# best prison films/tv shows



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

short eyes:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076706/
oz: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118421/

there are many other great films - but what are your favourites?

NB if you say shawshank redemption, clear off out of this thread forever. you have forfeited your right to post, as you are clearly without a clue.


----------



## 100% masahiko (Oct 21, 2010)

Show - Prisoner C Block H.

Film  - Is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest a considered a prison film?
Similar themes n'all...


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

i think we can allow it, though mental hospital dramas are themselves a genre


----------



## Reno (Oct 21, 2010)

It's not a genre I have a great affinity for, but my favourite is probably A Prophet.

Despite having dissed Bresson on another thread recently, his A Man Escaped is pretty good.

I also like the very strange Peter Ibbetson from 1935, in which a prisoner, played by Gary Cooper who lives most of his live in jail, escapes at night into a dream world. The film was a fave with the surrealists.

I remember an Australian mini-series with a very young Nicole Kidman called Bangkok Hilton, which I really liked.

Then there is Jonathan Demme's Caged Heat....


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Oct 21, 2010)

Buscemi had a good go at a prison film with The Animal Factory.

I liked Bad Boys with Sean Penn.

Is Scum a prison film? 

Gonna give mention to Oz, even though it's a TV show. Still good.

I do like Cool Hand Luke too and Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

a lot of these i haven't seen - keep em coming, while i fire up the lovefilm list


----------



## N_igma (Oct 21, 2010)

Porridge
Hunger
Does Papillon count?


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

of course papillon and scum count!


----------



## DotCommunist (Oct 21, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Buscemi had a good go at a prison film with The Animal Factory.
> 
> I liked Bad Boys with Sean Penn.
> 
> ...


 
of course it it. One of the better. ones imo.


----------



## Reno (Oct 21, 2010)

The French _Malefique_ is a great hybrid of prison and Lovecraftian horror film. It's one of my favourite horror films of the last decade.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

N_igma said:


> Hunger


 my cat does a cracking bobby sands impersonation:


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

Reno said:


> The French _Malefique_ is a great hybrid of prison and Lovecraftian horror film. It's one of my favourite horror films of the last decade.


 i forgot about that - it's pretty spooky innit?


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Oct 21, 2010)

I remember a film called on the yard from the 70s which was a bit gritty.

I'm sure there was a film called attica as well with Yaphet Kotto. 

McVicar was enjoyable enough. Watched that a lot as a kid.

I loved Mean Machine as a kid too because I loved Burt Reynolds as a kid.

There's a film called the experiment which I haven't seen and another called the dog house. Not sure what they're like.

Steer well fucking clear of shitshank and the green pile!

Prophet was good, but I felt it had been cut down from a much longer film.

I never really enjoyed Papillion, but some great performances.

Midnight Express? Bit melodramatic?

As mention Bangkok Hilton is worth tracking down.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

anyone seen the hill or breaker morant?


----------



## Reno (Oct 21, 2010)

A guilty pleasue of mine is the TV series Banged Up Abroad. Like Bangkok Hilton, but for real. Every week.


----------



## PandaCola (Oct 21, 2010)

The Channel 4 series Buried was superb: great cast and hard hitting storylines. For some unknown reason C4 never got behind it and it is all but forgotten. I've never been able to find it on DVD either


----------



## scifisam (Oct 21, 2010)

Prison Break was stunningly good TV for its first two seasons, though it wasn't in a prison after the first season.


----------



## Melinda (Oct 21, 2010)

Cool Hand Luke

Prison Break Season 1 

Prophet

These two are possibly slightly tenuous: American History X, Con Air.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Oct 21, 2010)




----------



## southside (Oct 21, 2010)

Shawshank Redemption is a really brilliant film and I suppose I'm being obvious by metioning it but its great and recieved critical acclaim as one of the best films ever made and I think it probably is.

Cool hand luke gets my vote.

Penitentiary (1979) not great but ok.


