Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988) |
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Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Interviews-Cast & Crew-8 video, 4 audio Biographies-Cast & Crew-Nick Cave, John Hillcoat, Evan English, Blixa Bargeld, more Script-annotated by Nick Cave Production Notes-extensive Storyboards-Max Murders, Wenzil Kills Lilly Gallery-Photo-2 Trailer-English and French Audio-Only Track-Interviews with cast, crew, audio essay - criticism Theatrical Trailer-Everynight Everynight Theatrical Trailer-Chopper Theatrical Trailer-Stir Audio-Only Track-8 excerpts from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Easter Egg-Original Research Scrapbook Images |
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| Year Of Production | 1988 | ||
| Running Time | 89:08 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | John Hillcoat |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Umbrella Entertainment |
Starring |
David Field Mike Bishop Vincent Gil Nick Cave Dave Mason Kevin Mackey |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music |
Nick Cave Mick Harvey Blixa Bargeld |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.37:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | Yes | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes, but not annoying at all. | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
What is the real purpose of a prison? Some see the deprivation of liberty as justice, others see it as punishment, while some see it simply as containment. If you are to protect society, you must contain the threat. That is the idea, anyway. This film is about 'The future of containment' and what it really means.
Wenzil has been in and out of penal institutions for a very long time. But after so many reoffences, he has been sent to Central Industrial Prison, one of the 'new generation' prisons that have been built to hold the most dangerous criminals and keep them far from society. While looking more like an apartment block from the outside and a dormitory on the inside, the 'new generation' prison is one place that once confined within, your stay will be long and assured. The prison grounds are surrounded by 5 metre wire mesh fences topped with razor wire. The area between the first and second fences is mined and covered with more rolls of razor wire. The second fence is electrified and topped with more razor wire. Nothing gets in and absolutely no one gets out. This is the world that Wenzil (David Field) has found himself in and for many, it is the end of the line.
Wenzil soon discovers that this prison is much like any other. There is the usual hierarchy, with some prisoners greatly feared, and therefore powerful. These prisoners go where they please and do as they wish (within the confines of the prison, of course). Drugs are dealt openly and used at will. Prisoners have their own cells that have many conveniences, such as stereos, televisions and VCRs. Pornographic videos are readily available, as well as regular free to air television. Each prisoner is free to take up their chosen hobbies, studies or whatever activities are to their liking. They can do almost anything they want, except leave. But in a slow but deliberate way, the prison begins to change.
First, more hardened and violent criminals are let into the general population. This sets the prisoners on edge and also makes the guards very apprehensive. Protests and concerns raised by the prison guards to management fall on deaf ears and there is a predictable increase in violent acts between inmates. In an attempt to quell the increasing level of violence, the prison administration removes many of the privileges that the prisoners have previously enjoyed. All the TVs and VCRs and stereos are taken away. Personal articles are either removed from the cells or destroyed in the ever more frequent searches by the guards. And during this upheaval, even more violent and disturbed prisoners are released into the population. This is typified by Maynard (Nick Cave), who is deeply disturbed and violent and whose constant taunts and rantings put the entire prison, both inmates and guards, on tenterhooks. As time goes on, things get more out of hand, with the guards having less and less control over their charges. But this escalation is by design rather than random circumstance, and everyone is a pawn in a much larger game.
It's interesting that this benchmark document of prison culture and life would be made here in Australia, once a prisoner's island. Not an action flick or star vehicle, this is a real, raw, intense and sometimes harrowing look at what many would call the future of prisons. Some have mistakenly attempted to describe this film as being set in the future. It isn't. Instead, this is the present reality of prison life both in the United States and here. During their research for this film, Director John Hillcoat and Producer Evan English travelled to the United States to see first hand what was happening in that nation's prisons. During their travels, they happened onto a conference on what was termed 'New Generation Prisons' that would become 'The future of containment'. This would greatly influence what direction this film would take.
Taking themes raised by prison writer Jack Henry Abbott, John Hillcoat and Evan English began to formulate a story about what life would be like in one of these 'new generation prisons'. Finding out that the new maximum security prison to be built in Victoria would take on many similarities to what the pair had seen in America made the production all the more real and timely. Following some of the blueprints of actual new prisons, the producers built their sets in the same way to show how this new type of incarceration might change things, or how it might keep things the same. This was as much about design as it was about philosophy, and the interesting thing about this film is that it shows that there may be more to prison than just containment.
