The Last Castle (2001) on Netflix

R20012h 11mAction Drama Thriller

A court-martialed general is sent to a maximum security military prison whose commandant, Colonel Winter, insists the men there are no longer soldiers. General Irwin sets out to change that.

Netflix3.8/5
IMDb7.0/1092,362 votes
Rotten Tomatoes53%

Trailer

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Plot summary

Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin is sentenced to a maximum security military prison after he sends troops into Burundi on a rescue mission, against a presidential order, and eight soldiers die. The prison's commandant, Colonel Winter, admires the decorated officer until Irwin dismisses his collection of military artifacts as something no real battlefield veteran would keep. Winter, who has never seen combat, rules that military customs do not apply inside his prison. A reprimand comes when Irwin intervenes to stop a guard from clubbing Corporal Ramon Aguilar, who had saluted him in the yard. Irwin wants the attitudes of the prisoners changed, and Winter opposes him.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Last Castle (2001)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Before release, DreamWorks pulled The Last Castle's original poster, which showed an American flag flying upside down as a distress signal, out of concern for public sensitivity so soon after the September 11 attacks.
For the prisoners' makeshift siege weapons, the effects team built a working trebuchet that could hurl a 68 kg rock 60 meters with accuracy to within ten feet, plus a water cannon capable of firing 76 liters of water per second.
Rather than shoot the helicopter interiors against blue screen, the crew mounted a full-sized Huey-A military helicopter on a computer-controlled gimbal that could rotate it 360 degrees and move it vertically 20 feet for precise, repeatable takes.
Director Rod Lurie wanted the prisoners' cells to face each other for dramatic effect, but the real Tennessee State Prison used for filming wasn't built that way, so production designer Kirk Petruccelli built an entirely new set of cells in a nearby warehouse.
To build the film's fortress-like prison set, a crew of 150 people refurbished and constructed buildings in just nine weeks, including a wall 61 meters long and 6 meters high that served as the prison's entrance.
The Last Castle was shot mainly at a 103-year-old former Tennessee prison chosen for its Gothic, castle-like look, and the state of Tennessee let the production use it rent-free with an exemption from its 6 percent sales tax.