----------



## southside (Oct 21, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> anyone seen the hill or breaker morant?



The hill stars sean connery and roy kinnear.  Its good.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

southside said:


> Shawshank Redemption is a really brilliant film and I suppose I'm being obvious by metioning it but its great and recieved critical acclaim as one of the best films ever made and I think it probably is.


 
get out


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 21, 2010)

southside said:


> The hill stars sean connery and roy kinnear.  Its good.


 invalid post. writer is disqualified.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Oct 21, 2010)




----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Oct 21, 2010)




----------



## starfish (Oct 21, 2010)

Ghosts of the Civil Dead. An Australian prison film that i saw years ago is pretty fucking brutal.


----------



## badlands (Oct 21, 2010)

Birdman of Alcatraz


----------



## Reno (Oct 21, 2010)

southside said:


> Shawshank Redemption is a really brilliant film and I suppose I'm being obvious by metioning it but its great and recieved critical acclaim as one of the best films ever made and I think it probably is.



The Shawnshank Redemption never "received critical acclaim as one of the best films ever made". It got positive reviews from the more mainstream end of the press when it came out, but it's become "a classic" for the generation who believes that film history started with Star Wars. For anybody who's seen a prison film from the 30s or 40s it's an old hat. Somehow it has become the film men feel they are allowed to get weepy over and which makes them feel emotionally evolved. It's still transparently manipulative, a bag of old prison film cliches and ultimately it amounts to no more but a shaggy dog story full of credibility gaps.

If you want to see a real classic of the genre, check out I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang from 1932.


----------



## Voley (Oct 21, 2010)

The Hill's very good from what I remember of it. Sean Connery and Roy Kinnear in a military prison. Always liked Porridge, particularly the episode where the judge who sent Ronnie Barker down ends up sharing a cell with him. I watched McVicar again recently and it was proper shit although I enjoyed it when it came out. It does contain the line 'You look a right cunt in all that get up" though so it's not without some charm.


----------



## starfish (Oct 21, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Buscemi had a good go at a prison film with The Animal Factory.


 
Would like to see that. I read the book about a year ago, didnt know theyd made a film.


----------



## Voley (Oct 21, 2010)

starfish said:


> Ghosts of the Civil Dead. An Australian prison film that i saw years ago is pretty fucking brutal.


 
That's the one with Nick Cave isn't it? Pretty good iirc.


----------



## starfish (Oct 21, 2010)

NVP said:


> That's the one with Nick Cave isn't it? Pretty good iirc.


 
It is. Couldnt remember the name of it & asked on here ages ago. Threads probably still floating around.


----------



## southside (Oct 21, 2010)

Reno said:


> The Shawnshank Redemption never "received critical acclaim as one of the best films ever made". It got positive reviews from the more mainstream end of the press when it came out, but it's become "a classic" for the generation who believes that film history started with Star Wars. For anybody who's seen a prison film from the 30s or 40s it's an old hat. Somehow it has become the film men feel they are allowed to get weepy over and which makes them feel emotionally evolved. It's still transparently manipulative, a bag of old prison film cliches and ultimately it amounts to no more but a shaggy dog story full of credibility gaps.
> 
> If you want to see a real classic of the genre, check out I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang from 1932.



On who's authority are you telling me this drivel, Yours?

I shot a man in Reno once, just to watch him die.


----------



## Reno (Oct 21, 2010)

southside said:


> On who's authority are you telling me this drivel, Yours?
> 
> I shot a man in Reno once, just to watch him die.



Common knowledge for anybody who takes an interest in film beyond the most superficial level.


----------



## southside (Oct 21, 2010)

Reno said:


> Common knowledge for anybody who takes an interest in film beyond the most superficial level.



Bullshit.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Oct 21, 2010)

southside said:


> Bullshit.


 
Shawshank is kind of a joke, though.


----------



## Reno (Oct 21, 2010)

southside said:


> Bullshit.



