Punishment Park

In the Mojave Desert, television crews from the British Broadcasting Corporation, an American network and a West German network document the proceedings surrounding the tribunal of Corrective Group 638 and the punishment of Corrective Group 637. As described by the BBC presenter, the United States has resurrected the 1950 Internal Security Act, also known as the McCarran Act, giving the president extensive powers to declare an internal security emergency. Because the country is experiencing turmoil over the Vietnam War and the rights of blacks, women and the underprivileged, the president has proclaimed that any suspicious person can be arrested and held without bail. With so many citizens being arrested, jails are overflowing, and so the Senate Subcommittee on Law and Order has established "Punishment Parks" as an alternative to imprisonment in federal penitentiaries. At the Bear Mountain Punishment Park in the Mojave, prisoners are given three days and two nights in which to run a brutal course of fifty-three miles, at the end of which is an American flag. If they reach the flag within the allotted time, the prisoners are freed, but if they do not, they must serve their full sentences. During the three-day period, no food or shelter is provided to the prisoners, and they will be pursued by members of local sheriff and police departments, as well as members of the National Guard, who use the course for training. Presiding over the tribunal of Corrective Group 638 is William C. Hoeger, who overrules the motion of defense attorney James Daly to have the trial dismissed on grounds of unconstitutionality. Daly also asks for a jury and bail for the defendants, some of whom have been held for months without knowing the charges against them, but Hoeger overrules him again. While the defendants¿Lee Robert Brown, Jay Kaufman, James Arthur Kohler, Allison Michener, Charles Robbins, Nancy Jane Smith and William Luke Valerio¿are told that they have been charged with conspiracy to undermine the national security, in addition to various separate charges, the already convicted members of Group 637 are led into the desert. There, where the temperature is already 89 degrees at 9:00 a.m., Sheriff Edwards describes the course to the prisoners, who are told that there is a water station halfway through. He informs them that they must stay within the boundaries and that they will be given a two-hour head start before the pursuit begins. If they are approached by an official, they must surrender immediately, and if they react violently, force will be used against them. As the course begins, the group begins bickering among themselves, with some members determined to attempt the arduous trek, while others proclaim that "the pigs" will kill them no matter what. While the pacifists split off from the militants and begin their journey, in the tribunal, Robbins, a well-known author and black activist, sits handcuffed and verbally wrangles with the tribunal members. The members¿Senator Brinley J. Harris, American Legionnaire Leonard Keagan, sociology professor Charles Hazlett, housewife Mary Jurgens, journalist Alfred J. Sully and union steward Paul Reynolds¿are of varying ages but are all proudly conservative and antagonistic to the young prisoners, whom they regard as unpatriotic, dangerous revolutionaries. When Harris asserts that black people in America enjoy a standard of living higher than that of anywhere else in the world, Robbins retorts that the same thing can be said of any animal in the zoo. While Kaufman, the cofounder of the National Committee Against War and Repression, is questioned next about his opposition to the Vietnam War, the police and soldiers outside prepare their arsenal of weapons. Kaufman tells his accusers that he is more concerned about caring for the underprivileged in America than fighting a foreign war, but they rebuke him for thinking that the government is corrupt and accuse him of taking drugs. The infuriated Kaufman is carried from the room, while in the desert, the militant group plans on ambushing their pursuers. Soon after, the dead body of a deputy is discovered, and the BBC crew interviews Edwards, who states that after the dead man was stabbed with the spires of a Joshua tree, his guns and patrol car were stolen. Edwards admits that the murder will cause his men to feel even more antagonistic toward their prey. Meanwhile, the pacifist group becomes divided over differing opinions about the necessity of fighting back. The temperature rises to 103 as the day progresses, and while the pacifists struggle on, Valerio, a draft dodger, is the next defendant questioned. As the British interviewer becomes exhausted by the heat outside, a patrol car drives up and some members of the pacifist group are captured. On the morning of the second day, Smith, a popular teenage singer, is questioned about her songs that call for overthrow of the government, and she accuses the tribunal members of hypocrisy when they state that her incendiary lyrics are responsible for the deaths of other young people stirred to revolution. Out in the desert, the camera crew films the bodies of the dead militants, who were found and shot by the police, supposedly after they refused to surrender. Two of the militants remain at large with a shotgun, but Edwards remarks that if his men do not "get them," the desert will. Later, Group 637 is elated to find the water station but then is outraged to discover that the tap does not work, and probably never did. Believing that they have been deceived and have no chance to complete the course, a semi-militant faction of the group splinters off. While Kohler, an intellectual activist, is interrogated, the five remaining pacifists stagger along the remaining 27 miles to the finish line. Kohler debates the ethics of war with the senator and after Kohler is dismissed, Robbins, a militant member of The People's Army, is brought in. The vocal Robbins, who advocates violent revolution for blacks, as no other means are effective, is defending himself while on the course, the remaining two militants hold a West German sound technician hostage. The two prisoners are shot dead and the soundman freed while in the courtroom, the debate grows so heated that Hoeger orders Robbins gagged. Daly protests, stating that it is clear that the administration has chosen to exploit the division within the country to further its own agenda. On the morning of the third day, while the pacifists tend to Harold, one of their members who is gravely ill, Michener, an organizer of women's union, testifies. As she is stating that all people will resort to violence if their basic human needs are not satisfied, the semi-militant group is lured into range of their pursuers. Although the five prisoners surrender and willingly trudge up a hill with their hands over their heads, they cannot hear the soldier's orders to remain still. As the British newsman screams at the advancing prisoners to sit down, the soldier panics and shoots one of them. The others, believing that they have been betrayed, rush the man and kill him. In the courtroom, Michener accuses the committee of "putting radicals on trial as scapegoats for problems that stem from your own system," while in the desert, the pacifists mourn Harold's death. Hoeger reads an amnesty pledge that Michener can sign in order to obtain her freedom, but the oath, requiring her never to participate in any activity deemed subversive, disgusts her. In the desert, the remaining four semi-militants panic as they are surrounded by law enforcement, and even though the interviewer begs for their safety, when one prisoner throws a rock at an advancing soldier, the young soldier shoots and kills him. After the other three are shot, the outraged interviewer berates Edwards, who shrugs off his accusations. When the teenaged National Guardsman is questioned, he tearfully asserts that his weapon went off accidentally and that he did not intend to kill anyone. At the tribunal, the defendants are sentenced to long prison terms, despite an angry speech by Daly, who compares the committee's actions to those of Hitler. The pacifists, meanwhile, catch sight of the flag and happily approach it. As each of the defendants in Group 638 agrees to accept Punishment Park in lieu of prison time, the pacifists of Group 637 are prevented from reaching the flag by a line of police and soldiers, who brutally bludgeon them when they rush toward the goal. The camera is turned off for ten minutes, after which the police and soldiers yell that the prisoners "had it coming to them," despite the fact that the group beaten was not responsible for the earlier deaths of the two officers. When the interviewer accuses the police of "cheating" and never having any intention of letting the prisoners complete the course, they retort that the television crew has not offered any humanitarian aid to the prisoners and is interested only in the money to be made from the sale of their film. When the newsman then complains that this type of brutal treatment has been repeated all over America, Edwards replies that it will happen again, "as long as we've got this type of element to deal with."