Prison movies

[DrJay]

Just got Papillon from Netflix for me and the kids to watch (my 12 yo son will love it, my 10 yo daughter will be disgusted) and realized that one could do a "prison movie month" as there are a lot of good ones out there. The one-minute brain scan yields:

Papillon
The Green Mile
The Shawshank Redemption
Andersonville
Midnight Express
Stalag 17
The Great Escape
Bridge on the River Kwai
Cool Hand Luke
The Longest Yard
Escape From Alcatraz

I'm sure there are many, many more.

[Pego]

La Grande Illusion from WWI (a prisoner camp) is a magnificent movie.

[KDFINE]

The Hill
To End All Wars
The Wooden Horse
The One That Got Away
Birdman of Alcatraz
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
I Was a Fugitive on a Georgia Chain Gang
The Colditz Story
The Long Way Home (or something sounding like that, about escaping from the Gulag. The truth of the story is in dispute. Starred Colin Farrell and Ed Harris).

There have been a few movies about the Alcatraz uprising of 1946 (or '47).

[gh]

Nothing can touch the TV series Oz; but then, you can't show the kids that one until they're at least 47.

[Friar]

Not Prison movies per se but ended up that way (sort of). Angels with Dirty Faces (the chair) Paths of Glory (firing squad) had pretty jolting cap' punishment scenes for a 10? y.o. to see.

[KDFINE]

After I finished my earlier post I noticed that "Holes" was on cable earlier tonight. I'd guess that your 12 and 10 year olds have seen it already, but if not they might enjoy it.

Then again there was also Brubaker.

Any Laurel and Hardy "prison" movies?

gh mentions TV's Oz. Of course if we get into TV, "The Prisoner" has to be added.

[gm]

First R movie I ever saw - Jackson County Jail

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074706/

Errrrr.....

[j-a-m]

Once you extend it to TV shows, there's of course Prison Break.

[Conor Dary]

No one mentioned 1947's Brute Force with Burt Lancaster and Hume Cronyn as a psychotic guard.

And of course White Heat with our own Jim Thorpe in a small role.

[jeremyp]

For those of you who don't mind subtitles take a look at "A Prophet" a French movie about a small time crook rising to the top of the food chain. Excellent.

[jeremyp]

Once you extend it to TV shows, there's of course Prison Break.

Which fell apart as soon as they broke out.

[DrJay]

After I finished my earlier post I noticed that "Holes" was on cable earlier tonight. I'd guess that your 12 and 10 year olds have seen it already, but if not they might enjoy it.

I don't think they've seen that one, neither have I, but the IMDB page on it looked good. To add, there is a limit to what I let them watch, but they have seen a lot of movies that many parents would not allow. The Godfather movies, Blazing Saddles, Saving Private Ryan come to mind. My son wants to watch Animal House, I told him give it a few years. I knew he'd be OK with "rough" movies or movie scenes at about age four. We had "The Fellowship of the Ring" on the DVD player, prepping my parents to go out to the second or third LOTR film at the theater. I had forgotten about the scene at the end of "Fellowship" where Aragon runs through the orc leader with his blade, then beheads him as he stands there, with the head bouncing to the ground. He's on the floor in front of the sofa and I'm thinking "ooops! He shouldn't be watching that!" when, after a few seconds of silence, he pipes up and says, "Well THAT worked out nicely." Ahhhh! We're OK here.

[gh]

I've got a favorite prison movie that's also one of my favorite Xmas movies. Can anybody guess which one falls into that arcane pairing of categories?

Among the leads, one guy won two Oscars, another won one, and a third was nominated twice.

[gh]

and while I'm asking questions, who poses this one in what film?

"Joey, have you ever been in a... in a Turkish prison? "

[Conor Dary]

and while I'm asking questions, who poses this one in what film?

"Joey, have you ever been in a... in a Turkish prison? "

The brother of Marshal Matt Dillon.

[DrJay]

and while I'm asking questions, who poses this one in what film?

"Joey, have you ever been in a... in a Turkish prison? "

Peter Graves in "Airplane".

[bad hammy]

I've got a favorite prison movie that's also one of my favorite Xmas movies. Can anybody guess which one falls into that arcane pairing of categories?

Among the leads, one guy won two Oscars, another won one, and a third was nominated twice.

My add is one of my favorite prison movies, now on Netflix: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawerence. Kind of like Bridge on the River Kwai without the bridge. David Bowie as the main prisoner, Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto as the prison commander. Both surprising good in the rolls. Don't know anything about the Oscar connection.

[Flumpy]

I've got a favorite prison movie that's also one of my favorite Xmas movies. Can anybody guess which one falls into that arcane pairing of categories?

Among the leads, one guy won two Oscars, another won one, and a third was nominated twice.

With my extensive and usually pointless Oscar knowledge I shall work this out.

Only the following have 2 Oscars........

Spencer Tracy
Frederic March
Gary Cooper
Marlon Brando
Dustin Hoffman
Tom Hanks
Daniel Day Lewis
Sean Penn

If you include supporting ones as well.

Anthony Quinn
Peter Ustinov
Melvyn Douglas
Gene Hackman
Jack Lemmon
Robert De Niro
Kevin Spacey
Denzil Washington
Michael Caine

Walter Brennan and Jack Nicholson have 3 I'm assuming they don't count.

