The Last Castle
Short description
Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin, a decorated veteran of several wars, is court-martialed after disobeying an order and sentenced to a military prison run by Colonel Winter. Irwin intends to serve his time quietly, but the killing of an inmate with Winter's approval changes his plans. The prisoners begin to look to Irwin as their leader, and the clash between the general and the colonel escalates into an organized takeover of the facility. Robert Redford plays Irwin and James Gandolfini plays Winter, with Mark Ruffalo, Delroy Lindo, Clifton Collins Jr. and Kristen Shaw among the cast.
The film was directed by Rod Lurie, its release following The Contender and Deterrence, both from 2000, within a filmography that later includes Resurrecting the Champ, Nothing But the Truth, Straw Dogs, The Outpost, The Senior and Lucky Strike. Graham Yost and David Scarpa wrote the screenplay, and Robert Lawrence produced for DreamWorks Pictures. Made for a reported 72 million dollars, it returned about 28 million worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 6.9 from more than 84,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.2 from a much smaller pool of around 1,500. A critics' rating of 5.6 from 118 reviews places professional notices below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, it was planned that Colonel Winter would smoke cigars. James Gandolfini (1961–2013), who played the role, convinced director Rod Lurie to abandon the idea. He stated that appearing with a cigar would too closely remind viewers of Tony Soprano, whom he played in the series 'The Sopranos' (1999–2007).
- Mark Ruffalo performed all the stunts himself in the helicopter scene.
- The scene where General Irwin teaches the corporal, played by Clifton Collins Jr., how to salute was filmed about 20 times because Robert Redford himself struggled with the salute.
- The main musical theme of the film was written by Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004) and was titled "September 11, 2011" simply because that was the day it was recorded. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, all the movie posters had to be replaced because the US flag had been mistakenly depicted upside down (which is a signal for help). The new posters simply featured the faces of the actors in the film.
- The relationship between General Irwin and Colonel Winter in the film turned out quite different from how screenwriter David Scarpa originally wrote it. Both the script and the film begin by portraying Irwin as a positive protagonist and Winter as the antagonist. However, as Scarpa continued the script, he cast Winter in a benevolent light and depicted Irwin as a cruel leader of a rebellion staged to oust Winter. The script was rewritten once Robert Redford was cast as Irwin. His character remained the positive lead, while Winter remained the villain.
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