Brute Force

Pros: some sequences, a hardcore villain
Cons: the summer camp camaraderie in cell R-17

I was underwhelmed by the "legendary" 1947 prison movie "Brute Force," directed by the "legendary" director Jules Dassin, who was blacklisted in Hollywood a few years later and went to Europe to make some critically acclaimed films. It's hard for me to...

Pros: excellent styling by Jules Dassin with Lancaster and Cronyn at the center
Cons: no up-beat ending here

In this film, Jules Dassin made just before making the landmark Naked City, the tell-tale signifiers of the Noir style are generously applied as the story of the metaphoric prison of life is told with expressive flourishes.Westgate Penitentiary ...

Pros: Hume Cronyn's character, tough and brutal scenes
Cons: A whitewash of at least some of the criminal element in the prison

The proper punishment of criminals has always been a point of discussion in society. You have the law-and-order types who essentially feel that if one does bad, one should be treated harshly in the hopes they’ll learn their lesson. Then you have the ...

Pros: Plenty of action; Burt Lancaster
Cons: Can't understand exactly what Muncie had on the warden

This intensely bleak prison movie, like most good prison movies, builds up gradually to an escape. Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) has various good reasons to want to escape, of which the most powerful is the imminent ascendancy over the prison of the evil...