SnoopyStyle Sally Jones (Rachel Ward) is a teacher in rural Australia. She and her students are kidnapped for ransom. Four masked gunmen come to the school and stuff them into a van. An early escape is abandoned when they threaten to kill one of the kids. They are sealed up inside a cave. With ingenuity, they escape the cave but the masked gunmen are not letting them go that easily.It's a fair action thriller TV movie. It's got a simple compelling story. Director Arch Nicholson does a solid job with the different setups. Rachel Ward leads this as the teacher. She does a generally good job but there is a few overacting moments. The kids keep talking and she never tells them to be quiet. Some decision by some of these characters don't necessarily make sense. The finale is a bit silly in a Ramboesque sort of way. It's very watchable until the end.

Kevin Marnell I watched this movie when I was probably 9 years old on HBO. It has stuck with me ever since, and I have looked for it for years. I only remembered a few scenes so it was hard to find, but I finally tracked it down. Probably because it scared me so much when I was so young it is still an enjoyable watch today. Imagine being as young as one of the kids in the film and you will realize why it frightened me so much. Apparently it was an Australian film, but they speak English so it's still very understandable :) I thoroughly enjoyed this movie even today, but mostly because it brought back memories of how horror movies could truly scare me as a child.

merklekranz It would be very easy to pick "Fortress" apart by challenging everything that is not dripping with logic. If you do that however, you will be distracted from a highly entertaining movie. The film is atypical, and difficult to classify. Part kidnapping gone wrong, part hunted in the wild, part revenge flick, "Fortress" is the sum of all these. Rachel Ward bravely adapts to the situation and rallies the children in their quest to survive. Featuring not one, but two separate caves, an escape swim through an underground stream, along with some savage retributions against the masked tormentors, "Fortress" delivers enough entertainment that the plot holes are best forgiven. - MERK

dst-thomas This is a really enjoyable film within its genre. Rachel Ward delights as a complex and heroic character, with an adequate supporting cast of kids. Ms. Ward plays Sally Jones, a (very) rural schoolmarm whose class is abruptly abducted by a few degenerate crazies who hope to ransom the entire class to the government for a huge payoff (based on true events). Her character development throughout this suspenseful and terrifying film is wonderful. Various remarks have criticized the film for reasons such as "Sally removing her bra to swim underwater makes no sense." Or, "Why does she need to pull off her bra to swim the first time, and not the second time?" And that's what I like about the film. There's more than enough meat in the end product to give you plenty to chew on. Let me explain a bit, using these scenes as an example. When the group is first locked into the cave by the kidnappers, Sally goes off to find a way out. This she does - an underwater stream. She takes the oldest boy with her, and strips to her underwear to make the exploratory swim to find a passage out of the cave. There is more than enough energy exchange between Sally and the boy as she undresses to give us a good story. It's obviously complex, and there are all sorts of factors at play. Her age, his respective age, their respective student/teacher roles. She may be drawing power from the experience of dominating him energetically. This is power she will need for the rest of the saga. She may be trying to garner his undying allegiance - she will need this from every member of the group. My point is that in the exchange of expressions between the boy and the woman, and the body language of both - there's plenty of juice to supply a good story. Once again, when the group is getting ready to make the swim to escape, Sally is about to pull off her bra (topless swimming is not considered odd in Australia) until she sees the discomfort/anxiety of the oldest and most sexually developed girl (played by Rebecca Rigg/Riggs). As braless Narelle is about to pull off her top in response to Sally's lead, we assume Sally sees the anxiety on Narelle's face and decides to leave her own bra on to spare Narelle the experience of having to strip in public - something Narelle obviously sees as terrifying. This is a good call, because if any of the kids are close to freaking out it is obviously (to Sally) Narelle. Or, Sally sees that Narelle has some goodies of her own and decides she doesn't want the competition. I think there's that much potential complexity portrayed in the film at a number of turns in the story, and it is why I think this film stands out in spite of a low budget and a thin script. Mostly due to the acting and the editing that allows that acting to come forward, I give it three strong, solid stars and recommend it if you like the idea: a framework of terror and brutality surrounding a group of kids and their teacher who discover the inner primitive savageness that is, in the end, their only possible savior.