My SO and I were watching The Shawshank Redemtpion yesterday and we started talking about our favorite movie that took place in a prison. The rule was that most, if not all, of the movie had to take place in a prison and was generally supposed to be about life in prison. For that reason movies like Count of Monte Cristo, Natural Born Killers, Face Off and O Brother, Where Art Thou? were not eligible.
I eventually decided Cadence (with father/son duo Martin and Charlie Sheen starring) was my favorite. I like the way Charlie’s character and his prison mates changed during his time in the stockade.
Close runners up included Escape from New York, The Shawshank Redemption, In the Name of the Father, Bad Boys (with Sean Penn and Clancy Brown), and (really, really close second) Brubaker.
Anybody else got a favorite prison movie that I should consider or check out?
Shawshank is truly a great movie. Escape from Alcatraz is another one I have watched hundreds of times.
Actually, Horseflesh, all your picks are really good, except for Cadence, which I kind of thought was a little over the top at the end. It became like that celluloid abomination Lock-up, starring Sylvester Stallone and Donald Sutherland.
The Linda Blair flick Chained Heat was always a favorite of mine. Well, in all fairness, the movie itself is pretty mediocre, but it’s got nekkid Linda Blair in it, so I can be forgiving.
Animal Factory, a Willem Dafoe movie (with Ed Furlong, of all people) released just a couple years back, was a decent effort. It was a bit tame, as far as “prison movies” go, but I’m told* it’s a more realistic portrayal of life on the inside than most.
*[sub]Having no first hand knowledge on this subject, I’m ignorant and happy to remain that way.[/sub]
Definately Shawshank. Actually, its my favorite movie of all, not just my favorite prison movie. The Green Mile is also really good. I love both these movies because they keep my attention throughout the whole movie even though they’re both really long. I’m notorious for getting distracted during movies and/or falling asleep.
If you haven’t seen it, watch “In Cold Blood”. Watching that movie at about 15 made me determined that I would never do anything that would land me in jail. And it has worked for 32 years.
A second for Reform School Girls and a nomination for Caged Heat 3000 and all those Lloyd Simandl films with the women wearing electronic gags and chastity belts and nothing much else.