After 5 mins research I'm going with.......

We're No Angels (1955)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27re_No ... 55_film%29

Peter Ustinov - 2 Oscars (1960 - Spartacus, 1964 - Topkapi)
Humphrey Bogart - 1 Oscar (1951 - The African Queen)
Basil Rathbone - 2 Oscar Noms (1936 - Romeo and Juliet, 1938 - If I Were King)

What's the prize???

[Flumpy]

Oh and the best prison movie is obviously 'Caged'.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caged

The cast of which received 11 Oscar nomination in total throughout their careers but only won 1 between them

[trevorp]

There's also Kiss of the Spider Woman. William Hurt is one of those actors who had what it takes to get to the absolute top of the movie-star tree but never quite made it for some reason; James Garner was another.

[ExCoastRanger]

I generally avoid prison movies or TV plotlines that revolve around prisons because they make me squirm on several levels -- claustrophobic pangs just one of them. Same with stories on submarines, caves and folks trapped in mines, sinking ships and burning buildings.

They're the kind of movies I watch bit-by-bit on TV, almost in reverse, until I'm satisfied they won't make me squirm too much and have an end I can live with (I do like happy endings). But I've seen over half the flicks on DrJay's list plus others mentioned. "Shawshank Redemption" has a way of sucking me in time after time. "Cool Hand Luke" is well, cool.

Off the top of my head, to the discussion I'll add "American History X" (not strictly a prison film), one of the very early film versions of "Count of Monte Cristo" (impressed me when I saw it on TV as a kid), and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (seemed like a prison to me).

[EPelle]

The Story of Ricky
Blood in, blood out
Bad Boys
Felon
The Last Castle

[Master Po]

And to add to this distinguished list, there is Con Air. (I am not sure what sort of emoticons to add.)

[dj]

Woman of the Dunes

I think there are at least two types of prison movies. Those that are really about escapes, some of which really ought to be called action-adventure, and those that are about acquiescing to the numbing tedium of prison life.

And there are a good number of movies which combine the two, with the escape providing the relief to the claustrophobia of what I could call the true prison movies.

In a way, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a prison movie, the raft being the prison, with the return on land upriver being the escape.

[gh]

I've got a favorite prison movie that's also one of my favorite Xmas movies. Can anybody guess which one falls into that arcane pairing of categories?

Among the leads, one guy won two Oscars, another won one, and a third was nominated twice.

With my extensive and usually pointless Oscar knowledge I shall work this out.

Only the following have 2 Oscars........

Spencer Tracy
Frederic March
Gary Cooper
Marlon Brando
Dustin Hoffman
Tom Hanks
Daniel Day Lewis
Sean Penn

If you include supporting ones as well.

Anthony Quinn
Peter Ustinov
Melvyn Douglas
Gene Hackman
Jack Lemmon
Robert De Niro
Kevin Spacey
Denzil Washington
Michael Caine

Walter Brennan and Jack Nicholson have 3 I'm assuming they don't count.

After 5 mins research I'm going with.......

We're No Angels (1955)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27re_No ... 55_film%29

Peter Ustinov - 2 Oscars (1960 - Spartacus, 1964 - Topkapi)
Humphrey Bogart - 1 Oscar (1951 - The African Queen)
Basil Rathbone - 2 Oscar Noms (1936 - Romeo and Juliet, 1938 - If I Were King)

What's the prize???

The satisfaction of a job well done!

[gh]

Does this mean I'm the only one who has ever seen (or will admit to having seen) Chained Heat, with Linda Blair and Sybil Danning?

[tyche]

Combining prison and running, The Jerico Mile. May have been a TV movie?

[Conor Dary]

Does this mean I'm the only one who has ever seen (or will admit to having seen) Chained Heat, with Linda Blair and Sybil Danning?

Isn't that the Jonathan Demme one? No I haven't seen it.

[KDFINE]

GH. I'm glad to see that you had the good taste not to mention the re-make of "We're No Angels" with De Niro and Penn!

[gh]

That's primarily because I had the good taste to begin with not to watch it (you don't toy with the classics!)

[gh]

Does this mean I'm the only one who has ever seen (or will admit to having seen) Chained Heat, with Linda Blair and Sybil Danning?

Isn't that the Jonathan Demme one? No I haven't seen it.

No, Demme made Caged Heat with the Russ Meyer standby, Erica Gavin.

The cover:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071266/

A couple of years after being the had bad girl in Chained Heat, Danning played the warden in Reform School Girls, with Wendy O. Williams. Check out the cover!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091836/

[Flumpy]

The satisfaction of a job well done!

I'm a winner!!!!

Now I need my very own 'Mobot'

[bad hammy]

My add is one of my favorite prison movies, now on Netflix: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawerence. Kind of like Bridge on the River Kwai without the bridge. David Bowie as the main prisoner, Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto as the prison commander. Both surprising good in the rolls. Don't know anything about the Oscar connection.

Watched this again last night for the first time in maybe 15 years. It was goofier in places than I remember but still a good watch. Nice soundtrack by Sakamoto.

[Friar]

ever been in a... in a Turkish prison? "

ME holds up, maybe in part due to Giorgio Moroder's score but it's good. Very diff' than the book though, esp. the escape.