This film features some terrific performances, especially from David Field who has played a prisoner many times before (Everybody Everybody in 1994 and Chopper in 2000 are perfect examples), but who can count this as his defining role as a guest of Her Majesty. Nick Cave is appropriately 'off the chain' as the psychotic Maynard, which he based on an experience with an inmate of an American jail Cave had the misfortune to find himself in. Many of the extras were actual former inmates and give the film a realism it might not have otherwise put across. First time feature director John Hillcoat hits the nail on the head with this one. I've tried not to give too much away to those who haven't seen this film, and it is very much worth watching. For those who have seen the film before and are wondering if it's as good as they remember - it is.
The one thing that I remembered from 13 years ago when I first saw this film and that really set the tone of the whole story were the words of Joe Glover (Kevin Mackey), the old man in solitary confinement:
"There was something once that set me apart, and it could have been
anything. It marked me out. I musta done something wrong, but I can't remember
what. All I really know is somebody's taken my whole life and shoved it
down the sewer. All I remember is the cops saying that it was me that did it.
The screws say it was me. I don't know why I would have wanted to do that,
live my life in a s***hole, covered in s***. Why would anybody?
Sixteen. I was sixteen when they put me inside. Emotionally, I've just
been sixteen ever since. When I was sixteen I took a girl out to the movies.
I felt her c**t, but I've never f**ked one. I think about it, but I run out of thoughts.
All my dreams, they're just about violence. It's all I know. It's all I've ever seen.
Violence."
This film is presented in 1.33:1, which is very close to the feature's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Of course, there is no 16x9 enhancement. At first I was surprised to see that the director hadn't used a more expansive aspect ratio such as 1.85:1, but after watching the film again, I got the impression that the director was trying to infuse the film with a sense of being enclosed, and give it an almost claustrophobic feel. The use of the 1.37:1 aspect ratio imparts this, as well as giving the viewer a more intimate view of the characters, which is quite disturbing.
Given the budget of this film and the conditions in which it was filmed, the image we have available here is reasonable, but not first rate. I had no real problems with the level of clarity of image during this film, but then I was taking into account the age of the film and the fact that it probably hasn't gone through any sort of restoration process. Keep this in mind and you shouldn't be too disappointed. There isn't much shadow detail available during some of the darker scenes, with dark scenes quite grainy, pixelated (MPEG artefacts) and generally noisy. The lack of shadow detail does, however, work for the film by adding to the bleakness experienced by the characters and portrayed for the viewer. Examples of this can be found at 2:41 and 9:08. Increased grain and the general high level of pixelization seen during this title make low level noise a hard one to pick, but I didn't have any issues with it.
The colour used during this film are fairly muted and drab. While some of this might be due to the state of the print used to commit this film to DVD, most of the look seems to be intended and serves the film well. The commitment of colour to this disc is good, which is probably as good as we are likely to get for quite some time unless this film receives a complete restoration. One might think that restoring a film made in 1988 is a bit much, but have a look at the film Mad Dog Morgan by director Philippe Mora, produced in 1976, as an example of a title that verges on being almost completely lost due to the degradation of the print.
As stated before, MPEG artefacts are a problem with this film. Despite the disc being RSDL formatted, it looks as though the main feature is presented on the first layer and the supplementary features (which are numerous) occupy the second layer. Still, this film isn't overly long at just under 90 minutes and with only one soundtrack being available as well as no subtitle options, one would have thought that perhaps a better compression job could have been done. Alas, not here, so don't be surprised to see a fairly high level of MPEG pixelization throughout the film that thankfully doesn't lapse into macroblocking. There is some chroma noise visible at times with an example at 53:44. There is also some cross colorization visible during the end credits, though not to a huge extent. Repeat offender edge enhancement continues to defy rehabilitation and is again in the general population with examples at 13:88 and 55:28 among others. The film image isn't entirely stable with odd jumps in the frame at various cuts during the film. These are seen at numerous times during the film with examples at 8:10, 14:25 and 16:23. There are small nicks and flecks visible throughout the program, but these are not to a distracting level.
