Fortress

1985 "For one teacher and nine children, the lesson of the day is kill or be killed."
7| 1h28m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 24 November 1985 Released
Producted By: Crawford Productions
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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After being kidnapped by four masked men, a teacher and her students rebel by plotting against the criminals.

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Director

Arch Nicholson

Production Companies

Crawford Productions

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Fortress Audience Reviews

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Beanbioca As Good As It Gets
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
TOMASBBloodhound Fortress is a highly effective thriller supposedly based on true events, as so many compelling movies are. Rachel Ward plays a school teacher in the Australian outback who is taken for ransom along with her entire student body. All together there are about ten of them in ages ranging from early teens to six or so. Four shotgun toting creeps wearing an odd assortment of masks rounds them up and drives them from their tiny school house to points unknown, finally dropping them off in a cave. It is up to the teacher and her brave and resourceful students to escape before these creeps can live up to their threat of shooting one captive every hour until a ransom is paid. Their journey takes them through all sorts of hazards, and the bad guys are usually right on their tail! Like in so many Australian films, the distinct beauty of the landscape is filmed very well and you get a feel of almost picturesque isolation as you realize just how vast and sparsely populated it is. These captives spend little time actually being held against their will, yet they are so far from help it hardly matters. Even despite their knowledge of the land, these kids would have needed a miracle to survive their situation. The film is very suspenseful, and almost comes off as a masterpiece until the third act loses credibility when the captives begin to turn the tide against the kidnappers. How likely would it be that the two remaining armed men would simply sit back and allow the students to fortify themselves with seemingly hundreds of spears and elaborate booby traps? Not very. But you will be glad to see these creeps get whats coming to them! The film has a dated, yet effective synthesizer score which adds to the atmosphere. There is some gore to be had here and there, too! And the incredible scenery of Australia is always there to provide you something to look at. One shot was particularly curious. The teacher and her children are walking through a wooded hillside to what they believe will be help. At one point they pass some tree stumps that just appear to be smoldering for no reason. Were they struck by lightning? Was it just such a hot day that they caught fire? Really odd, but neat to look at. This is a fine made-for-cable film that still packs a punch these many years later. 7 of 10 stars.The Hound.
rychlyhroch I watched this movie when I was 18 and it made a great impression on me. I went wild, began to smash everything in my flat, and when my parents kicked me out, I continued to run through the park and scream and curse. Why? I don't know, but those filthy, cruel, ruthless kids and their nasty teacher disturbed me very much indeed. I even wrote a song in which I kill children and rape teachers. And that hint that the kids maybe became sexually intimate with the teacher also made me mad. I am discussing it with my therapist at this moment and it is very interesting story. I am 41 now, and I don't have any kids. I kinda have a problem with it. Consider it before you let your kids watch it.
jiansulee I'm yet another 80's kid who saw this on TV and was scared witless but didn't know the name of the movie and eventually couldn't recall if it was real or just a bad nightmare (a nightmare that happened to recur on and off for the following 2 decades!!!). The masked kidnappers left permanent scars on my 8 yr old psyche, still have vivid flashbacks of the the farmhouse scenes, and am now reminded of the nerve-wracking cave swimming escape too. I must have shut off the movie before the ending, but now, 20 years later, I am happy to know they defeated the villains, albeit quite gruesomely. Thank you internet and IMDb for connecting me to the name of the movie as well as other traumatized viewers! Also, so relieved to know I didn't make the whole thing in my head.
SecondAssistant Just to let you know the writer of Fortress (the man who gave us plot holes) is working with Asher Keddie (Sue) on a new project.http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=123752I guess those Aussies really stick together.Writer — Everett Deroche Everett is an established writer with a long list of credits to his name for both television and feature films over 25 years. His work crosses an eclectic mix of writing credits including Australian classics such as The Sullivans, Truckies, Police Rescue, The Flying Doctors, The Man from Snowy River and Stingers to award-winning feature films including Razorback, Link and Visitors. He is currently developing the feature film Eureka Stockade and is the script manager for Film Victoria, which is where he heard about the making of Two Twisted.