I’m afraid I wasn’t a big fan of the first filmed version of Henri Charrière’s life story, Papillon (1973), starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. I thought it tedious, and a disappointing retelling of the boisterous, if largely fanciful, written account. And I’m not all that keen to go back and revisit it to see if that judgment was a little harsh, having just watched the remake… which I think is an improvement.
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Posted on December 8th, 2018 at 8:38 pm. Updated on December 8th, 2018 at 8:46 pm.
They have been making prison movies for a little more than 100 years. But I reckon that it’s only in the last decade that humiliation porn prison films like Stoic (2009), Boys Behinds Bars (2013) and this one have taken hold and found a market. It’s a little depressing. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on December 3rd, 2018 at 7:46 pm. Updated on December 3rd, 2018 at 7:57 pm.
What’s the moral we’re supposed to take from this story? Don’t keep the date on which you’re to be released from prison a secret from your wife? Don’t become a drug runner for your abominable brother-in-law? I have no idea, really. But I’m certain there’s a moral in there somewhere. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 16th, 2018 at 8:49 pm. Updated on November 16th, 2018 at 8:50 pm.
“Are we quits, now?” asks the young, first-time prisoner of the older prisoner who had earlier come to his rescue, having just paid off the first instalment (by helping tip boiling water on a debtor) in return for the big favour. “Ask me again and I’ll stamp your face into the concrete,” the older man replies. And if the younger man didn’t realise up until that point that he was trapped, he does then. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 6th, 2018 at 7:39 pm. Updated on November 6th, 2018 at 7:39 pm.
I haven’t seen this silent movie. I’m old, but not quite that old, and the film is now believed to be lost (though not, perhaps, in the 1937 Fox archive fire). The number of people who have seen it, you would think, is declining. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 2nd, 2018 at 8:53 pm. Updated on November 2nd, 2018 at 8:53 pm.
I’d very much like to say that there was an interesting subtext to this movie; the contamination in prison of non-violent men placed with violent offenders, perhaps. But, no, this is a straightforward good guys v. bad guys story; a revenge story. With lots of fighting. Lots. But none in prison. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 15th, 2018 at 8:33 pm. Updated on October 15th, 2018 at 8:43 pm.
Three priests walk into a bar. They have been friends for years, and celebrate over a few drinks; Fr Oliver Grondek (Jan Messutat) has been newly promoted into a senior role within the church. Fr Jakob Völz (Sebastian Blomberg) is a prison chaplain, but is promised a more prominent role as Oliver’s ‘city deacon’. And Fr Dominik Bertram (Kai Schumann) is soon to be taken off for questioning in relation to sexual offences against an adolescent boy, Mike, the only child of a single mum and in whom he has taken a special interest through the parish Youth Club he runs. As this is a film that critically examines the Catholic Church’s treatment of its paedophile priests, the punchline is that Fr Dominik is not disbarred. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 10th, 2018 at 8:53 pm. Updated on October 10th, 2018 at 9:02 pm.
Back in October 2017 Alex Greenwood wrote to me to see if I could identify a movie from a grainy still he had found on the internet of a bald guy in prison fight scene. Being notoriously poor at such things (and, it turns out, not having seen the movie, or even heard of it), I was unable to assist. But Alex persisted, and persisted… and found it himself. And this is it, fighting bald guy and more.
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Posted on October 6th, 2018 at 5:34 pm. Updated on October 6th, 2018 at 5:34 pm.
When Sir James Hennessy, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, set out his findings and recommendations into the September 1983 escape of 38 IRA prisoners from HMP Maze, he identified (not surprisingly) a multitude of failures. One of which was the selection of a number of prisoner orderlies, whom he noted “adopt(ed) a deliberate policy of conditioning staff to reduce their alertness”. And one of those, whose name does not appear in the abridged online version of Hennessy’s report, was Larry Marley - considered the mastermind of the escape, yet who remained in the prison while his 38 associates fled the prison crammed into a food delivery lorry. Despite his pivotal role in the escape, Marley was released in 1985 - and it is his story that is featured here. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 28th, 2018 at 3:56 pm. Updated on September 28th, 2018 at 3:56 pm.
A big hurrah for a film that shows another side of prison life - a prisoner’s escorted deathbed visit to her dying mother - instead of the standard fare of power plays, fight clubs, corruption and shankings. Hurrah! Then the reservations. It’s a comedy, not of the laugh-out-loud variety, undermined by how safe and comfortable it all is; tricky issues are avoided or resolved a bit too painlessly, and awkward prison matters don’t even register. If it weren’t for the shackles, the correctional officer uniform and the obligatory karaoke-singing Warden, you might even forget that it involves a prisoner under escort. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 15th, 2018 at 4:19 pm. Updated on September 15th, 2018 at 4:19 pm.