Movies About Being Behind Bars & Life In Prison

Get mad at dem damn eggs Luke!

 

I rather liked "Brawl In Cell Block 99" with Vince Vaughn. Fair warning though, it's got some extremely graphic violence...not for the squeamish.

 

This isn't my favorite category, but given the theme, I do have a favorite:

 

Saw this one. Very weird vibe to it. And I recently watched another one with Vince Vaughn and Mel Gibson called ' Dragged Through Concrete ' which had a weird vibe as well.

 

Jailhouse Rock

 

I've posted this clip before, but it's one a many good scenes from the French film "A Prophet." A half Moroccan half French teenager is sent up to the big house where he comes under the watchful eye of the Corsican mobsters that run the joint. After being forced to commit a murder for them, he eventually gets in a work release program which allows him to leave the prison for 8 hours at a time. The Corsican's have him delivering messages, doing drug deals, everything, while he is in the program. A very good flick.

 

The TV movie called ‘The Glass House’ stayed with me, downbeat and somewhat realistic.

 

if you include Stalag 17 and The Great Escape than you gotta include this-

 

The Hill
Sean Connery

 

Terrific movie. Underrated and almost unknown. One of Connery's best.

 

absolutely Brutal!

 

The Man in the Iron Mask
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Kiss of the Spider-Woman
Pardon Us

 

Humphrey Bogart- We're No Angels. Just in time for Xmas.

 

I saw that as well and really enjoyed. Probably should have been a little shorter but it was very good.

 

Dead Man Walking

 

I recently had occasion to watch a Gene Hackman film from the 70s called THE DOMINO PRINCIPLE, wherein the first 20 minutes or so take place in prison. We see some of Hackman's life behind bars with cellmate Mickey Rooney before the main thrust of the movie takes off.

The Blu-ray is paired with THE CASSANDRA CROSSING on disc, and the movie is available free to Amazon Prime members.

 

Both films are directed by S. Craig Zahler. He is weird. But he's also
a good dramatist and visual stylist. Actors love working with him.

His films as a writer are:

2011 Asylum Blackout
2013 Wraiths of the Broken Land
2018 Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich

His films as a writer, producer and director:

2015 Bone Tomahawk
2017 Brawl In Cell Block 99
2018 Dragged Across Concrete

He has a real talent for contemporary crime and film noir.

His career is ascending and I'm confident his work will prove to be
intensely interesting. [(although Bone Tomahawk is over-rated and
in my well-informed opinion a very poor western)].

 

I always love watching the scene at the end where he reveals Security is the stooge; it's right up there with Robert Young dropping the hammer on Robert Ryan in Crossfire or Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution (even though she's actually dropping it on him).

 

Hear, hear!!!!

 

If we include that then I'm adding-

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

 

The first time I saw this movie and that face slapping Holden gives Peter Graves , I said to myself : " Yes!" . Great scene.

 

Yeah well, sometimes nuthin' can be a real cool hand.