» L’Addition / The Caged Heart (1984, France)
Bruno Vinclert (Richard Berry) is not so much an innocent man in prison; he is more of an accidental prisoner. (more…)
Posted on January 2nd, 2016 at 8:49 pm. Updated on January 25th, 2016 at 9:47 pm.
Clichés
» In the Custody of Strangers (1982, USA)
There are many movies about juvenile prisons; far fewer about juveniles in adult prisons. This made-for-TV film claims that an estimated 479,000 juveniles were placed in adult jails across the US each year; other sources suggest that the figure on any one day was then around 5,000. If the purpose of the film was to draw attention to this issue and bring about a reduction in the numbers of youth in adult jails, it does not appear to have succeeded. With violent crime committed by youth on the increase, almost every US State subsequently passed laws making it easier to lock up young people in adult facilities. (more…)
Posted on December 25th, 2015 at 4:17 pm. Updated on December 25th, 2015 at 4:30 pm.
» Turkey Shoot (1982, Australia)
It’s a few years into the future. The Government is rounding up all its deviates in the community (people who don’t submit with abject obedience to its rules and standards), and putting them in prison camps for re-education and behaviour modification. A little reminiscent of the early 1940s, you’d think. (more…)
Posted on December 19th, 2015 at 7:50 pm. Updated on December 19th, 2015 at 7:50 pm.
» Chain Gang (1984, USA)
This is another Earl Owensby vehicle, following on from Buckstone County Prison [aka Seabo] (1978) – both produced by and starring Owensby as a strong, silent-type prisoner in movies that pay homage to Cool Hand Luke (1967). Without the charisma. (more…)
Posted on December 10th, 2015 at 8:31 pm. Updated on December 10th, 2015 at 8:31 pm.
» Cell 213 (2011, Canada)
It’s a bit hard to pin a label on this film. Completed in 2008, it took another three years to release it, marketed ultimately as a horror movie. But it’s more a supernatural movie; horror film buffs will inevitably be disappointed by it, and those who aren’t (such as myself) might be pleasantly surprised. (more…)
Posted on November 30th, 2015 at 9:20 pm. Updated on May 8th, 2020 at 10:39 pm.
» Jailbird Rock (1988, USA / Argentina)
I think it was when Warden Harold Bauman (Ron Lacey), in dismissing any idea of his prisoners putting on an artistic performance, said, “They’re not here to have fun. They’re here to be miserable,” that my wife asked, “Don’t you get sick of the same, same things all the time?”. Or it could have been earlier, such as at the arrival of the prisoner who doesn’t deserve to be in prison, or the tough prisoner running the show, or the ineffectual warden and his corrupt second-in-charge, or the earnest counsellor pushing for reform… It could have been at any point in the film, really. (more…)
Posted on November 22nd, 2015 at 5:10 pm. Updated on November 22nd, 2015 at 5:12 pm.
» Dance of the Steel Bars (2013, Philippines)
I think nearly everyone has seen the YouTube clips of the dancers from the Philippines’ Cebu Provincial Detention & Rehabilitation Center. Because of those clips I expected this film – which I knew had been based around the prison’s stunning dance-based reforms – to be essentially a dance film… with a few dramatic threads attempting to hold it together. I couldn’t have been more wrong; to its credit (and no doubt its commercial disadvantage), it’s a prison drama with just a few dance routines woven into it. (more…)
Posted on November 15th, 2015 at 5:11 pm. Updated on November 15th, 2015 at 5:11 pm.
» A Warden’s Ransom (2014, Canada)
Roundwood Prison’s Warden, Samantha Brandtt (Diane Neal) has a lot going for her. She is smart, attractive, compassionate, forthright, tough, an exceptional prison administrator and a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant. But her 16-year-old daughter Kit (Jodelle Ferland) resents her success and blames her job for the break-up of her parents’ marriage. Oh, and her staff are almost uniformly corruptible and cognitively deficient. (more…)
Posted on November 8th, 2015 at 3:34 pm. Updated on November 8th, 2015 at 3:36 pm.
» Prison War 2 (2014, Nigeria / Ghana)
I haven’t previously had much luck with Nollywood or Ghallywood offerings; their prison-themed films seem to me to be shot almost entirely in people’s living rooms. But this is a bona fide prison movie, set in Sierra Leone, accessible on YouTube, and is one that ensures you get your money’s worth: it is a traditional new fish in prison movie which morphs into a Fight Club movie and ends up as an escape movie. And even pauses at one point for a sweet song which includes the lyric, “When I kill is bad but I found pleasure doing it” before urging the listener to stay out of trouble. (more…)
Posted on October 31st, 2015 at 8:11 pm. Updated on May 7th, 2023 at 1:06 pm.
» Kalima Sharaf / Word of Honour (1972, Egypt)
It’s refreshing, I guess, to have a prison movie about relationships that doesn’t involve a prisoner coupled with a guard or a doctor or psychologist. Instead, this features two solid, admirable relationships built on trust. Or maybe one that is solid, and one that appeared solid. And two that are not. (more…)
Posted on October 24th, 2015 at 4:59 pm. Updated on October 24th, 2015 at 4:59 pm.