Sorry, anybody who tries to tell me that one is a classic has lost all credibility when it comes to film.


----------



## southside (Oct 21, 2010)

Reno said:


> Sorry, anybody who tries to tell me that one is a classic has lost all credibility when it comes to film.



I thought it was great.

Oh well it must be shit then.


----------



## littlebabyjesus (Oct 21, 2010)

But 1950s America was a nice place where blacks and whites lived side-by-side in harmony, particularly when they were in the same prison. 

TBF though, I enjoyed it when I saw it, in a Saturday afternoon rainy day movie kind of way.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Oct 21, 2010)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is, in essence, a prison movie.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 21, 2010)

I'd agree with a few of the above (A Prophet, Cool Hand Luke, Papillion) and would throw in Bronson as an interesting and perversly amusing take on a prison movie.


----------



## littlebabyjesus (Oct 21, 2010)

I liked Chopper.


----------



## southside (Oct 21, 2010)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> I'd agree with a few of the above (A Prophet, Cool Hand Luke, Papillion) and would throw in Bronson as an interesting and perversly amusing take on a prison movie.


 
Bronson was on the other day, what a nutter he is.

A good way to get certified sane is to smash up broadmore aparently.


----------



## albionism (Oct 22, 2010)

There was a Channel 4 prison drama a few years back called Buried, starring Lennie James.
It was fantastic television. Apparently, poor ratings put Channel 4 off making a second series.
It would have helped if the fucking idiots hadn't put in on at 10:30 on a monday night.


----------



## blueplume (Oct 22, 2010)

i liked 
Kiss of the spider woman, so string emotionally 
Down by law, for the staggered escape
Shawshank redemption, yeah!


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Oct 22, 2010)

Midnight Express


----------



## Captain Hurrah (Oct 22, 2010)

Reno said:


> The Shawnshank Redemption never "received critical acclaim as one of the best films ever made". It got positive reviews from the more mainstream end of the press when it came out, but it's become "a classic" for the generation who believes that film history started with Star Wars. For anybody who's seen a prison film from the 30s or 40s it's an old hat. Somehow it has become the film men feel they are allowed to get weepy over and which makes them feel emotionally evolved. It's still transparently manipulative, a bag of old prison film cliches and ultimately it amounts to no more but a shaggy dog story full of credibility gaps.



Ouch!  But true.


----------



## killer b (Oct 22, 2010)

the 1979 porridge movie is surely a classic of the genre?


----------



## Captain Hurrah (Oct 22, 2010)

I remember Stir Crazy, from when I was a kid, but I also remember it not being very good.  So there.


----------



## DotCommunist (Oct 22, 2010)

football factory is funny but shite. Danny Dire is in it. Worth at least one watch. Vinnie Jones lol


----------



## albionism (Oct 22, 2010)

For those who missed it first time around.

http://www.youtube.com/show/buried

Can't watch it in my region, but for those
of you who can, you will not be disappointed.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 22, 2010)

PandaCola said:


> The Channel 4 series Buried was superb: great cast and hard hitting storylines. For some unknown reason C4 never got behind it and it is all but forgotten. I've never been able to find it on DVD either


 
Depressing, unrelenting, powerful series, that one.

I'd recommend _A Sense Of Freedom_, about Glaswegian hard man Jimmy Boyle and directed by _The Long Good Friday_'s John MacKenzie. Puts stylistic and superficial efforts like _Bronson_ in their place. Sort of a less macho _McVicar_ (the film, not the man).

Also, Rupert Wyatt's _The Escapist_, with old lag Brian Cox reluctantly heading up a team of early release-minded cons.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 22, 2010)

DotCommunist said:


> football factory is funny but shite. Danny Dire is in it. Worth at least one watch. Vinnie Jones lol


 
Do you ever read what you've written before you press 'POST'?


