Time in Prison
Or, "Life in The Big House". The prison film has proved to be a popular subject for cinema and many superb titles are represented in this canon of work. Here the human spirit is often shown to thrive in what are generally hostile and oppressive settings. There are the tales of the 'wrongly accused man' protesting his innocence, the 'race against time' thrillers to save the condemned from execution, and the 'prison as hell' where your worst nightmares have come true. There are also the comedies where the familiar prison 'cliches' are parodied, and the science-fiction variants that show the possible shape of things to come...
Now, go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
Pictured: Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in "The Shawshank Redemption".
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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
8.3/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Miriam Karlin, Patrick Magee, Malcolm McDowell, Adrienne Corri
Stanley Kubrick's dark, dazzling, ironic tale of an ultra-violent future filled with marauding gangs, decaying cities and bizarre technologies. Follow... Read more
Before Night Falls (2000)
7.3/10
Director: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp, Michael Wincott, Olivier Martinez, Sean Penn, Andrea...
"Basquiat" director Julian Schnabel brings to the screen another doomed creative genius on the fringes of his society - gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas... Read more
The Experiment (2001)
7.7/10
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Maren Eggert, Christian Berkel
Aka "Das Experiment". An undercover reporter signs up to be a paid volunteer in a two-week scientific research project designed to test the psychologi... Read more
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
9.3/10
Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Tim Robbins, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bello...
Director Frank Darabont's powerful adaptation of the novella by Stephen King stars Tim Robbins as a man serving two life sentences in New England's Sh... Read more
Dead Man Walking (1995)
7.5/10
Director: Tim Robbins
Starring: Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Robert Prosky
Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 bestseller is the basis for this harrowing account of her life's work'; a spiritual advisor for condemned killers awaiting... Read more
Bronson (2008)
7.1/10
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Tom Hardy, Matt King
In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a h... Read more
Scum (1980)
7.6/10
Director: Alan Clarke
Starring: Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, John Judd, Phil Daniels
A controversial and vivid story of the violence and mindless cruelty inside a government borstal. The brutality of the officers creates pressure on th... Read more
Alien 3 (1992)
7/10
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Charles Dance, Charles S Dutton, Lance Henriksen
This third installment in the hit series finds Sigourney Weaver's weary Ripley landing on a dark prison planet inhabited by male criminals, killers an... Read more
Live Flesh (1997)
7.4/10
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Angela Molina, Francesca Neri, Javier Bardem, Liberto Rabal, Penelope Cruz
During a fight with his junkie girlfriend, police intervene and an officer is shot. Six years later the wrongly convicted Victor is shocked to learn h... Read more
I've Loved You So Long (2008)
7.6/10
Director: Philippe Claudel
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grevill, Fre...
An intricate and intriguing French film that stars Kristin Scott Thomas as Juliette, a woman who has just been released from prison. Lea, her much you... Read more