There are no subtitle options available on this disc.
This disc is formatted RSDL, but with no layer change visible, I can only conclude that the main program takes up one layer while the extra features take up the second.
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The audio for this film is presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.
The dialogue quality is fairly good, again considering the budget and conditions under which it was filmed. There were a couple of instances where I wanted to go to the subtitles to see exactly what a character had said, but as there are no subtitles available on the disc, I had to try to listen harder. This was a seldom occurrence and perhaps more a problem with my understanding the accents rather than anything else. The feature audio sync seemed quite good, but I did think it was out from time to time during some of the supplementary materials.
Another AFI Award this film was nominated for in 1989 was that of Best Original Music Score (again missing out to Dead Calm and the score composed by Graeme Revell), which was composed by Nick Cave, Mick Harvey and Blixa Bargeld whom, amongst others, sometimes comprise the band The Bad Seeds. The score is suitably foreboding and atmospheric, with an unnerving mood created throughout. This is typified by the haunting 'la, la' discordant melody sung by Anita Lane which has the effect of putting the viewer on edge. Not scary as such, but quite disturbing, a word that typifies this film.
As we have a basic Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded mix available here, we must rely on our sound decoding equipment to provide the surround audio. This is, as expected, fairly atmospheric in nature with the echoes heard in the environs of the prison making the appropriate hollow and cavernous resonances.
The subwoofer is not taxed by the film itself, or it's goings on, but the film's score does utilize some LFE and this is appropriately mixed.
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Upon entering the Explore Extras page, we are offered:
This feature is divided into 3 distinct parts, these being: Interviews 2002, Interviews 1988 and Interviews Audio.
Interviews Video 2002
John Hillcoat - Director - 25:26
This is a new interview with the film's director, talking about the origins of the film including the Jack Henry Abbott book In the Belly of the Beast, which served to inspire the director to cover the prison experience on film. Casting and writing the script is also discussed. The audio for this feature is fairly ordinary with the sound shifted dramatically to the right of screen. There is also some quite pronounced distortion (almost overmiking), an ever-present audio hum is heard and sync could be better. There is an MPEG drop-out at 17:29.
Evan English - Producer, Co-writer - 17:52
The film's producer talks about his experiences in making the film, how the film was financed and some of the influences that helped both John Hillcoat and he write the film. Audio is better than the first interview with the director, but still suffers from the audio hum. There is an MPEG drop-out at 10:11.
Nick Cave - Composer, Actor, Co-writer - 14:23
Nick discusses how he became involved with the making of the film and also how he worked on the writing of the screenplay. Looks to have been filmed in England recently. The image blurs slightly from time to time during the interview.
Blixa Bargeld - Composer - 5:38
This interview is quite brief and one gets the impression that Blixa really doesn't like interviews. After expressing some obvious displeasure in being asked to repeat his introduction and then taking a phone call on his mobile, Blixa finally gets down to discussing his contribution to the film's score.
Interviews Video 1988
Evan English & John Hillcoat - Producer and Director - 14:40
The film's director and producer talk about the making of the film and about the research they did on the subject of 'new generation' prisons in the United States. This is more of an amateur video effort with the typical flaws attributable to VHS video. Still quite watchable and interesting.
Nick Cave - Composer, Actor and Co-writer - 9:34
Director John Hillcoat (off camera) talks to a very shy and reticent Nick Cave about his involvement with the film. Compared to the very confident and articulate offering we get in the 2002 interview, this is very much the opposite.
Mick Harvey - Composer, Actor (just) - 5:15
Mick talks about working with Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld and about his influences in terms of music and film scoring.
Blixa Bargeld - Composer - 7:55
Blixa talks about why he took on the job of scoring a film and also about what composers influenced him. Blixa again shows that he really doesn't like being interviewed, even when it's by the film's director. There is a quite bad analogue tape tracking error at 5:31.
Interviews Audio
Chris Kennedy - Production Designer - 12:30 (no time code, audio not pauseable)
Chris talks about the budgetary constraints he was required to overcome. Also, he talks about his recollections of the production of the film and the infamous wrap party where the set of the film (constructed mostly of cardboard) was destroyed by the cast and crew.
