It’s a bit hard to separate any movie involving Mel Gibson from the ranting, wife-beating, homophobic anti-Semite that the star (and writer) of Get the Gringo has shown himself to be. Allegedly. As a result, I wasn’t much looking forward to this film. Nor am I a fan of the action genre, as I may have said previously; ad infinitum. But this is surprisingly watchable. Enjoyable, even. (more…)
Posted on August 28th, 2012 at 10:01 pm. Updated on August 28th, 2012 at 10:01 pm.
In 1976 the British Government put an end to the special category status of prisoners from the Provisional Irish Republican Army, no longer treating them as prisoners of war, but as common criminals. Mairéad Farrell – on whose life much of the film seems to be loosely based – was the first woman Republican to be refused political status in 1976. By 1980, when the film is set, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and doggedly resolute: “There can be no question of political status for someone who is serving a sentence for crime. Crime is crime is crime.” Silent Grace seeks to capture the struggle for the restoration of political status that was at the heart of prison protests in Northern Ireland – not just by the more celebrated male prisoners – but by a smaller number of women prisoners, led by Farrell, at the Armagh Women’s Prison. (more…)
Posted on August 21st, 2012 at 10:28 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2012 at 10:28 pm.
I have no idea what this is about, but if you only watch prison movies for the shower scenes, this could be the film for you. (more…)
Posted on July 24th, 2012 at 9:07 pm. Updated on December 1st, 2012 at 4:56 pm.
You might start to suspect that something’s not quite right at the La Salle Detention Home for Girls even before you discover that it has its own morgue, replete with with a 5-drawer body refrigerator. That’s a lot of dead prisoners that they’re planning for… (more…)
Posted on July 14th, 2012 at 5:25 pm. Updated on July 15th, 2012 at 9:18 am.
Rick Penning (Sean Faris) is a sullen, selfish, jerk. He’s in juvenile detention, but you would hardly know it. Forever Strong is about rugby and the life lessons that a coach can bring to a team. It’s not so much about the life lessons that juvenile detention can teach. (more…)
Posted on July 1st, 2012 at 2:44 pm. Updated on July 1st, 2012 at 2:44 pm.
This is, quite frankly, a pretty ordinary film. I have, however, given it an extra half-star for containing the only punishment I have seen, on film or elsewhere, involving a prisoner being forced to wear three large teapots. (more…)
Posted on June 30th, 2012 at 8:16 pm. Updated on June 30th, 2012 at 8:16 pm.
Larry Winters was 34 when he died of a drug overdose in his Barlinnie Special Unit cell. He had been in jail for over 13 years. He was intelligent, damaged, talented and – even without the licit and illicit drugs he consumed in large quantities – most probably mentally ill. This film serves almost as a justification of his violent, troubled life, but also as an advertisement for the Barlinnie Special Unit, which took dangerous men and made them less so through its revolutionary approach of normalisation and prisoner empowerment. (more…)
Posted on June 10th, 2012 at 10:24 pm. Updated on June 10th, 2012 at 10:24 pm.
This is a cold, cold film. An escapee is returned to the prison, barefoot in the snow. Young men shiver in the forest, huddling together in the freezing rain, unable to find shelter. It is the unrelenting cold, as much as anything, that serves to remind us of how estranged these boys are from the warmth of people who care for them – and which constantly underscores the brutality of their existence. The cold… and the practice of referring to the boys only by their number, not their names.
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Posted on June 4th, 2012 at 10:39 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2019 at 8:49 pm.
“I have one rule in my prison: There are no rules.” So says Warden Preston (Derek McGrath), but he’s not telling the truth; there are quite a few rules, including one which says that if you are in a fight-to-the-death you are not permitted to refuse to kill your opponent. (more…)
Posted on May 27th, 2012 at 8:11 pm. Updated on May 27th, 2012 at 8:12 pm.
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. (more…)
Posted on May 12th, 2012 at 9:27 pm. Updated on May 12th, 2012 at 9:27 pm.