Fortress [DVD]

I purchased this because I've heard of the film, but never seen it. Australian cinema in the 70s and 80s was on an absolute roll since its government relaxed the censorship laws. Some of the films were pretty poor and exploitive, whence that "Oz-ploitation" tag attached to the country's industry.But, there were some quality stuff (Walkabout,Picnic At Hanging Rock,Mad Max,Long Weekend)and,having seen this,"Fortress" is top class as well. The picture transfer on this disc is excellent, as well as the sound.I also noticed that Australian filmmakers like to film in wide anamorphic 2 35:1, giving that film its crisp sheen.I couldn't highly recommend this more.I thoroughly enjoyed a satisfactory 90mins.

First watched this in the 90s and totally forgot about it until a few months back when I decided I'd like to watch it again. I love this film, it really brings back memories of when we used to watch it all together as a family. Though the beginning appears to have changed, we remember it as starting in the school but there is a good fifteen/twenty minutes before this on this version.So glad I found this again, will certainly be watching it many more times in the future!

Great film, I remember watching it back in the mid 80's, been trying to find it for a very long time, this is the first time I have seen it on dvd. Great storyline with a lot of suspense. Would highly recommend.

Made for a TV audience in 1985 this is one of those films that needs wider attention. The plot is quite simple in that a small Outback school where only nine children of varying ages attend is overseen by an English school teacher. This is Sally Jones played by Rachel Ward (‘On The Beach’ and ‘Against All Odds’). Then in the middle of a normal school day four masked gunmen turn up and kidnap them.Once they are secreted in the bush they soon realise that these guys are not going to win any prizes for being nice. So they decide to escape, but things are never quite straight forward and events take a different turn when they realise they can’t run any more.Now to say this is a little beaut is putting it mildly. The children are all excellent especially Sean Garlick as Sid who went on to be in ‘Home and Away’. It has the right pacing the right levels of tension and a rip roaring adventure into the bargain. This is one that if you have missed it then you have a real treat waiting for you in this superb production.

this one is from the 80s with rachel ward as a school teacher in the austrailian out back who is kidnapped along with her class ofkids by 4 armed gunmen to survive they have to fight back and be as savage as their kidnappers look out for an appearanceby terrance donavon(doug willis in neighbours) as a police inspector well worth a watch

FIRST SAW THIS AS VIDEO RENTAL IN 1986ish.VERY WELL MADE, BELIEVE BASED ON TRUE EVENTS?GOOD CAST WHO SEEM TO WORK WELL TOGETHER, BUT AS I RECALL A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ENDING,THE FILM LASTING A BIT LONGER IN THE FINAL PART IN THE HILLS /MOUNTAINS HENCE THE TITLE.OR MAY BE THIS WAS NOT THE FILM I REMEMBER?STILL ENJOYED.

One of those movies i watch as a young lad an been trying to get hold of for ages. Still love it after all these years hasn't changed one bit as i remmeber it. If you like ozzy movies give this one a go.

Bought this film as i hadn`t seen it in years, what a film still love it after all these years.

Es una película que vi una vez en Tv y llevo buscándola muchísimo tiempo por internet, pensé que si es en dvd tendría varios lenguajes, no es así.

Super bon film a recommander et vivement une sortie en Bluray.

Like many people who have seen this film, I saw it when I was a kid in the early 1980s on HBO. The plot revolves around a young school teacher and the children of various ages that she teaches in a schoolhouse in Australia. The teacher and the children are kidnapped by men wearing masks who are planning on holding their victims for a hefty ransom and perhaps a little "fun" with the teacher and the eldest girl. The movie is suspenseful and full of action as the victims escape from one holding area to another until the end when they take a stand, make a fortress, and take things into their own hands.Scenes from this movie have stuck with me my whole life. I had nightmares for weeks about the masked bandits coming after me and for awhile I could never look at a Daffy Duck mask the same again. I also vividly remember the students and teacher making a last stand at the old cave where they made their fortress. I was always impressed by how crafty those group of kids were and always hoped I could be as cunning in a similar situation.This is a great movie. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to find. It's rather rare on video, video stores just don't carry it (I've looked in over 20 different ones and not one carries it), and I search the cable guides weekly but haven't seen it listed since around 1990. Hopefully, the fine folks at HBO will wise up and re-release this film on VHS and DVD soon.

Before this film became as available as it is now, I looked long and hard for it. I had to settle for a used VHS version, but I didn't care, because I found this movie to be that interesting.It all starts mundane enough, with a teacher and students in a one-room schoolhouse in Australia. Everybody does the things teachers and students do normally until the bad guys arrive and the rug is pulled out from everyday life.As the scenes and situations shift and change, so do the roles and hierarchy of the teacher and students. The last part of the movie, when the teacher and students are involved with police is unnerving and heartwarming and horrible and satisfying all at the same time.This movie shows many of the primal and tribal things that are part of the human past and present and the resourcefulness and ferocity that can arise in people chosen as victims.It's left up to us to figure out what we just viewed. We don't even know whether the children are psychologically scarred for life by what's happened to them and what they've done as a consequence.Thought-provoking on many levels, with a feeling of reality that hits home. History and even the daily news shows us that people are capable of things that seem improbable if not impossible. It's not hard to believe the premise of this movie.

While at first I thought this might be a typical kids' Saturday Matinee film, I quickly saw that it had some more-or-less adult content or certainly PG-13 stuff: gory murder scenes and some almost racy shots of Rachel Ward and Rebecca Rigg in a swimming scene. While Rebecca plays a nubile young teenager, she actually was 19 when she made the film, so there was no "exploitation" of a child there. I found the film entertaining on a couple of levels with some clever twists and turns. I think it is well acted and well plotted. There's some cool "new Age" kind of music, particularly at the end. Overall, I really enjoyed the film as a fine piece for an evening of "escape." Interesting that it was a cable movie, not shown (to my knowledge) on the big screen.