Customer Reviews

In the King of Prussia [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the King of Prussia is an unusual little niche film that recounts the tale of the "Plowshares Eight", a group of anti-nuclear weapons protesters who break into a General Electric-run plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania in 1980.

Once inside, the group of men and women (including brothers Phil and Dan Berrigan) smeared blood over nuclear nosecones, and attacked the equipment with hammers.

This gutsy act (Dan Berrigan once said, "If you want to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood") was followed by a high-profile trial presided over by an unsympathetic judge.

The film is sparse, utilizing a theatre-like courtroom setting. Martin Sheen, in self-referential irony, plays the judge as a toe-the-line absolutist. But where his character adheres to the political landscape and the letter-of-the-law, the protesters are moral absolutists. During a 1990 resentencing hearing on the original charges, the judge asked Dan Berrigan if he would promise to refrain from engaging in similar acts of disobedience in the future. Berrigan replied that this was not the right question that needs to be asked. Instead, he answered, "Well, your honor, it appears to me that you should ask President Bush if he'll stop making missiles; and, if he'll stop making them, then I'll stop banging on them and you and I can go fishing."

The acting is amateurish, with the notable exception of Sheen, whose character makes no effort to hide his contempt of the defendants. The dialogue, however, is sharp and clear, and the film commemorates an important but sadly forgotten incident in the nuclear protest movement.

What really hurts this movie is that this film looks like it was shot on some VHS camcorder that was considered high-end circa 1980. It makes you wain in interest while watching, despite the fact that the plot is both interesting and based on a true incident, incidentally played by the actual people it happened to: a protest and subsequent unlawful entry of GE Plant by a religious group concerning Nuclear Warheads supposedly being manufactured there.

What also makes this film worth a watch is getting to see Martin Sheen as the judge. He acts well but his part is sort of boring. This is probably the lowest budget film I've ever seen Sheen in. Also Jackson Browne, Joe Walsh and Graham Nash provide music for the soundtrack? Those are some pretty big names for a musical score, again - that being mostly eclipsed by it's poor video quality. Makes you wonder if the famous people involved backed the film's production financially, or merely lent their talent to support the group's Anti-Nuclear sentiment.

I was lucky enough to find a rental copy of this at Scarecrow Video in Seattle, otherwise who'd really pay $200 to watch this VHS obscurity?