I grew up with Porridge (the TV series), and when I started working in prisons I thought it more accurately portrayed what life inside the walls was really like than the more dramatic images of prison on TV – which usually concentrated on the violence and brutality. It showed humour, it showed some mutual regard (and some mutual contempt) between prison officers and prisoners, and it showed good-hearted, bumbling staff working alongside officious, cynical ones. Not so many good officers, now that I come to think of it.
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Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:26 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
Early in the film ‘Chopper’ Read stabs Keithy George in the neck in a labour yard in Pentridge’s ‘H’ Division in 1978. When staff arrive, Read helpfully confides in them: “Keithy seems to have done himself a mischief.” Then, turning to his flailing victim as he is being taken away, he asks, “You all right, Keithy? Off you go, mate. Off to the sick bay. Whinge, whinge..”. It is the blackest of humour, but pretty well sums up the man on whom the film is based, and if that dialogue doesn’t appeal, chances are you won’t like the film. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:19 pm. Updated on May 7th, 2020 at 9:55 pm.
I can’t quite make up my mind about this one. I feel I should rate it highly, partly because of its brave treatment of the subject matter, and weirdly because it was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Film) in 1985, which could suggest (if not critical acclaim) merit of some type. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:14 pm. Updated on April 15th, 2012 at 1:26 pm.
Romantic comedy is not the most common genre within prison movies, but that’s what this is. It forms part of what has become a fine tradition in recent British prison movies (Captives, Borstal Boy, Greenfingers), playing out a fascination for well-heeled women falling for ‘a bit of rough’. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:05 pm. Updated on March 6th, 2016 at 8:58 pm.
More a Borstal film than a prison film, perhaps, but we’ll leave it in. The BBC commissioned a TV film on the British Borstal (juvenile justice) system in 1977, and then banned it, leading Director Alan Clarke to recreate it as a movie. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:00 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
I’m not overly familiar with the horror genre, I must admit. Nor have I seen either of the two Re-animator prequels, the first of which seems to be universally regarded as the best of the three. But this, I expect, would be hard to beat as prison schlock, and you certainly don’t need to have seen the others to enjoy it. It’s in English, too, despite being made in Spain. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
Is this a prison movie? I have no idea. It’s set in a prison – on Death Row (where prisoners walk their last mile – here, on green linoleum) in a 1930s Louisiana prison, Cold Mountain Penitentiary – and there are some superb prison characters, but it’s also a spiritual, miracle-filled fantasy that at times has as much to do with the prison experience as, say, Bewitched. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 12:50 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
A small opera company manages to get further funding by working with prisoners in a maximum security prison. They audition eight lifers and one staff member and give them all parts in the chorus. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 12:29 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
‘A chatty, ribald coming-of-age meets coming-of-wisdom jail-house tale.’
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
Comedy in which a frustrated thespian tries to bring the joys of the theatre to a group of inmates, some of whom are more interested in the opportunity to escape than the dramatic arts. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 8:40 am. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm.