Prison stuff. In prison movies.
“This is Frankie Stossel. A child of God. Was he born to be bad?” the narrator asks in the movie’s opening scene as a newborn baby is smacked into life. Unfortunately there’s no-one around to give this lame 60s morality play a similar kick start. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 24th, 2009 at 4:35 pm. Updated on December 11th, 2009 at 8:58 pm.
Eduart (Eshref Durmishi) is a young Albanian who travels to Greece, hoping to become a rock star. He has the looks, but not the talent, it seems. To keep alive, he thieves. He also hustles. At a gay bar, he is picked up and taken home by a rich bloke who is not really his type. He is caught rifling through this bloke’s desk, but that seems to not to dampen the older man’s ardour once an initial attempt to get him to leave is out of the way. Eduart, more appalled than panicked, strangles him and flees. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 21st, 2009 at 9:37 pm. Updated on January 11th, 2010 at 10:39 pm.
Of all the film noir prison movies, few match this one in its compelling depiction of the gangster-in-prison still acting like a gangster. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 17th, 2009 at 10:45 pm. Updated on October 18th, 2009 at 4:35 pm.
This is not a softcore exploitation movie, 1928-style. You’ll find it filed under ‘Gay-Themed Films of the German Silent Era.’ But while it is all of those things, it is also much more: a push for penal reform, a brave contribution to the debate about the purpose of punishment, and some poignant studies in guilt and prisoners’ longing for intimacy. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 11th, 2009 at 7:19 pm. Updated on October 16th, 2009 at 6:12 am.
As a prison film, this is disappointing. But it’s disappointing because it is so faithful in its retelling of the story of the Georges Bizet opera (or the Prosper Mérimée novella, if you want to go back further), and the film’s prison scenes account for such a tiny proportion of the screen time. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 11th, 2009 at 1:23 pm. Updated on August 28th, 2019 at 8:05 pm.
Yeah, it’s a bit schmaltzy at times, but this is an under-rated (or at least undeservedly less well known) addition to the prison sporting contest genre. It has its formulaic elements, too, but is a much better bet than the other rodeo movie of which I’m aware (Stir Crazy, 1980) and the series of The Longest Yard movies (which aren’t about rodeos but take prison sporting events to some very strange places). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 4th, 2009 at 6:10 pm. Updated on January 12th, 2010 at 9:06 pm.
I hope that in Arabic the film’s title conveys a little more excitement than the English translation, for this is a half-decent political satire. It doesn’t amount to much as a prison movie, but then it doesn’t need to. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 3rd, 2009 at 9:59 pm. Updated on October 13th, 2009 at 8:51 pm.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on October 2nd, 2009 at 10:16 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:06 pm.
This is a story about a nice, law-abiding woman who gets herself sent to prison in order to gather information which she hopes will save her brother from being executed. Brave, but not as brave as you’d imagine. This is the most benign prison you will ever see – and one which finally debunks all those movies which depict prisons as unpleasant places populated by unpleasant people. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 27th, 2009 at 6:44 pm. Updated on October 6th, 2009 at 8:11 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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 26th, 2009 at 9:14 pm. Updated on November 20th, 2015 at 7:28 pm.