» Bloodsport II - The Next Kumite (1996, USA)
Sheriff Joe Arpaio achieved way too much notoriety by requiring his prisoners to wear pink underwear. Why, then, is the boss of this Thai jail, in which prisoners are all dressed in pink, not seen to out-tough America’s Toughest Sheriff? I suppose it could be just that one red sock got missed in the wash. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 12th, 2012 at 9:27 pm. Updated on May 12th, 2012 at 9:27 pm.
» Do Ankhen Barah Haath / Two Eyes, Twelve Hands (1958, India)
There are a few other movies with exalted prison officials [Men of San Quentin (1942) is the first that springs to mind], but none that I can recall - other than this one - where a guard is given godly attributes. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 6th, 2012 at 5:45 pm. Updated on May 6th, 2012 at 5:47 pm.
» Por sus propios ojos / Proper Eyes (Argentina, 2007)
It is the absence of men that one first notices in the visitors’ queue. There are resigned wives, dutiful girlfriends, tired mothers, teary grandmothers. But no men. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 30th, 2012 at 9:30 pm. Updated on April 30th, 2012 at 9:30 pm.
» The Jail in Burning Island (Hong Kong, 1997)
One of the better things that can be said about this film, also known as ‘The Jailbreakers’ or, more properly, ‘Huo shao dao zhi heng hung Ba dao’, is that this time Chu Yen-Ping directs an original script, rather than stringing together scenes from his favourite prison movies as he did in Island of Fire (1990). Some things however remain very similar; same island, same prison, same format of four (or five) prisoners with interwoven stories. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 24th, 2012 at 11:20 pm. Updated on April 24th, 2012 at 11:20 pm.
» Layla Lavan / White Night (1996, Israel)
1986, and two first-timers are received into a maximum-security prison. One, Yonatan (Idan Alterman), is placed in a big shared cell which includes an imposing drug boss (played by the film’s director, Arnon Zadok), who wastes no time in imposing himself sexually upon the young man. From his first day, he is enslaved. Clichéd, yes, but through Yonatan, everyone’s worst fears about prison are quickly realised. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 19th, 2012 at 10:56 pm. Updated on April 19th, 2012 at 10:56 pm.
» Skřivánci na niti / Larks on a String (1969, Czechoslovakia)
Director Jiři Menzel, in one of my DVD’s features, tells a political joke from 1950s Czechoslovakia that gave the film its structure: ‘The workers are ordered to attend a meeting, where a comrade gives a lecture explaining, “In the present we have socialism, but in the future we will have communism.” After the lecture, he asks the workers if they have any questions. One of the workers raises his hand and says, “It’s good that we have socialism and will soon have communism, but where is the bread, where is the milk, where is the butter?” The comrade answers, “This is a rather complicated question. Ask me again at the next lecture.” A week later, the workers are ordered to attend another meeting, and the same thing happens - the comrade extols the virtues of socialism and communism, and afterwards asks if anyone has any questions. Another worker raises his hand and says, “It’s good we have socialism and will soon have communism, but where is the bread, where is the milk, where is the butter, and where is the worker who asked about this the last time?”‘ That’s just about all you need to know about this film, really. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 8th, 2012 at 3:29 pm. Updated on April 8th, 2012 at 3:31 pm.
» Prison Without Bars (1938, UK)
“We have to make them fear us,” says the deposed Superintendent, Mme Appel. “No,” replies her successor - and prison reformer - Yvonne Chanel, “We have to make them love us. That’s far more difficult.” But no more appropriate, I would suggest. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 3rd, 2012 at 11:14 pm. Updated on April 21st, 2012 at 8:27 pm.
» VIP - La Otra Casa / VIP (Very Important Prisoners) - The Other House (2007, Guatemala)
The storyline of VIP is apparently borrowed from a real-life Guatemalan corruption case. Which one, I don’t know. Based on the depiction of Guatemalan life in this film, there could be a large number from which to choose. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 28th, 2012 at 9:06 pm. Updated on March 28th, 2012 at 9:08 pm.
» Con Games (2001, USA)
As the opening credits of Con Games roll over, we see a prisoner being led into a cell (in order that he might be raped by a waiting prisoner, it turns out), and the cell door doesn’t have a locking mechanism. Maybe such details are unimportant. But it doesn’t augur well. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 19th, 2012 at 10:29 pm. Updated on March 19th, 2012 at 10:29 pm.
» Hard Choices (1985, USA)
I’m not sure why this wasn’t called ‘Bad Choices’. Most of the critical choices are arguably not that hard: “Do I join my brothers in a robbery?”, “Do I allow myself to be sprung from jail by a social worker who is pointing a gun at the sheriff who has treated me decently?”, “Do I become a drug trafficker?” - but not all the answers are straightforward in this morally challenging tale.
Posted on March 11th, 2012 at 8:55 pm. Updated on March 11th, 2012 at 8:55 pm.