----------



## Voley (Oct 22, 2010)

DaveCinzano said:


> I'd recommend _A Sense Of Freedom_, about Glaswegian hard man Jimmy Boyle and directed by _The Long Good Friday_'s John MacKenzie. Puts stylistic and superficial efforts like _Bronson_ in their place. Sort of a less macho _McVicar_ (the film, not the man).


 
Never heard of that one, Dave, thanks for that. Seen some good films from your recommendations before (Villian springs to mind).


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 22, 2010)

littlebabyjesus said:


> I liked Chopper.


 
Those Pentridge scenes were pretty potent. You may be interested in _Everynight.. Everynight_, which is also set in H Division and based around the grim treatment of prisoners (focused around a semi-fictionalised version of Christopher Dale Flannery).

Fills in a few of the blanks for those interested in _Underbelly_, _Blue Murder_, _Chopper_ etc.


----------



## albionism (Oct 22, 2010)

PandaCola said:


> The Channel 4 series Buried was superb: great cast and hard hitting storylines. For some unknown reason C4 never got behind it and it is all but forgotten. I've never been able to find it on DVD either


 
Yes indeed....Forgive me, i did not see your post before i too mentioned Buried. Would love to own it on DVD,
 as i cannot access it on the Channel 4 website. Best British television since Holding On.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Oct 22, 2010)

Shawshank Redemption is fucking shit, and the Green Mile.

How about Two way Stretch with Peter Sellers?


----------



## blueplume (Oct 22, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Shawshank Redemption is fucking shit,


 
disagree!!! just the end might have been different, maybe as in the book; 
remember of Morgan Freeman who was so right and the glimpse with Gilda's projection


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Oct 22, 2010)

blueplume said:


> disagree!!!



Good for you.

It's a chick-flick for men. Replace Freeman and Robbins with Midler and Hershey and you've got Beaches in Prison.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 22, 2010)

blueplume said:


> disagree!!! just the end might have been different, maybe as in the book;
> remember of Morgan Freeman who was so right and the glimpse with Gilda's projection


 
get off this thread


----------



## 1927 (Oct 22, 2010)

Kind Hearts and Coronets.


----------



## Reno (Oct 22, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Good for you.
> 
> It's a chick-flick for men. Replace Freeman and Robbins with Midler and Hershey and you've got Beaches in Prison.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Oct 22, 2010)

Warden "This is the worst case of anal rape this Prison has ever seen!"


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 22, 2010)

albionism said:


> There was a Channel 4 prison drama a few years back called Buried, starring Lennie James.
> It was fantastic television. Apparently, poor ratings put Channel 4 off making a second series.
> It would have helped if the fucking idiots hadn't put in on at 10:30 on a monday night.


yes, i'd forgotten about that, really powerful series and lennie james was superb in it.





DaveCinzano said:


> Depressing, unrelenting, powerful series, that one.
> 
> I'd recommend _A Sense Of Freedom_, about Glaswegian hard man Jimmy Boyle and directed by _The Long Good Friday_'s John MacKenzie. Puts stylistic and superficial efforts like _Bronson_ in their place. Sort of a less macho _McVicar_ (the film, not the man).


the book by jimmy boyle is also worth a read. not sure if i've seen the film so can't comment on your comparison, but i must say, i didn't think bronson was a particularly superifical movie tbh.

something else that came to me last night was McVicar with Roger Daltrey, i remember watching it as a teenager and being very impressed with him chucking his tray about shouting, "you know my name and you gave me my fucking number!!!"  haven't seen it in years so not sure how it's stood up to the test of time tho....


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 22, 2010)

was talking about the grass arena with discokermit the other night - anyone seen that?


----------



## deadringer (Oct 22, 2010)

Reno said:


> A guilty pleasue of mine is the TV series Banged Up Abroad. Like Bangkok Hilton, but for real. Every week.



i shit myself just watching it at home!



DotCommunist said:


> football factory is funny but shite. Danny Dire is in it. Worth at least one watch. Vinnie Jones lol



eh?!!


