of cinema. I was 16 when Ghosts...of the Civil Dead was first released and seeing it at the cinema had a massive impact on me. Viewing through such young eyes perhaps makes it more memorable, I can't say. But this is a film which should have you thinking about it for days or even years afterward.Except for a few external shots and the closing scenes, the film occurs entirely within the walls of a privately owned maximum security prison. A cheery automated voice tells us this corporation is "the future of containment". This future is laid out before us over the next two hours- where guards terrified of what the inmates are capable of routinely abuse and dehumanise the prisoners until they explode in rage. Some of the inmates are then released, to commit yet more heinous crimes and prove to the general public the need for the so-called prison-industrial complex. The insinuation is, at the cost of a few lives, the corporation continues to grow.The soundtrack, not mentioned on the IMDb page, was by long time collaborators Nick Cave and Mick Harvey (both of The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds). Bandmate Blixa Bargeld provides voice overs in the film, and Cave (who co-wrote the film) appears as the chaotic "Maynard" to astonishing effect. Another Melbourne musician (Dave Mason of The Reels) surprised fans with his turn as Lily, the desirable trans inmate who flaunts her sexuality whilst struggling to escape her reality through using drugs.This film is not for the faint-hearted. There are graphic scenes of drug use and violence, which was actually shocking for the time. Today, maybe it isn't so extreme thanks to the films which came after it. But for film buffs, this is definitely one to see. Despite the heavy reliance on explicit violence, Ghosts...of the Civil Dead has a story which is executed with chilling precision.

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!

I was incarcerated at Parklea Prison the time this movie was screened. The movie portrays exactly what the administration and guards did to the prisoners prior to the great riot the year after at the prison. What a sense of irony that this movie should show what was happening in the prison system in NSW Australia at the time. The movie reflected the actual happenings down to the transfer of inmates that would cause trouble, and the taking of property to stir up trouble. Talking about de-ja-vu. The Australian movies of this type of genre(Prison), truly reflected the bastardisation of prisons. Other movies like Stir which starred Brian Brown also showed the extremes of what was happening behind the walls of gaols. I totally enjoyed the movie. They actually showed the movie in Parklea prison until the part of the beating of the prisoner, then they turned it off....I wonder why?