In my defence, let me say this: I’ve not been able to track down another Indonesian prison movie, and although I have a policy of avoiding exploitative women-in-prison movies, I was sure this would be different. It’s Indonesian, for goodness’ sake. I was wrong. There are skimpily dressed women, catfights, various instruments of torture and even a shower scene. (Mind you, the women remain pretty much clothed throughout). It’s so bad, one starts to ponder whether it would be better to be subjected to the instruments of torture than have to endure the rest of the film. (more…)
Posted on October 2nd, 2009 at 10:16 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:06 pm.
Lee Umstetter (Nick Nolte) is serving life without the prospect of parole. He throws himself off what looks like the fourth tier of his San Quentin cellblock, but somehow manages to sustain only a couple of broken arms. He tries to hang himself, but wakes his cellmate by thrashing around. Not good at crime, not good at killing himself. When he asks the librarian for the biggest book he has, you think he’s going to try jumping off it head first, or to weigh himself down as he tries to drown himself. (more…)
Posted on September 26th, 2009 at 9:14 pm. Updated on November 20th, 2015 at 7:28 pm.
There’s a slight edginess to Stefania’s story which sets it apart, but not very far apart, from your traditional 1930s prison melodrama. (more…)
Posted on September 25th, 2009 at 10:29 pm. Updated on September 25th, 2009 at 10:44 pm.
Correctional Officer Dan Cappelli (James Russo) embarks on a sexual relationship with a prisoner, then helps her escape, and is later involved in a gun fight in which she dies. “It’s strange, ” he says. “I never got to know her. Still, I will never forget her.” But then, Dan, you’ve got a memory like an elephant! Most of us struggle to remember our own names, let alone women who’ve seduced us, dragged us into lives of crime and forced us to live as fugitives! (more…)
Posted on September 19th, 2009 at 7:10 pm. Updated on September 27th, 2009 at 7:07 pm.
A remake of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing just eight years after that film’s release. Why? You might well ask. (more…)
Posted on September 13th, 2009 at 8:11 pm. Updated on September 14th, 2009 at 8:35 pm.
It’s Québec, 1952. A Bishop is called to a prison to hear the confession of a dying prisoner, Simon. It’s someone the Bishop knew way back in 1912, when they were both teenagers. Once in the confessional, he gets locked in and forced to watch a re-enactment of the events leading up to Simon’s imprisonment forty years earlier. We realise then that Simon (it helps if you pronounce it in the French manner, See-mon), is less interested in making his confession than in hearing one. (more…)
Posted on September 13th, 2009 at 12:31 am. Updated on October 12th, 2009 at 8:38 pm.
Convicts 4 what, exactly? Better scripts, perhaps. (more…)
Posted on September 12th, 2009 at 1:06 am. Updated on September 12th, 2009 at 2:09 pm.
It’s hard not to enjoy a movie about a progressive girls’ borstal where the main character, Ann (Jill Ireland), is warned that her monthly visit with her father must be short, and the visit is then terminated after precisely 1 minute 12 seconds. When she pleads for a little longer, she’s told, “I’m afraid the rules have to be obeyed.” Wonderful stuff. (more…)
Posted on August 24th, 2009 at 2:53 pm. Updated on September 1st, 2009 at 9:55 pm.
?ukasz is a young, out-of-work graduate when he is picked out of a Police lineup by a doddery old lady. He is duly charged with an assault and remanded into custody. He appears genuinely bewildered by the allegation and strongly protests his innocence, and in the absence of any other evidence linking him to the crime, we tend to believe him. He is temporarily placed in a cell with a swaggering old hand who tells him that he has to choose one of two streams – to be put in with staunch, hardened criminals, or be one of the ‘wankers’. An assessment officer suggests that he work in the kitchen, but as this would place him in the wanker category, he declines. It is at that point that we know that while he may have a major in geography and may be innocent of all criminal activity, at the very least he is a fool. (more…)
Posted on August 19th, 2009 at 7:02 pm. Updated on August 24th, 2009 at 3:10 pm.
An awfully pedestrian movie in which the Good Guys triumph over the Baddies. Hooray! Not to be confused with several ‘Women in Chains’ or any ‘Schoolgirls in Chains’ movies. Confusingly, though, none of the girls are in chains (not even after what might be the softest riot on film, ever) and few, if any, are still girls. (more…)
Posted on August 19th, 2009 at 12:22 am. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 9:22 pm.