----------



## deadringer (Oct 22, 2010)

as a kid i loved tango and cash. bit cheesy now tho!


----------



## Reno (Oct 22, 2010)

I rather like Gillian Armstrong's first US film, Mrs Soffel. It was based on the real case of a prisoner warden's wife falling in love with a death row inmate in early 20th century Pittsburgh. She sprang him and his brother from jail and went on the run with them. It starred Diane Keaton and a very young looking Mel Gibson. In terms of the way it depicts the industrial revolution it has a similar atmosphere to Lynch's The Elephant Man, though it's more of a doomed romance.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 22, 2010)

ooh, no one's mentioned genet's un chanson d'amour. saw it at college. the students weren't expecting what they saw!


----------



## Reno (Oct 22, 2010)

Cube. All the characters are named after famous prisons too.


----------



## blueplume (Oct 23, 2010)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Good for you.
> 
> It's a chick-flick for men. Replace Freeman and Robbins with Midler and Hershey and you've got Beaches in Prison.


 
Funny your answer!
I do remember another one, In the name of the father, Jim Sheridan, into the Irish conflict: very good one'

By the way, OO are you still with us?


----------



## blueplume (Oct 23, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> ooh, no one's mentioned genet's un chanson d'amour. saw it at college. the students weren't expecting what they saw!


 
Un chant d'amour: gosh, you saw it! So sexual and artistic


----------



## PandaCola (Oct 24, 2010)

The best prison films this year was Toy Story 3.


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Oct 24, 2010)

DotCommunist said:


> football factory is funny but shite. Danny Dire is in it. Worth at least one watch. Vinnie Jones lol


 
surely you're thinking of The Mean Machine?


----------



## waylon (Oct 24, 2010)

PandaCola said:


> The Channel 4 series Buried was superb: great cast and hard hitting storylines. For some unknown reason C4 never got behind it and it is all but forgotten. I've never been able to find it on DVD either



Buried was excellent, pissed all over that Oz bullshit with it's annoying-as-fuck narrator, Dreadlock Shorty.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 24, 2010)

that's bollocks fella, the greek chorus makes the show - brillliant feature.


----------



## thriller (Oct 25, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> short eyes:
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076706/



Man, I love prison movies. Never heard of Short Eyes, but just bought it on Ebay. 

Cheers


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 28, 2010)

On the ones-to-avoid list:

_Green Street 2_ (Thinks it's _The Football Factory_ meets _Brubaker_, but most definitely is not)


----------



## YouSir (Oct 28, 2010)

waylon said:


> Buried was excellent, pissed all over that Oz bullshit with it's annoying-as-fuck narrator, Dreadlock Shorty.


 
Buried seemed incredibly Oz like to me when I went through the series, modernised and slightly more plausible (in parts) but the same approach and some fairly similar characters floating about.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 28, 2010)

DaveCinzano said:


> On the ones-to-avoid list:
> 
> _Green Street 2_ (Thinks it's _The Football Factory_ meets _Brubaker_, but most definitely is not)


 
i loved that - great for watching with friends when pissed.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 28, 2010)

You are a troubled young man.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 28, 2010)

_
Counsellor Troi was not best pleased with the Starfleet HR department's redeployment programme following her voluntary redundancy..._


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 28, 2010)

don't you enjoy being appalled sometimes?
the scenes in the californian sunbleached dusty prison yards that are supposed to be in an english prison are hilarious, as well as the orange jumpsuited oh so english hispanic and hells angel inmates


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 28, 2010)

DaveCinzano said:


> View attachment 12208
> _
> Counsellor Troi was not best pleased with the Starfleet HR department's redeployment programme following her voluntary redundancy..._


 at least she was actually english.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 28, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> don't you enjoy being appalled sometimes?



Yes I do, but this...



Orang Utan said:


> the scenes in the californian sunbleached dusty prison yards that are supposed to be in an english prison are hilarious, as well as the orange jumpsuited oh so english hispanic and hells angel inmates



...was an appalling too far!


