This 1993 film has become something of a cult phenomenon around the globe, but is mainly overlooked in the US. FORTRESS was filmed in Australia (but set in America) and employs some Australian film crews and extras. It stars Christopher (HIGHLANDER) Lambert as a disgraced marine who commits the crime of fatherhood and is sentenced to 30 years in the escape proof prison. The film is essentially a sci-fi prison flick, which turns into an action film in the last act. But it is also a commentary, and has something to say about repression, population control, and corporations with too much power. As far as sci-fi prison flicks go, this is one of the best of this genre and because of its anti-repression themes, comes off better than similar films such as ALIEN 3 and NO ESCAPE.

Other positives about the film are the cast and the crew. The film is directed by Stuart Gordon, the man responsible for the breakthrough films REANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND. Besides Lambert (as John Brennick), Kurtwood (ROBOCOP) Smith plays the artificial human, Warden Poe. Stuart Gordon mainstay Jeffrey Combs (who more than steals a few scenes) is inmate D-Day, a demolition/computer expert who aids Brennick. Loryn Locklin is Brennicks wife, Karen. Lincoln Kilpatrick, Tom Towles and Vernon Wells are inmates Abraham, Stiggs and Maddox respectively. The nagging computer program Zed is voiced by the director’s wife, Carolyn Purdy Gordon!

In this future society, it is illegal to bear more than 1 child (similar to the situation in China). John Brennick and his wife Karen had a baby who died shortly after birth. Karen is pregnant again, so they head to Mexico where the hand of oppression does not reach. But they are detected when crossing the border. John valiantly offers himself up to the border patrol to allow Karen to escape with the baby. John is immediately sentenced to 30 years in an escape-proof underground prison dubbed "the Fortress". The prison is run not by the government, but by a Microsoft like corporation called Men-Tel. When Brennick arrives there he is smiling because he believes his wife and child-to-be are free. After entering the prison, the machines implant a device called an intestinator. Essentially, it is a tracking device and weapon that causes the bearer extreme pain or death.

The prison complex is overseen by Prisoner Director Poe, an artificial human created by the corporation who is superior to real humans in every way, except that he cannot experience sex, even though he greatly desires women. The corporation’s computer program Zed continuously watches the prisoners, dishes out the pain, and reports back to Poe. Together, Poe and Zed invade even the dreams of the inmates, and wake them up by using the intestinators ability to cause pain. When Brennick gets into trouble with some death row inmates, Poe invites him up to his control room to warn him, and then he drops a bomb on Brennick: Karen is alive and incarcerated in the women’s detention center inside the Fortress!

Poe orders Brennick to kill a death row inmate for him, but Brennick refuses. So Poe has the prison medical staff give Brennick a lobotomy. Brennick is in a trance-like state for months, when Poe confronts Karen and offers her a proposition: She must join Poe as a companion and he will allow her to keep the baby with himself to be the father. Furthermore, he will set Brennick free. Karen says yes but its mainly to keep an eye on her husband using Poe’s survellance system. One day Karen sneaks into the control center and uses Zed’s mind control devices to snap her husband out of his mental state.

The inmates who are friendly with Brennick, bring him up to date on his wife and child. Fellow prisoner D-Day (Combs) discovers a way to remove the intestinators. Now the time is ripe for Brennick and his inmate allies to formulate an escape plan. They must override the effect of the intestinators, procure a map of the Fortress to determine an escape route, evade Zed’s hunter robots, and storm Poe’s control center to regain Karen on the way out.

There is a lot of violence and mayhem in the film including:

During an escape, A prisoner is shredded by bullets from a rapid fire machine gun.

In a dream sequence, Brennick sticks his fingers through his eye sockets.

A prisoner who violates the rules, his stomach swells up and explodes from the inside out.

Brennick surprises a robot guard and knocks the shielding from its head which exposes a twisted mess of wires, blood vessels, and skeleton: the robots are built from human bodies!

The film’s goriest scene: After Brennick plucks a prisoner from death on a retracting walkway, the Warden orders a security robot to shoot the prisoner, and the resulting blast leaves a basketball sized hole in the prisoner, and the camera zooms a closeup through the bloody hole!

Two dogs attack Brennick biting his arms in a bloody fashion.

 

The scope of the futuristic special effects is somewhat limited, although director Gordon makes the most of the massive sets, the computerized prison hardware, the matte paintings, and the killer robots. I found the armored robots to be well executed though too easy to kill. As the film was created before JURASSIC PARK came out, there is barely any CGI effects; it’s all created the hard way and the makeup effects are more convincing because of it.

Though the film has a lot to offer, there are scripting and backstory problems. Perhaps because four people (David Venable, Steven Feinberg, Troy Neighbors, and Terry Fox) had a hand in the script, they could not all agree on the plot elements. Most of the major plot elements are told to the audience through dialog, but without any explanation. For instance, Brennick is a former marine but this is only mentioned in passing as if to say "that’s why he’s good at shooting guns". Besides spelling out the intentions of the Men-Tel corporation, we learn nothing about what kind of company it is. The robots are revealed to be Borg-like man-machine creations, but there is no mentioning how or why. Also, there is no explanation of what the rest of the US is like in this future. But to address these questions would’ve increased the budget, so perhaps it was a conscious attempt to keep viewers wondering. Anyway, Stuart Gordon’s does a great job directing and overcomes the films flaws; this is his best work, after REANIMATOR, of course.

SIGHT

FORTRESS was originally released in the 1.85.1 ratio. But here Artisan offers a full frame (1.33.1) presentation. Well, if you can overcome the fact that this DVD is not letterboxed, you will enjoy this solid full frame presentation. The image has a slick, glossy look similar to big budget Hollywood films. The image is very sharp and well defined with only occasional softness in a handful of scenes. Color reproduction is vivid and without bleeding, or chroma noise. The blacks and shadow details are very good. The detail level is so good you can see every nook and cranny on Lambert’s ragged face. Flesh tones looked natural in all lighting. In the few exteriors shots, David Eggby’s cinematography looks great, as does the claustrophobic interior shots. The prison interiors with the hundreds of extras as prisoners looks convincing. The escape scenes and robot battles look great though the scenes come off a little cliched.

SOUND

This is one of the better DD Stereo Surround soundtracks I’ve heard. While the film would have benefited from DD 5.1 remastering, I was surprised how much clarity, directionality, and bass the surround field put out. Composer Frederic Talgorn did a good job of writing and conducting a Jerry Goldsmith caliber score. The dialog is crystal clear and emanates from the center speaker. The action scenes and explosions should give your bass amp a workout.

FEATURES

The excellent trailer is full frame, in Dolby Stereo Surround, and runs 1:20. The talent bios are for Christopher Lambert, Loryn Locklin, Kurtwood Smith, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Stuart Gordon, and producers John Davis and John Flock.

CONCLUSION

An overlooked, ambitious sci-fi film which works on a couple levels. First of all, it very visceral story with bizarre imagery (like many sci-fi films) to sustain the cliched story elements. Secondly, you have all the underlying commentary that addresses social issues like overpopulation, prison conditions, and governmental repression. So it has something for everyone. The video and sound quality are superior, and fans of the film should probably pick this one up.

FORTRESS is available from DVDEmpire.com

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