Mike Bishop - Actor - 8:22
Mike talks in a phone interview about how he developed the character Yale, which was based on the real life experiences of long-time prison guard David Hale. He talks about how the cast transformed themselves into their characters and how he sees this film as a true anti-violence document.
Vince Gil - Actor - 7:38
Vince reminisces about the production and how he coped with immersing himself in a life and character (Ruben) that was very challenging.
Brett Collins - Consultant, Activist, former prisoner - 10:27
Brett, in a phone interview, talks about his experiences in prison and how he brought his experiences to the film. There is an audio glitch at 9:56.
Nick Cave
This page features links to the 1988 and 2002 interviews with the singer as well as a link to the page of a script seen in the 2002 interview. This is too large to fit on screen in any readable manner, so the disc's producers have done a clever thing and have the script page (annotated by Cave and smeared in blood) scroll up and down the screen very slowly so it is possible to read the text and see the whole page. There is also a link to a biography which is 16 pages long and covers much about the singer/songwriter including background information, film credits and information on his music.
Production
Upon opening this page, we get the following for our perusal:
Gives us the following:
Author of the 1981 book In the Belly of the Beast, Abbott would be a large influence on the director of the film and ultimately the film itself. Jack Henry Abbott hanged himself in early 2002.
David Hale - 2 pages of biography and links to audio recordings found in the Soundtrack CD section of the extras
David Hale is a prison guard upon which the character of David Yale (played by Mike Bishop) is based. Many of Hale's stories and experiences found their way into the film and as the audio recordings show, much of what we see in the film actually took place.
Brett Collins - 5 pages of biography
Brett Collins works Justice Action, a prisoner's action group and this page includes addresses, phone numbers and email contacts for the Justice Action Group.
Filmmakers
Trailer for the 1994 prison film starring David Field about the experiences of hit man Christopher Dale Flannery in the infamous H Division of Pentridge Prison in Melbourne. Presented in 1.85:1 without 16x9 enhancement. Audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0.
Theatrical Trailer - Chopper - 1:42
Trailer for the 2002 hit film that put Eric Bana on the international map. Follows a Melbourne criminal and his legendary exploits. Presented full frame with audio in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.
Storyboards
Photographs - 53 images of the filmmaking process, cast and crew
These are selectable individually or can be scrolled through with the arrow key on your remote.
Music & Sounds
Soundtrack CD - 22:07 total running time
This interesting feature gives us quite a bit of music heard on the CD of the Ghosts...of the Civil Dead Original Motion Picture Soundtrack all presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. There are no time codes for any of the tracks and they are not pauseable. We have 8 tracks to choose from. These are:
David Hale Dialogue Pieces (total of 4)
I've been a prison guard since I was 18 - 2:40
Former prison guard David Hale recounts over the phone some of his experiences working in maximum security 'new generation' prisons over the years. These accounts are set to music from the film
You're dangling us like meat on a hook - 3:02
About the escalating fear in the prison that David was working in and the threats made against the guards that the administration failed to act upon.
The day of the murders - 2:35
As expected by David, the inmates finally crack and 2 guards are killed. This track also features audio from the appropriate section of the film.
What I'm telling is the truth - :45
David pleads for the truth to come out and be publicized so people may know what really happens in these 'new generation' prisons.
Music Only Pieces
Introduction - 2:51
The theme for the film that reminded me of the broken carnival sound composed by Michael Penn that starts the classic Paul Thomas Anderson film Boogie Nights. This piece sounds similar, sort of a Summertime, and the livin' is easy type of song, except this would be the b****** son. Features Anita Lane's haunting vocals.
Pop Mix - 3:19
A melodic blend of elements of the film's score in a (sort of) up tempo piece.
Maynard Mix - 2:12
An electronic infused piece that captures the frenetic and foreboding character of Maynard as played by film star and composer Nick Cave.
Outro - The Free World - 4:45
"Back to the start" it seems this composition is saying, as the cycle started at the beginning of the film has begun again, both in terms of the music as well as the context and intent of the film.
Tape hiss and the odd pop can be heard during these audio tracks, but this doesn't detract from their value.