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 28, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> don't you enjoy being appalled sometimes?



Thinking about it, I've seen (and paid for) a right run of stinkers lately: _Skeleton Coast_, _Daylight Robbery_, _The Crew_... There's too many good films out there for me not to get annoyed when I realise I've wasted my time and money on something that thinks it's better than it is


----------



## The Octagon (Oct 29, 2010)

Series One of Prison Break was excellent, just ignore everything after....


----------



## OneStrike (Oct 29, 2010)

Das Experiment is excellent and set in a prison, i hope it still qualifies.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 29, 2010)

Smurker said:


> Das Experiment is excellent and set in a prison, i hope it still qualifies.


 
Ah yes, I do rather like that!


----------



## DaveCinzano (Oct 31, 2010)

If we're including prisoner of war camp stuff, then Billy Wilder's _Stalag 17_ is something I can watch over and over. William Holden as an out-for-himself, black marketeering antihero of an American PoW (cf Malkovich in _Empire Of The Sun_, George Segal in _King Rat_). Comedy goons. Daring escape attempts. Cheerful non-comms making the most of their incarceration. Red Cross parcels and cheesecake pin-ups. All your favourite PoW film tropes (most there for the first time).


----------



## DaveCinzano (Nov 3, 2010)

N_igma said:


> Hunger


 
_H3_ is another very strong film based around the hunger strikes at the Maze.

_A Further Gesture_ started off with a gaol break.


----------



## Voley (Nov 12, 2010)

Just watched 'Prophet.' Fucking great film.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 13, 2010)

*A* Prophet


----------



## DotCommunist (Nov 13, 2010)

could have stood some editing, that.


----------



## dlx1 (Nov 13, 2010)

Porridge
Just started to watch Colditz  yesterday channel 


films 
The Last Castle - Robert Redford
Brubaker - Robert Redford
Escape from Alcatraz - Clint


----------



## DaveCinzano (Nov 13, 2010)

William Peter Blatty's _The Ninth Configuration_ is sort of a prison film, set in a castle housing a secure psychiatric hospital for military veterans. It is definitely worth catching. Stacy Keach is particularly impressive.


----------



## ooermissus (Nov 14, 2010)

Orang Utan said:


> anyone seen the hill or breaker morant?


 
The Hill is certainly a Prison film (with an excellent Roy Kinnear ) but not Breaker Morant which is a warfilm,excellent though it is.

Oz is by far my Favourite


----------



## DaveCinzano (Nov 14, 2010)

Smurker said:


> Das Experiment is excellent and set in a prison, i hope it still qualifies.


 
Has anyone seen the remake? Any good?


----------



## waylon (Nov 14, 2010)

YouSir said:


> Buried seemed incredibly Oz like to me when I went through the series, modernised and slightly more plausible (in parts) but the same approach and some fairly similar characters floating about.



Yeah but  there was no dreadlock shorty in buried.
s


----------



## Bakunin (Nov 15, 2010)

ooermissus said:


> The Hill is certainly a Prison film (with an excellent Roy Kinnear ) but not Breaker Morant which is a warfilm,excellent though it is.
> 
> Oz is by far my Favourite



Ah, Breaker Morant, a forgotten gem starring the quintessentially British hardman, Mr Edward Woodward Esquire. I bumped into Mr Woodward during my secondary school days (he had a house in Calstock and I went to school in Tavistock only a few miles away), quite a big burly chap as I recall. It's been said of him that, for all his scarily cold presence onscreen he used to look the other way if anyone so much as swatted a wasp in his presence.

I recall The Equaliser being a gentleman of somewhat less squeamish disposition.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Feb 22, 2011)

Fairly recently I caught two films mentioned on this thread for the first time:



Reno said:


> A Prophet



...which was superb; and



dlx1 said:


> The Last Castle



...which was terrible.

