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".
Sweet Country (Blu-Ray) (2017)
7.4/10
Director: Warwick Thornton
Starring: Bryan Brown, Matt Day, Sam Neill, Thomas M Wright, Tremayne Doolan, Anni Finster...
Australian western set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a... Read more
Tango and Cash (1989)
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Teri Hatcher
Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell star in this slick formulaic police thriller about two supercops framed by a megalomanic drug dealer. Read more
The Big Bird Cage (1972)
6.1/10
Director: Jack Hill
Starring: Pam Grier, Anitra Ford, Candice Roman, Carol Speed
Cheap drive-in thrills abound as Terry (Anitra Ford) is kidnapped during a nightclub shootout and thrown into a concentration camp for women. In the c... Read more
The Boxer (1997)
7.1/10
Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson, Brian Cox
'In the Name of the Father's' Daniel Day-Lewis and director Jim Sheridan reteam on the story of an Irish Boxer imprisoned 14 years for his ties to the... Read more
The Boxer (Blu-ray) (1997)
7/10
Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson, Brian Cox
'In the Name of the Father's' Daniel Day-Lewis and director Jim Sheridan reteam on the story of an Irish Boxer imprisoned 14 years for his ties to the... Read more
The Chamber (1996)
6/10
Director: James Foley
Starring: Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway
Chris O'Donnell plays a young lawyer who attempts to get a stay of execution for this grandfather (Gene Hackman), a racist KKK member and convicted mu... Read more
The Defiant Ones (1958)
7.7/10
Director: Stanley Kramer
Starring: Theodore Bikel, Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier
Nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones broke new ground by delivering its message of racial toler... Read more
The Escapist (2008)
6.8/10
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Starring: Brian Cox, Damian Lewis, Joseph Fiennes, Seu Jorge, Liam Cunningham, Dominic Coo...
Managing to breathe some fresh life into the prison break genre, this rousing thriller employs a flashback/flashforward narrative that keeps the suspe... Read more
The Exonerated (2005)
6.7/10
Director: Bob Balaban
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Delroy Lindo, Aidan Quinn
Adapted from the highly acclaimed off-Broadway play, this film tells six true stories of death row inmates proven innocent and released after serving... Read more
The Experiment (2010)
6.4/10
Director: Paul Scheuring
Starring: Adrien Brody, Fisher Stevens, Forest Whitaker, Clifton Collins Jr., Cam Gigandet
Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker star in this mind-shattering psychological thriller inspired by the infamous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Selecte... Read more