Prison stuff. In prison movies.
You might expect that a film called Girl on a Chain Gang would be about, well, a girl on a chain gang. Not this movie. At best, 12 out of the 96 minutes have her sentenced to a chain gang, and for most of those 12 minutes she is on the run. In fact, she never really gets to work on the chain gang, but somehow she’s ‘a Girl on a Chain Gang’. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on December 8th, 2013 at 7:38 pm. Updated on December 8th, 2013 at 7:38 pm.
This could just as easily be called ‘In Defence of Prison Education’, if providing education to prisoners ever really needed defending. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on December 2nd, 2013 at 4:45 pm. Updated on December 2nd, 2013 at 4:57 pm.
I must be getting old. A prisoner ladles porridge into the prison Governor’s hat, with inevitable results; the prisoner escapes all punishment, and rather than be troubled by this, I simply put it down to comedic licence. Who knows; I may soon embrace action movies.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 30th, 2013 at 8:54 pm. Updated on November 30th, 2013 at 8:54 pm.
Three years after The Concrete Jungle was released, a film called Concrete Hell (aka Turning to Stone) hit the cinemas in Canada. There are plenty of parallels between the two, aside from their shared interest in building materials used in prison construction. Both feature young women charged with cocaine importation who are deserted by their male partners and dropped into brutal prisons which are controlled by big-haired queen bees. The Concrete Jungle definitely came first. Turning to Stone is definitely better. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 27th, 2013 at 9:09 pm. Updated on November 27th, 2013 at 9:09 pm.
Claudiu Crulic is a man of principle. Not a hero, the film’s director Anca Damian is at pains to note, at least not in the way he lived. But a man prepared to die for what he believed. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 18th, 2013 at 8:33 pm. Updated on November 18th, 2013 at 8:44 pm.
There’s no place like prison to learn that your lover is a loser… and then fall in love again. Just ask Jean Forest. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 18th, 2013 at 8:16 pm. Updated on November 18th, 2013 at 8:16 pm.
There is no shortage of messages here. “Prison is a state of mind; the walls, the bars, the locks, the barbed wire,” is the upfront one, direct from director Sananjit Bangsapan. But then the leading lady boasts that ‘Stoicism overcomes all’, and others’ stories remind us that ‘One doesn’t have to be in prison to be imprisoned’. Or for life to be tough, for that matter. And finally we’re cautioned, by one who should know, that ‘Sex causes trouble’. So many messages! So little consequence. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 13th, 2013 at 8:39 pm. Updated on August 28th, 2019 at 8:01 pm.
One of the early ‘talkies’, Thunderbolt can’t quite make up its mind about what sort of movie it wants to be: a drama, a comedy, a romance, a piece of early film noir… Heck, it even shows off its synchronised sound with a few musical numbers. In the end it’s so busy it doesn’t quite cut the mustard in any genre. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 9th, 2013 at 6:52 pm. Updated on November 9th, 2013 at 6:57 pm.
Although it has a prison at its heart and has enough hollowness and yearning to match it with the most desolate of prison movies, this is not really a prison movie. Its focus is not on the prisoners, but on their wearied families. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 28th, 2013 at 8:06 pm. Updated on October 28th, 2013 at 8:07 pm.
There are quite a number of films where romance blossoms between the warden’s wife or daughter and the suave or good-looking prisoner who happens to be working around the warden’s home as a manservant or chauffeur. This is a very distinctive variation on that theme. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 23rd, 2013 at 8:57 pm. Updated on October 23rd, 2013 at 9:06 pm.