1973 American action–drama thriller film directed by Stephanie Rothman
Terminal Island, released theatrically in the U.K. as Knuckle Men, is a 1973 American action–drama thriller film directed by Stephanie Rothman.[1] It features early screen performances by Tom Selleck and Roger E. Mosley. Although an exploitation film, it has been treated with much serious discussion by critics and academics over the years.[2] It is regarded as a cult film.[3]
Plot
A TV news program does a segment on Terminal Island, an off-shore island established after the abolition of the death penalty by the U.S. Supreme Court. First degree murderers are shipped off to the island to spend the rest of their days fending for themselves.
Carmen is dropped off at Terminal Island. The first prisoner she meets is a former doctor. She gets to know the three other women on the island; one of their duties is to service the sexual needs of the male prisoners. Carmen comes to realize that there are two main factions. The women are captured by the smaller faction, and together they fight the larger one.
Release
Rothman later said that she was asked to have a rape scene in the film but could not bring herself to shoot it. "I would not want to be responsible in any way for showing how it could be done", she said.[4]
She elaborated:
in a film like Terminal Island [1973], practically the whole film involves violence because the subject matter is violent people. I accepted that. I recognized that if I was going to make films, and I was going to make them for the market, I was making them for it. I wanted to make films very much and that's what I needed to do. What I needed to do was try to refine that and give it some meaning beyond the violence itself, or beyond the nudity itself. In that sense, I tried very hard to not make it exploitative.[5]
The film was originally more violent, but scenes had to be cut out. Rothman was uncomfortable with the violence that she did show. "I was unhappy with the movie and still continue to feel so", she said in 1981.[6]
Film critic Roger Ebert rated Terminal Island one star out of four, dismissing it as "the kind of movie that can almost be reviewed by watching the trailer."[7]
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