Promotion
This section covers the promotion of the film, both here and overseas. On offer are:
This fairly short trailer features the tirade by Ruben against the guards about being incarcerated without adequate supervision and medication. Basically just one short scene that doesn't give out much in the way as to where the film might lead, which may have been the idea. Presented full frame with audio in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.
French Theatrical Trailer - 1:31
This trailer features much more footage from the film and gives more of an indication as to what direction the film might take. Despite this film being shot in 1.37:1, this trailer features a cropped image that makes it more like 1.85:1 and was perhaps done to impart more of a cinematic look to the film. Still, the chosen 1.37:1 aspect ratio works for this movie. This trailer also features an alternative title logo not seen on the Australian release. Our packaging looks to have maintained the director's original title logo and style. Audio is in English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded with burned in French subtitles.
Print Promotion - 9 images promoting the film around the world
Venice & Cannes - 7 images and link to audio track
Arrest Story audio track - 8:55
Here we have some images from the Venice and Cannes film festivals where John Hillcoat and Evan English promoted their new film. Director John Hillcoat was arrested in Venice for putting up illegal movie posters, but there was much confusion as he was mistaken for some sort of terrorist. John takes us through the tale.
Festivals - 4 pages
Details the various film festivals where the film played, from Venice in 1988 to Ljubljana in 1994.
Criticism
This covers some of the press reaction to the film on its initial release as well as a look at the film after all these years. Our choices are:
Ina looks at the film again in a fresh light after the passage of time and finds that the movie might be in fact more relevant than ever.
Review Quotes - 7 pages
Features many blurbs and quotes from film writers around the globe praising the film.
Australian Prison Films - Theatrical Trailers (4)
Theatrical Trailer - Stir - 2:56
Directed by Stephen Wallace (Blood Oath) and starring Bryan Brown, this true account of an uprising in a New South Wales jail in the 70s was penned by a former inmate of the jail, Bob Jewson. Looks to cover many of the issues that are canvassed in Ghosts.... A disclaimer at the start of this trailer apologizes for the poor image quality as this looks to have been taken from an aged VHS tape. Presented full frame with audio in Dolby Digital 2.0.
Easter Egg - Original Research Scrapbook Images
Every time you select the Extras option, you will see a change in the black and white images at the left of screen. These can be highlighted by moving to them with your arrow keys on your remote or your pointer if you are using a computer. When highlighted, the Central Industrial Prison logo will appear in blue. Select an image (you have a choice of 4 at a time) and you are taken to an image that is part of the original research that went into the production of the film. These feature notes as to how they would be used in the film. Each time you select the Extras option, the selectable images change, so you have plenty of material to view.
Also included are links to trailers for: Ghosts...of the Civil Dead, Everynight Everynight and Chopper. These are links to trailers already detailed.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
At this time, Region 4 is the only market that has had this film made available on DVD.
I am very pleased that this title is finally being made available. Fans of the film shouldn't be disappointed with the wealth of extras collected for this genuine Collectors Edition. Some might pick up on the lack of an audio commentary, but if you add up the various audio-only extras, we have almost 80 minutes of audio contributions from those connected to the film, not to mention the approximately 98 minutes of video interviews we have with those connected to the film. Overall, a worthy disc that I can easily recommend to fans of the film and Australian cinema as well. A fantastic first effort from director John Hillcoat and hats off to Evan English for making it all happen. A landmark film in the cinematic history of Australia. The video is watchable, but suffers from some fairly obvious MPEG pixelization as well as some film artefacts that seem inherent in the print used for the transfer of the film to DVD. The audio is good (and nominated for an AFI Award: Best Achievement in Sound, 1989) with appropriate atmospheric mood created if you use ProLogic (or NEO:6 or Pro Logic II or whatever you might have) to derive the surround channels as there is only a 2.0 surround encoded track available. The extras are comprehensive with a wealth of material available for anyone interested in this film, its creation and its innovative creators.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Panasonic DVD RA-61, using S-Video output |
| Display | Beko TRW 325 / 32 SFT 10 76cm (32") 16x9. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player, Dolby Digital, dts and DVD-Audio. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Yamaha RX-V2090 |
| Speakers | VAF DC-X Fronts, VAF DC-6 Center, VAF DC-2 Rears, VAF LFE-07 Sub (Dual Amp. 80w x 2) |