Punishment Park

Punishment Park is a 1971 American mockumentary drama film written and directed by Peter Watkins. It is a pseudo documentary of a British and West German film crew following National Guard soldiers and police as they pursue members of a counterculture group across a desert.

Members from the antiwar movement, civil rights movement, feminist movement, conscientious objectors, and Communist party, mostly university students, are arrested and face an emergency tribunal made up of community members. With state and federal jails at their top capacity, the convicted face the option of spending their full conviction time in federal prison or three days at Punishment Park. There, they will have to traverse 53 miles of the hot California desert in three days, without water or food, while being chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers as part of their field training. If they succeed and reach the American flag at the end of the course, they will be set free. If they fail by getting arrested, they will serve the remainder of their sentence in federal prison.European filmmakers follow two groups of detainees as part of their documentary while Group 637 starts their threeday ordeal and learn the rules of the game, the civilian tribunal begins hearings on Group 638. The film makers conduct interviews with members of Group 637 and their chasers, documenting how both sides become increasingly hostile towards the other. Meanwhile, back at the tent, the film crew documents the trial of Group 638 as they argue their case in vain for resisting the war in Vietnam. The first group splinters into one group that refuses to accept the rules of the game and tries to resist with violence and another group that goes on towards the goal. The violent group are all killed. As the others come near the flag they find a group of police waiting for them it turns out that there is no way to win the Punishment Park course as the system controls it from start to finish. ........

Source: Wikipedia