There’s a lot you can say about ‘The Last Castle’, but the end result will be that it’s average. It’s actually just about the perfect example of average. Terminally average, you might say. It is, as the old quote goes, ‘Original and good. But, what’s good isn’t original, and what’s original isn’t good.’ And really, there’s little that’s original.

Robert Redford stars as Lt. General Eugene Irwin, who has been sent to a military prison after being Court Martialed for disobeying a direct order that resulted in the death of some of his men. James Gandolfini stars as Colonel Winter, the ‘warden’ (or whatever) of the prison.

We are introduced to General Irwin, or at least his backstory, as Colonel Winter mulls over his own dismay at the thought that the General is coming to his prison. “They should be naming a base after him,” he says, “not sending him here.” Attitudes, however, soon change. While Colonel Winter leaves to retrieve his copy of General Irwin’s book so the General can sign it, Irwin examines Winter’s military memorabilia collection. Naturally, the General makes some disparaging remarks regarding people who collect such things.

After the introductions are over, and Irwin is put in his cell, we soon learn that things at the prison are not as they ought to be. Let’s face it, if there is a prison warden in the movie, he’s the bad guy.

Colonel Winter, we are led to understand, is suffering from your basic ‘short man syndrome’. Curiously, he’s not a short man, but, it’s easy to see that in some way he is. Since Winter has been running the prison, there haven’t been any escape attempts, but there have been a few of the standard (for the film genre) ‘accidents’. Winter runs the prison in exactly the way you’d expect from someone who, while a Colonel, is nevertheless basically a flunky who isn’t really going to get anywhere, but has delusions of tyrannical despot grandeur.

To the outside world, that is, the bigshots in Washington, Colonel Winter looks good. His record as warden makes for good paperwork. General Irwin, after your typical ‘I don’t want to get involved, (random Winter’s a bad guy event), (random Winter’s a bad guy event), okay you’ve convinced me to get involved’ plotline, makes it his mission to get Winter removed from his post.

And, you can see where we’re going. Schemes are schemed, plots are plotted, and the only slight twist we have is that the General does what he does best, which is to really rally the whole prison population into a united group. The ‘plan’ for taking over the prison is somewhat interesting, but it doesn’t really make up for the fact that there is almost nothing in this that we haven’t seen before.


As far as the characters go (the main ones), there is a strange dichotomy at work. Redford does a pretty good job as the General, but it gives the impression of simply being a role that Redford wanted. Walking around with hands clasped behind the back, being in charge, and yet so ‘fatherly’ and so forth. Gandolfini is likewise pretty good in his role. We hate him from the word go, and I suppose that is his main job, getting us to hate him. The strange dichotomy is that the General has backstory and ‘depth’ being thrown at you from every direction. He has his Court Martial, general ideas about his very illustrious career, his daughter comes to visit him with the ever-popular ‘you were never there’ speech, and on and on. Most of it isn’t what you would call ‘real’ depth, but it’s not for lack of trying.

The Colonel, on the other hand, gives us nothing but the ‘dirty rat prison warden’ cut directly from the book of characters. This is natural, to some extent, I suppose, good guy and bad guy, and all that. But, to go so far with the one, and nowhere with the other makes it stand out to such a degree that you can’t help taking it into account.


There are, luckily, some supporting characters that are fairly strong, and make the thing a bit more watchable. Unluckily, the thing is also strewn with various platitudes of the ‘male moral code’ that give the movie an air of shlockiness, or at least make it a bit unsavory.


The movie borrows heavily from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, ‘Cool Hand Luke’, and several other prison movies you’ve already seen. It’s not exactly bad, but when it’s over you’ll ask yourself what the point in watching it was. It certainly passes the time, and there are worse choices if you’re looking for something purely for entertainment, but it tries so hard to be average and fit into a pre-designed mold, that it’s hard to take it seriously at all.

There is a happy surprise that comes from Steve Burton who plays Captain Peretz, basically the Colonel’s right-hand man at the prison. You may know Steve Burton from ‘Days of Our Lives’, and thus expect very little of him, but he does a pretty good job at one of the film’s few difficult roles. The good soldier, who starts to question his commanding officer, and thus, inner turmoil ensues.


Director Rod Lurie, who is pretty well described as average himself, continues his prison fetish with the upcoming ‘Clink Inc.’, wherein an imprisoned investment banker uses her knowledge to improve things inside. Sound familiar?


In a different world, this movie would naturally get a three-star ‘average’ rating. When you’re trying desperately to be average and achieve it, I’ve got to take away a star for that.

Recommended:
No