Friday October 19, 2001

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Grade:

C

It's true that there are only so many stories to tell, so many epic struggles and inner conflicts to depict. But the makers of "The Last Castle" seem to have taken this idea a little too literally. Not that they're alone. Original stories - or at least original approaches to them - appear to be going out of style.

Don't be fooled by the somewhat original setting of "The Last Castle." Three-star General Irwin (the by now - honestly - crumbly Robert Redford) arrives at what appears to be a low-security military prison after a murky court-martial involving a failure to obey commands. Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini), the prison's warden, is hurting behind his totalitarian faŤade because he isn't a real combat officer, and his admiration of Irwin soon turns to jealous rage as Irwin begins to undermine his authority with a commanding but benevolent approach to the other prisoners and an aristocratic West Point sense of honor.

Winter has forced the prisoners to rebuild a rock wall leftover from the 19th century prison as punishment, and he almost explodes when Irwin organizes the men into a veritable wall-building brigade and begins spreading dissent throughout his merry band of convicted felons.

Take "Bridge Over the River Kwai," stick it in a prison, make it a wall instead of a bridge and a self-righteous military warden instead of a Japanese general and you pretty much have the first half of "Castle."

For the third quarter you need the manly camaraderie of "The Shawshank Redemption," with a dash of adorable but commanding male sass from "Cool Hand Luke." As tensions mount between Winter and Irwin, who believes Winter's treatment of the prisoners violates military prison code, Irwin begins forming the men into an army and plotting to take over the prison which, with a little careful planning, goes off without a hitch.

For the last quarter, the battle, absolutely all you need is "Gladiator." Imprisoned former general leads prisoners to revolt against oppressive authority figure, culminating in a showdown between general and emperor/warden in which the latter's henchmen refuse to obey his desperately screamed orders to kill our hero. Lots of saluting follows.

However borrowed "Castle's" plot may be, it is not the plot that makes a movie good. Hundreds of good-idea, bad-execution films in the past few years have proven that. But a strong theme can turn the most uninteresting plot into a genuinely moving story.

Somehow, the filmmakers forgot what their theme was around the halfway point. "Castle" starts out about honor and military obedience to code, transforms momentarily about the pain of being a soldier, nose-dives toward a basic competition between men and ends inconclusively. Even the most easily entertained viewer may be left asking, "So· what happened?"

The convolution of messages in "Castle" can be summed up with a single quote from Redford: "After thirty years, everyone is a good man." Huh?