Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988)

Beautiful, moving film.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Virtually plot less, somewhat documentary-style film about life inside a high-tech maximum security prison in Australia. Easily the scariest film I've ever seen about prison life, certainly the most claustrophobic, thanks in part to Nick Cave's chilling, drone-like score, which is a piece of work all by itself.It's funny - most of the prison life you see portrayed in film just doesn't seem "real" (never having been in prison myself I cannot say for sure, of course). But it just never seems real. In watching "Ghosts...of the Civil Dead" I was reminded of Roger Ebert's review of the original "Jaws". When talking about the shark Ebert said "...the illusion is complete. It just plain feels like a real shark." That's what I can say about this film. I don't know how much of it is real (which of the characters was played by an actual con, or whatever) but it just plain feels like real prison life. And this is the only film I've ever seen that I can say that about, which is also the highest praise that I can give it.This probably one of the most menacing films I've ever seen. Although there is not a lot of violence shown, the odor of violence all but oozes from the screen. Every word and every frame drips with the possibility of violence and brutality.The film basically shows the events leading up a "lockdown" in this prison. There aren't any main characters (the prison is the main character, as Cave points out in an interview on the DVD) although there are a few little subplots here and there. Mostly the film just lurches at you in heavy gasps and you sit and watch in horror. I know I did.I recently watched a documentary about life inside a maximum security prison in Utah, and it looked stunningly like what is shown in this film.Highly recommended but be warned, this is a heavy film.

And not only that this movie is based on a true story as well.The Movie uses a prison near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory as its location but the story itself is sourced from the US.The script is loosely based on events witnessed by whistleblower and former U.S. Prison Guard, David Hale.The Score which was composed by "Nick Cave & The Bad Seed members", Blixa Bargeld, Mick Harvey and Nick Cave, is quite haunting and disturbing and sets the right tone for the movie.What makes this movie so disturbingly realistic is the fact that this movie only has 6 Professional performers in it, the rest are played by real ex-cons, guards, cops, etc. The Eric Bana movie Chopper also used real criminals/ex cons in its movie to great effect and Ghosts was the inspiration for Choppers Director to use this technique.Ghosts is one of those rare movies that has never ever gotten the widespread acclaim that it deserves and continues to be a movie that is becoming increasingly hard to get.Hopefully the latest Nick Cave/John Hilcoat project, "the Proposition", will change all of that and we will see it finally start to find the audience it truly deserves.While this movie is very hard to find in video stores (even in Australia) it is most definitely worth trying to track down. And if you collect DVD's it is a must have for your collection and worth getting or importing from EzyDVD or DVDorchard.

ghosts of the civil dead was an excellent, but slow moving movie. They made the decision to depict most of the violence through typed prison reports, giving the movie a slow-building pace. You are also never introduced to any characters which gives the movie a weird feel. Finally, there is not so much a story as a series of events loosely connected, but all building to a point, that is the riot and subsequent lock down that the film begins with. Anyway, it definitely is a good film, with excellent performances by David field (who gets raped and has the word c*nt tattooed on his forehead) and nick cave (who spends the whole time ranting and raving and smearing his blood on the wall). Also, the guy with the dreadlocks is truly scary when jumping on top of the cage after stabbing the guards. In conclusion it was excellent cinematic style, but i couldn't help feeling that it would have been nice to see some things rather than hear about them.....

As others have said, this is a disturbing and frightening film. For me, it raised questions about exactly who are the barbarians in our "civil" society and at what point can it be said that we are no better than "them". Some with no knowledge of conditions in modern prisons dismiss this as a brutal movie out for shock value and nothing else, but it is based on a true story. One previous comment says it was filmed in NT (Australia) and based on events that happened in an outback prison. However it was based on the testimony of David Hale, a warder at USP Marion, Illinois, USA, who spoke out about the management tactics and treatment meted out to both prisoners and staff at the prison - tactics which culminated in a lockdown after two people were murdered in one day. When Hale spoke out he was branded a drunk, a drug user and mentally unstable in order to discredit him. (If the soundtrack is still available, it is worth a listen. It features an extensive interview with Hale.)The cast features four professional actors and two musicians (Cave and The Reels' Dave Mason). The rest are predominantly ex-cons with about a dozen ex-cops, ex-warders and tough types found hanging around in local Melbourne gyms thrown in. It was workshopped for several months before filming began. You will not see a more realistic picture of life in prison - unless you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in one.