Purgatory

The old and crummy VHS-copy I own of "Purgatory" makes it look as if it's a typically raunchy and sexist women-in-prison exploitation movie, like the used to make them during the 70s and early 80s, but this one has slightly more to offer. In fact, I daresay that if "Purgatory" (1) had been based on a true story, (2) starred an actress like Angelina Jolie, and (3) was directed by an acclaimed name like Roland Joffé, this film easily might have won an Oscar. I'm serious.

Does that mean "Purgatory" is an underrated hidden gem? Unfortunately not, it could and should have been much better, but at least it has a captivating story to tell, and there's enough drama and misfortune to last a lifetime. By picking up the wrong type of hitchhiker when they drive to the airport in a fictional African country, two female Peace Corps volunteers are accused of drug-trafficking. What follows is an incredible series of disastrous and downright rotten breaks. The DEA agents don't believe their story, the arrogant US ambassador refuses to help, the corrupt judge accept a $10,000 bribery but still sentences them to 11 years of prison, and the penitentiary - aptly named Purgatory - is a lawless slammer where the head warden rents out the prettiest girls as prostitutes. The whole country is so corrupt that every honest procedure lasts months, and whenever a good Samaritan tries to help, he/she ends up brutally assassinated. Start a riot and attempt to escape seems the only way out for the poor and desperate Carly, but her spirit has - understandably - weakened.

I love Tanya Roberts. Not only because she's unearthly beautiful, but she's normally also a good actress. She doesn't exactly demonstrate this in "Purgatory", however. Her dramatic over-acting is too obviously fake, and even after spending several months in this hellhole of a prison, her hair and skin still look perfectly silky. Director Ami Artzi does manage to create a strong and compelling atmosphere of despair, and you do feel genuine empathy and pity for Carly and her allies. The abuse and torture sequences are quite dull, but they remain decent, and the last 15-20 minutes are action-packed and full of (badly executed) building fires and explosions. Difficult film to rate, this "Purgatory", but don't want to flunk it (like most other reviewers obviously did).

"Carly Arnold" (Tanya Roberts) and her good friend "Melanie" (Julie Pop) are serving in the Peace Corp somewhere in Africa. As they are heading to the airport en route to the United States they happen to pick up a hitchhiker who says he is also headed in that direction. Unfortunately, they encounter a roadblock and during an inspection of their baggage a bag of heroin is found in the hitchhiker's belongings. When the hitchhiker tries to run, he is shot and killed leaving the two young ladies without the main person who might vouch for their innocence. After a quick trial with a preordained guilty verdict, they are both sentenced to 11 years in a prison known as "Purgatory". While there they are raped and abused with neither of them having much chance of acquittal or escape. Anyway, for a women-in-prison movie, this particular film requires viewers to use their imagination a bit as there aren't too many scenes which capture the anguish or violence normally seen in movies of this type. Along with that, except for Tanya Roberts, the rest of the cast suffers badly from a lack of character development. Additionally, while Tanya Roberts certainly performed well enough, she simply wasn't able to carry the movie all by herself. Slightly below average.

Tanya Roberts tries to break free from her typecast image that stemmed from her infamous one-season stint on the highly successful "CHARLIE'S ANGELS" series and her turn as the title role in the atrociously awful camp classic, "SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE".

In "PURGATORY", Tanya Roberts is Carly. She and her best friend Melanie are vacationing in South Africa and make the fatal mistake of picking up a 'hunky' hitch-hiker in their jeep who turns out to be nothing more than a filthy drug runner. When their jeep is stopped at a military checkpoint run by an outfit of South African army officers, the hitch-hiker tries to make a run for it but is gunned down in a Sunflower field. As a result, his bag is searched by the officers who discover a reasonable amount of drugs and naturally, Carly and Melanie are arrested despite their pleas that they had nothing to do with this.

So into the filthy slammer Carly and Melanie go. As two naive westerners, their case is fed to the dogs and they are sentenced to a life sentence inside a female prison where they are sexually molested by prison guards and treated as outcasts by the 'local' prison inmates. Naturally, Tanya Roberts uses her 'sexuality' to try to get them out of this intense and hopeless situation as she makes moves to seduce the Warden of the female prison in order to buy a ticket out for their freedom.

"PURGATORY" comes off more as a sleazy exploitation flick rather than something dramatically serious that you could actually believe might have happened in real life. From the 'hosing down' sessions within the prison walls to the countless sex scenes we get to witness shared between Tanya Roberts and the Warden, this film finds its place among other cinematic gems such as "THE CONCRETE JUNGLE" and "THE BIG DOLL HOUSE".

While no one can really take this movie seriously, most men will find the eye candy gratuitously supplied by Tanya Roberts enough to suffice their appetites. Women should look elsewhere.

"PURGATORY" is a relatively hard movie to catch sight of these days - but if you do happen to see this on your TV Guide or find a dusty copy on video at your local store, give it a gander... it's actually pretty funny.

My Rating - 6 out of 10

Read dozens reviews and wandered why people are so close-eyed. The film shows a real-like story happened in Rhodesia, sorry, after fall of Rhodesia, the newly created independent state of Zimbabwe. Clearly shown Russian red flags. Clearly shown Cuban militants and Castro portraits. Accurate image of American diplomats who imitated protection of the US citizens.

Absolutely, this documentary styled film critically depicted both totalitarian communists system and lair US policy.

This was a deep satirical political message of people of South Africa who felt a close catastrophe after the silent betrayal of UK and US. They had seen what happened in Rhodesia and they knew that same will occur in their native land.

After the several years the people of South Africa has been expelled from their land. Developed country was ruined, gangs expanded by country, garbage and blood made the streets unfit for living. Majority of the population fled from country for ten years.

Despite the initial set-up (2 American girls in a foreign - here African - country get arrested and sentenced to 11 years in jail for a crime they didn't commit), "Purgatory" is not really a Women-In-Prison film. It almost completely ignores the daily prison life of the women and focuses on one aspect only: their sexual exploitation. The warden has set up a prostitution ring and the prisoners are used to satisfy the needs of many high-paying customers. After 75 minutes of this repellent junk, we finally get to the escape part. "Purgatory" supposedly has serious intentions: there are even title cards telling us what date it is, and at the end another card telling us what happened to the surviving characters, as if this was based on a true story, even though at the end of the credits there is the usual "any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental" disclaimer. But it is technically rough, even amateurish at times, and although Tanya Roberts deserves credit for taking on a role that has her appear completely unglamorous, she's still too limited an actress to carry a movie by herself. (*)