Prison stuff. In prison movies.
“Without the elephant of a doubt” (to quote ‘Slip’ Mahoney), this 39th Bowery Boys comedy is a better prison movie than their 19th [Triple Trouble (1950)]. I’m just not sure that says a great deal. (more…)
Posted on June 20th, 2020 at 1:49 pm. Updated on August 2nd, 2020 at 10:50 pm.
I’ve watched 700+ prison films (or films with a fair chunk of prison in them) and not one has featured a prison guard whose job it is to read incoming and outgoing mail and censor it. Until this one. It’s delightfully unusual. But I also found it one of the hardest to watch. (more…)
Posted on June 9th, 2020 at 9:53 pm. Updated on June 9th, 2020 at 9:53 pm.
Dull and implausible seems to be the consensus of those who have seen this film, also known – a little bewilderingly – as Maximum Security. And yes, dull and implausible it is. (more…)
Posted on May 14th, 2020 at 12:27 pm. Updated on May 14th, 2020 at 12:35 pm.
There are few prison movies as patently and transparently allegorical as this. In fact, I can’t bring another to mind that comes close. And it’s almost as hard to think of a movie prison that shares fewer features with prisons as we know them; but an intriguing prison it is. (more…)
Posted on May 11th, 2020 at 10:31 pm. Updated on May 11th, 2020 at 10:42 pm.
On 22 October 2009 Stefano Cucchi, a 31-year-old surveyor, boxer, and drug user for 15 years, died in Sandro Pertini prison hospital while awaiting trial on drug possession and trafficking charges. He had been arrested in Rome on 15 October with a modest amount of drugs, and had been badly beaten by the arresting Carabinieri – suffering a broken jaw, two broken vertebrae, and other facial injuries, amongst others. When found dead in his prison ward seven days later he weighed just 37kg. On My Skin recounts the story of this young man, (‘twice murdered by the state’¹), over that week. (more…)
Posted on May 3rd, 2020 at 12:04 pm. Updated on May 3rd, 2020 at 12:04 pm.
Post-Shawshank riddle: How does a first-time, stitched-up, white-collar financial services chap on a murder charge cope with prison? A: He digs deep. (more…)
Posted on April 15th, 2020 at 10:03 pm. Updated on April 15th, 2020 at 10:03 pm.
If it helps avoid confusion with the disappointing Australian film also named Convict (and also released in 2014), Google suggests that the Arabic title for this film – currently available on Netflix – translates as ‘What are you, prisons?’. That might not help much, but it’s a fair question. (more…)
Posted on April 12th, 2020 at 2:17 pm. Updated on April 12th, 2020 at 2:17 pm.
So, the whole shocking story of Alcatraz’s 29-year life as a Federal Penitentiary comes down to just two incidents, does it – the May 1946 failed escape attempt known as the ‘Battle of Alcatraz’, and the June 1962 escape bid that may or may not have been successful? Oh, and a bit of filler in-between about Clarence Carnes and Robert Stroud. Nothing else, it seems, was shocking, or part of the whole Alcatraz story. (more…)
Posted on March 7th, 2020 at 8:14 pm. Updated on March 7th, 2020 at 8:14 pm.
This latest Alcatraz film is ‘inspired by real events’. It is low budget and low on authenticity. It is also, sadly, at the low end of the interest scale. (more…)
Posted on February 24th, 2020 at 6:49 pm. Updated on February 24th, 2020 at 6:49 pm.
We have seen it before in other films: entrepreneurs making money by putting prisoners on show for public entertainment. There have been fight clubs [Ring of Death (2008), for example, or Undisputed III: Redemption (2010)] staged for the benefit of gambling rings or internet subscribers, execution lotteries [Deathrow Gameshow (1987), Absolute Aggression (1996)], kill-or-be-killed contests for TV audiences [The Condemned (2008), Turkey Shoot (2014)], death races [Death Race (2008)] and many more. But this takes things in a different direction. (more…)
Posted on February 1st, 2020 at 10:13 pm. Updated on February 1st, 2020 at 10:13 pm.