Coldwater
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Limited release
Ron Perlman has made a career of playing offbeat characters. His two most famous artistic creations are a disfigured man known as The Beast and a demonic offspring known as Hellboy. He's never going to be described as a glamor boy, but his ability to inject soulful personality into make-up buried characters is demonstrative of his acting gifts. In Coldwater, Perlman ditches the costume but maintains the forceful presence he brings to all of his roles. Perlman plays a character known as The Colonel, and his militaristic composition is such that Buford Pusser looks like a candy striper by comparison.
The Colonel is the man in change of a rehabilitation center for troubled teens. Juvenile delinquents are brought to his facility and left in his career. The Colonel proceeds to discipline these kids through a combination of physical exertion and well-meaning humiliation. The theory is that the right amount of scare tactics will be enough to cause a struggling young man to straighten up and fly right. Somewhere down the line, the system gets messed up, though. Coldwater becomes a menacing place where hopes and dreams are doomed to die quickly.
Brad Lunders (Lucas Black of Cold Mountain) is such a young man. He is sent to Coldwater Ranch in order to be taught discipline. When he gets there, he discovers the horriffic reality behind such prison encampments. These behavior modification facilities are notorious for causing severe physical and psychological trauma to the youths.
This point is driven home by the fact that Coldwater is inspired by the nearly 200 deaths reported in such institutions in recent years. While not a direct adaptation of any of them, the fictional tale is loosely based on real events in this vein. Boys are dropped off by parents who want them to become model citizens. When the get to boot camp, they inevitably run into powerful, unrelenting drill sergeants. These are men whose sole professional goal is to break the will of spirited teens. These are men like The Colonel. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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