This invites comparisons with Scum (1979), updated and set in the context of the London riots of 2011. But it owes more to Doing Hard Time (2004), a less auspicious film which features another hurt, angry and apparently law-abiding man intent on avenging a terrible crime… and who is similarly prepared to surrender some high moral ground by senselessly attacking police – simply to get into jail and to get access to those who have wronged him. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 3rd, 2013 at 11:23 am. Updated on March 3rd, 2013 at 11:23 am.
Imagine a prisoner being prepped for his execution – ordering his last meal, making a last wish, maybe seeking absolution from a priest, being strapped onto the trolley in readiness for his lethal injection, having to endure all the formalities and proclamations. Now imagine that repeated another seven times, with various permutations and combinations. That’s essentially what this film comprises – eight opaque variations on the same theme. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 23rd, 2013 at 8:58 pm. Updated on February 23rd, 2013 at 10:16 pm.
“Now listen here, you cons. When I sent you up here I thought you were rats… and now I know it.” Not necessarily the smartest thing to say to a packed mess hall when you’re a DA who has been placed in a prison amidst 6,000 enemies – many of whom you’ve personally sent up the river. And perhaps a little harsh on his new colleagues… After all, what sort of reaction did he expect? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 21st, 2013 at 8:33 pm. Updated on March 4th, 2013 at 9:21 pm.
What I’d read about Harmony suggested that it was an uplifting movie about a choir in a women’s prison. Is it uplifting? I guess so… for a moment or two. But it is also just about the saddest prison movie that you will see, full of pain and loss and suffering. It could be three films: one about the choir, another about the harsh separation of a mother from her young child, and yet another about the senseless execution of a kindly, elderly woman. Very uplifting. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 16th, 2013 at 7:46 pm. Updated on February 16th, 2013 at 8:04 pm.
I’d ignored this for years, believing it to be a prisoner-of war movie (a genre I am – for no discernible reason – at great pains to avoid), until it was very sensibly pointed out that despite it being set in a prison which holds only soldiers, it is “not POW, but actually a detention centre for English soldiers who (have behaved) badly. Ergo, prison!” It’s true; in my ignorance I had neglected a truly magnificent prison flick. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 13th, 2013 at 8:59 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2019 at 8:41 pm.
This made-for-TV film was adapted from Daniel Keene’s stage play, and examines some awkwardly dysfunctional relationships in a troubled family in the context of a condemned man’s last hours. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 8th, 2013 at 8:59 pm. Updated on December 6th, 2013 at 9:27 pm.
You’d think that in a film of a little over an hour it would be difficult to make the action drag. But this achieves it, somehow. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 31st, 2013 at 8:31 pm. Updated on January 31st, 2013 at 8:31 pm.
Let’s make it clear from the outset: this is not a campy remake of Girls in Prison (1956). I wish it were. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 27th, 2013 at 9:17 pm. Updated on January 27th, 2013 at 9:17 pm.
By the time The Hurricane was made, American moviegoers were already well used to the brutality of the French penal colonies from films such as Condemned! (1927) and Escape from Devil’s Island (1935). This provides another opportunity to take a swipe at the French for their administration of justice (and management of their overseas territories), this time in French Polynesia. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 20th, 2013 at 6:59 pm. Updated on January 20th, 2013 at 6:59 pm.
Some movies just make you feel old. I hadn’t seen any of the previous 7,069 Naruto manga or anime (or any of the previous seven films) which might have helped, but I still had this unsettling sense, as I struggled to keep up with the plot, of 7-year-old Japanese kids (any 7-year-old kids, really) taking it all in with ease. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 16th, 2013 at 9:01 pm. Updated on January 16th, 2013 at 9:01 pm.