# Ok What Was The Best Prison Movie?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 20, 2001, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714 "2001-03-20T14:23:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wildest\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wildest_Bill)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/1 "2001-03-20T14:23:40Z")
“Shawshank Redemtion” was killer I really liked it alot. I used to think it was “Cool Hand Luke” but I think Shawshank has got it(Cool Hand Luke) beat.
Well what about y’all? What is the BEST prison movie IYHO?
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### Author:  [@tclouie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tclouie)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/2 "2001-03-20T14:29:49Z")
“The Rescuers.”
Little mice free captive humans.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/3 "2001-03-20T14:29:49Z")
1. **Shawshank Redemption**
2. **American Me**
3. **Stalag 17** POW movie
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/4 "2001-03-20T14:36:12Z")
The Great Escape.
Rescuers Down Under.
Bridge on the River Kwai.
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### Author:  [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/5 "2001-03-20T15:00:23Z")
“Shawshank” is definitely way the hell up there, and is IMHO the best.
Check out an early Burt Lancaster flick called [Brute Force](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0039224). An excellent genre picture, with great performances by Lancaster and Hume Cronyn as a sadistic guard. Contains a chilling scene showing just what happens to informers in this prison. Man, was Lancaster cool, or what?
I’ll also second “Bridge On The River Kwai” and add a similarly-themed POW film, “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.”
Speaking of Lancaster, “The Birdman of Alcatraz,” the more so because it’s based on a true story.
And let us not forget “Papillon.”
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### Author:  [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/6 "2001-03-20T15:01:03Z")
Blood In, Blood Out (Bound By Honor)
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### Author:  [@Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bottle_of_Smoke)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/7 "2001-03-20T15:09:46Z")
What? No mention yet of _Caged Heat_, the Citizen Kane of women’s prison flicks?
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### Author:  [@C\_Thompson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_Thompson)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/8 "2001-03-20T15:09:53Z")
“Pappilon”
I think the spelling is right.
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### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/9 "2001-03-20T15:15:28Z")
_Midnight Express_ is at least in the top 5.
More recently, _Brokedown Palace_ was also pretty good.
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### Author:  [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/10 "2001-03-20T15:16:10Z")
#1) [Rikki-O](http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/ricky.html) (aka: The Story of Ricky, or Riki-Oh)
#2) Shawshank - great movie
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### Author:  [@Melpomene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melpomene)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/11 "2001-03-20T15:18:13Z")
I’m just here to chalk up my vote for
**Shawshank Redemption**
In fact, I just went out and bought it last night. Which is really funny, because considering how many times I’ve rented and borrowed that damned movie, I would have saved myself a lot of money if I had just bought it when it first came out!
😛
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/12 "2001-03-20T15:27:41Z")
As long as we’re counting prison escape movies, how about “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”? It also wins the title for best prison movie soundtrack, hands down.
There was a recent TV feature (Discovery?) on Robert Stroud, the [Birdman of Alcatraz,](http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/stroud.htm) which leaned heavily to the view that he was a sleazy, foul-mouthed sociopath. Burt Lancaster cleaned him up a lot for the movie.
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/13 "2001-03-20T15:32:19Z")
How 'bout _The Jericho Mile_ or _The Longest Yard_?
A more sobering flick was the early Sean Penn vehicle _Bad Boys_.
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### Author:  [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/14 "2001-03-20T15:37:00Z")
I’ll see your **Shawshank Redemption** and **The Great Escape** and raise you a **Cool Hand Luke**.
Also, allow me to post the most recently over-rated prison movie; **The Green Mile**. Melodramatic schlock.
Cheers,
Hodge
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### Author:  [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/15 "2001-03-20T15:37:38Z")
How come no one has mentioned “The Green Mile”?
BTW, Shawshank Redemption gets my vote too. Great movie.
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### Author:  [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/16 "2001-03-20T15:54:02Z")
Hey, what was that Linda Blair movie? You know, the one where they all hold her down and tell her to “meet Johnny. Johnny Mop.”
OK, OK.
**Shawshank Redemption**
**Cool Hand Luke**
**White Heat**
Honorable mention for amusing me goes to **The Longest Yard**.
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### Author:  [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/17 "2001-03-20T16:49:54Z")
Another vote here for “The Shawshank Redemption”. Who says Stephen King only knows how to write horror?
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/18 "2001-03-20T17:04:53Z")
Some good ones that haven’t been mentioned:[ul][li] **Murder in the First** - Kevin Bacon turned in an Oscar-worthy performance here.[/li][li] **Runaway Train** - Technically a movie about an escape from prison, and technically, the whole movie is a metaphor and not really about prison in the first place, but it does have some good prison scenes, and I love the film.[/li][li] **Escape from Alcatraz** - Clint busts out.[/li][li]The opening sequence of **Raising Arizona**.[/li][li]Parts of **American History X**.[/li] **Bad Boys**.[/ul]
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### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/19 "2001-03-20T17:06:06Z")
Obviously “what we have here is a failure…to communicate.”
C’mon folks, you can’t honestly believe that “Shawshank Redemption” (aka The Movie That Would Not End) is better than “Cool Hand Luke.”
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2001, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-was-the-best-prison-movie/58714/20 "2001-03-20T17:43:17Z")
“I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang” – not only a great film, but highly influential, not only as a film, but as a social document.
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