Brubaker and Tough Love

Robert Redford's portrayal of a crusading prison warden in the 1980 film “Brubaker” is far from his best known role. That is scarcely surprising. Even with a bona fide box office star on board, an often gritty (if increasingly melodramatic) prison movie is a tough sell to the public.

Still, the film remains noteworthy. It was based on the experiences of a real warden, Tom Murton, in the Arkansas prison system in the late 1960’s. Murton’s efforts led to federal litigation that helped validate the constitutional rights of inmates concerning the conditions of incarceration.

As depicted in the film those conditions were horrific, with beatings and bribery only the tip of the festering iceberg.

Is it possible that love could melt that iceberg and offer a new paradigm for criminal justice? Two authors from the American friends' community, Laura Magnani and Harmon L. Wray, explore that question in their 2006 book “Beyond Prisons.”

It's a book worth reading, even for those more comfortable with the word "tough" than the word "love."



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The Longest Yard

The casual brutality by guards against inmates depicted in The Longest Yard and other prison flicks raises a host of questions.

Was it ever thus, this world seemingly without grievance procedures, ombudsmen, visitors, or anyone else who might intervene?

Maybe it’s just that the violence trope makes for such strong narrative. Art, after all, can all too easily perpetuate myths and embellish half-truths. Burt Reynolds and his backers surely felt no obligation to depict reality when contriving their concoction about a prison football game between guards and inmates. They probably just wanted to entertain − and make some money.



Assaults do occur in correctional facilities − but they are more likely to involve inmates attacking guards than vice versa. As Ted Conover recounts in his memoir Newjack, about his stint as a “CO” at the notorious Sing Sing prison, violence (and the threat of violence) by inmates is a daily reality for correctional officers.

In other words, prison is not a Burt Reynolds movie.

Prisoners of Narrative

Why are there so many prison movies and virtually no probation officer movies? This was the question wryly posed by a presenter at an International Community Corrections Association conference I attended in Ottawa in September 2000. The answer, it seems to me, goes beyond the obvious – the more overt opportunities for drama in the jailhouse setting – to offer a glimpse into social dynamics of punishment.

The prison movie is a time-tested genre. Cool Hand Luke and The Shawshank Redemption are only the leading examples. These movies are so common that on PrisonFlicks.com you can select among tabs for your subgenre of choice: not only prison dramas, but prison comedies, prison musicals (yes, musicals), women in prison, prisoner of war movies, and more. Do you prefer your Alcatraz movie with Burt Lancaster or with Clint Eastwood? You have a choice. On the smaller screen, the series Prison Break has been a playing since 2005. Kiss of the Spider Woman was a hit stage play before it became a movie, and so was Chicago. All world's a stage, and many of the players seem to be prisoners.

What is the appeal of the prison genre? To be sure, there is an elemental “good guys vs. bad guys” aspect in play. The punishment that prisoners are supposed to receive is something that, in our bureaucratic modern world, usually takes place off screen. No more public executions or lashings. Instead, try to sanitize the attempted vengeance by consigning it to the courts and the correctional system. A prison movie offers a peak behind the curtain, a window into a world where the vengeance is operative. Quite often, this occurs in ways that reverse the expected social script. Instead of good guys vs. bad guys, we may find shades of grey, or even an outright reversal, as in Shawshank, where the prisoners seek redemption and the guards fall from grace. If this rhetoric of reversal seems eerily familiar, it may be because the narrative of the wrongful arrest, detention, and punishment of Jesus is so embedded in our culture. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is not on Prisonflicks.com, but maybe it should be.