Anyway, anyone think that _A Prisão_ (AKA _Bare Behind Bars_) is worth a watch?


----------



## DaveCinzano (Feb 22, 2011)

I forgot to say:

Are there any Japanese prison films worth catching?


----------



## Melinda (Feb 24, 2011)

No mentions of Arrested Development!  A significant portion of the show takes place in jail!


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 24, 2011)

Porridge gets a mention here because it is still funny and if you get nicked and sent to pentonville they have Ronnie Barker, in character as Fletch, giving you a 'welcome to the big house' spiel. On a touchscreen terminal in the pre-processing cells. You touch the flag to get the language you want and then Ronnie goes on one. Total cognitive dissonance.


----------



## Melinda (Feb 24, 2011)

I dont think Ive seen a single episode of Porridge.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 24, 2011)

its very tom n jerry in some ways, and gentle in the manner of older sit comedies. Still rate him more in Open All Hours though


----------



## Melinda (Feb 24, 2011)

Never seen that either. 
Now there's an idea for a Pogofish-baiting thread, iconic tv shows you've never seen.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 24, 2011)

DaveCinzano said:


> I forgot to say:
> 
> Are there any Japanese prison films worth catching?


 
merry christmas mr lawrence? or don't prisoner of war films count?


----------



## DaveCinzano (Feb 24, 2011)

Orang Utan said:


> merry christmas mr lawrence? or don't prisoner of war films count?


 
Oh, I think they do count, certainly on this thread, though I wasn't really thinking of PoW stuff when I asked about Japanese prison flicks. I was curious as to how Japanese film deals with 'deviancy', punishment, recidivism ,rehabilitation etc, whether (or rather to what degree) the tropes of gaolhouse cinema we're so familiar with through the prism of occidental culture are the same there, that sort of thing.

A curiosity born of recent discussion of class consciousness/conflict in Japan, and that when I reflected on it I couldn't recall having seen any Japanese prison films (WW2 PoW-related ones notwithstanding).


----------



## Sweet FA (Feb 24, 2011)

Has anyone seen Dog Pound? Mixed reviews and trailer has scenes suspiciously reminiscent of Scum


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 24, 2011)

How are we defining 'prison'?

The Prisoner is the best tv show. Not about jail but it is his prison and the narrative is primarily about escape.

"get busy living, or get busy dying"  

Moving swiftly into eighties pow tv shows, how shit was Tenko?


----------



## Part 2 (Feb 24, 2011)

Don't think I've seen R mentioned in the thread. 

Danish prison film very very grim, maybe like A Prophet without the Hollwood ending.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Mar 2, 2011)

'The Prisoner's Tale' from GF Newman's _Law & Order_ four-parter is definitely worth your time (as are the other three plays leading up to it).


----------



## DaveCinzano (Mar 2, 2011)

It has Pete Beale from _EastEnders_ as a Norf Lahndahn slag fitted up for a blag he ain't done by tainted copper Charlie from _EastEnders_. 

Vince Cable Ken Campbell is brilliant as a bent solicitor.


----------



## Psychonaut (Mar 2, 2011)

PandaCola said:


> The Channel 4 series Buried was superb: great cast and hard hitting storylines. For some unknown reason C4 never got behind it and it is all but forgotten. I've never been able to find it on DVD either



its on 4od


----------



## DaveCinzano (Dec 7, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> It's a chick-flick for men. Replace Freeman and Robbins with Midler and Hershey and you've got Beaches in Prison.


 Be careful - talk like that too much and you'll have salivating movie producers banging on your door asking you to pitch your ideas


----------



## DaveCinzano (Dec 7, 2015)

Chip Barm said:


> Don't think I've seen R mentioned in the thread.
> 
> Danish prison film very very grim, maybe like A Prophet without the Hollwood ending.


Didn't notice this recco before - looks eminently up my alley, ta 

R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010) - IMDb
R (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------

