''Ghosts... of the Civil Dead'' is a 1988

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

suspense film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

John Hillcoat John Hillcoat (born 14 August 1961) is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and music video director. His early work includes the 1988 prison film '' Ghosts... of the Civil Dead'', as well as music videos for bands such as Siouxsie and t ...

. It was written by Hillcoat, Evan English, Gene Conkie,

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...

, and

Hugo Race Hugo Justin Race (born 23 May 1963) is an Australian rock musician and record producer who had been based in Europe from 1989 to 2011. He was a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1983–85), and The Wreckery (1984–89) with Nick Barke ...

. It is partly based on the true story of Jack Henry Abbott.

Synopsis

The story is set in Central Industrial Prison, a privately run maximum security

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

in the middle of the

Australian desert Deserts cover about , or 18%, of the Australian mainland, but about 35% of the Australian continent receives so little rain, it is practically desert. Collectively known as the Great Australian desert, they are primarily distributed throughout ...

. An outbreak of violence within the prison has resulted in a total lockdown. A committee is appointed by the prison's governors to investigate the cause of the outbreak, but their findings are in stark contrast to the facts behind the riot. It is revealed that both the prisoners and the guards are slowly and deliberately brutalised, manipulated and provoked into the forthcoming eruption of violence by the government and the private company that runs the prison, in order to justify the construction of a new and more "secure" facility.

Production

The script was based on the book '' In the Belly of the Beast'' by Jack Henry Abbott and research done with David Hale, a former prison guard at Marion, Illinois. The film was shot at a disused aircraft factory in MelbourneDavid Stratton, ''The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry'', Pan MacMillan, 1990 pp. 229–230 in October and November.

Origin of title

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

, a person convicted of a crime where the punishment included loss of their legal rights as a person was ''civiliter mortuus'', a person without civil rights.

Reception

Accolades

Legacy

The spoken line "Welcome to Central Industrial. We are the future" has been

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: * Sample (graphics), an intersection of a color channel and a pixel * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of something * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample ...

Future Sound of London The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. They have been described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act, covering techno, ambient, house music, trip h ...

in their song "Central Industrial" on their '' Accelerator'' album; also sampled by

Woob Woob is the stage name of Paul Frankland, an English composer, musician and filmmaker who started recording in the early 1990s. Woob's albums combine elements of ambient, downtempo and space music, with samples from field recordings. Frankl ...

in their song "Void, Part One" on the album ''em:t 0094'', and by Jam and Spoon in their remix of

Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...

's " Go". Sonic Subjunkies samples various parts of the film in their songs "Central Industrial" and "Central Industrial II: The Lockdown".

Therapy? Therapy? are a Northern Irish rock band from Larne, formed in 1989 by guitarist-vocalist Andy Cairns and drummer-vocalist Fyfe Ewing. Therapy? recorded their first demo with Cairns filling in on bass guitar. To complete the lineup, the band ...

opened the song "Nausea" (the first one on their 1992 album ''Nurse'') with a sample of Nick Cave shouting "Here I am, motherfuckers!" in the film.

Bibliography

* Fuchs, Christian

996 Year 996 ( CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * February - Chotoku Incident: Fujiwara no Korechika and Takaie shoot an arrow at Retired Emperor Kazan. * 2 March: Emperor ...

(2002). ''Bad Blood''. Creation Books

References

External links

* *
''Ghosts... of the Civil Dead''
at Oz Movies *
''Ghosts... of The Civil Dead''
at the National Film and Sound Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghosts... of the Civil Dead 1988 films 1988 drama films Australian drama films 1980s prison drama films Films shot in Melbourne Films directed by John Hillcoat Films scored by Nick Cave Films with screenplays by Nick Cave 1980s English-language films 1988 directorial debut films English-language crime films