X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Punishment Park


McCarran Internal Security Act

The 1971 pseudo documentary film Punishment Park speculated what might have happened if Richard Nixon had enforced the McCarran Act against members of the anti-war movement, civil rights movement, the feminist movement, and others.

Melik Ohanian

From his art work, we can mention Island of an Island (1998–2002) following the volcanic eruption on the island of Surtsey in 1963, Seven Minutes Before (2004), Invisible Film (2005) (a tribute to filmmaker Peter Watkins particularly Watkin' film Punishment Park) and From the Voice to the Hand (2008).

Punishment Park

Although the film itself is fictional, many of the elements found within are metaphors of social and political events of the time, such as the trial of the Chicago Seven, the Kent State shootings, police brutality, and political polarisation.

Faced with a growing anti-war movement, President Nixon decrees a state of emergency based on the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, which authorises federal authorities, without reference to Congress, to detain persons judged to be a "risk to internal security".



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