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".
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
8.1/10
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Starring: Dennis Hopper, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Paul Newman, Harry Dean Stanton
A taut honest drama greatly aided by Stuart Rosenberg's direction and a marvellously controlled and artful performance by Paul Newman as a gutsy priso... Read more
Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988)
7.1/10
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Dave Field, Mike Bishop, Chris De Rose, Nick Cave
An explosive prison film set in an awful warning near-future. Stoked by the authorities who want to trigger police-state powers, unrest grows in a hig... Read more
A Clockwork Orange ( Blu-ray ) (1971)
8.3/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Miriam Karlin
Stanley Kubrick's dark, dazzling, ironic tale of an ultra-violent future filled with marauding gangs, decaying cities and bizarre technologies. Follow... Read more
Sherrybaby (2006)
6.6/10
Director: Laurie Collyer
Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brad William Henke, Danny Trejo, Bridget Barkan, Giancarlo Es...
Maggie Gyllenhaal was nominated for a Golden Globe for her extraordinary performance as Sherry, an ex-con trying to get her life back on track and est... Read more
Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)
Director: Shunya Ito
Starring: Meiko Kaji
Experimental and exploitation cinema meet in this subversive feature. The film follows a woman named Matsu (a.k.a. "Scorpion"), wrongly imprisoned aft... 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
American History X (1998)
8.5/10
Director: Tony Kaye
Starring: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Fairuza Balk, Stacy Keach, Elliott Gould, Avery B...
A hard-hitting drama about former skinhead Edward Norton who, having been released from prison after serving three years for the shooting of two black... Read more
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
8/10
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft
A classic Warner Bros 'urban crime drama' of two kids from the wrong side of the tracks - Hell's Kitchen in New York; one becomes a priest (Pat O'Brie... Read more
In the Name of the Father (1993)
8.1/10
Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson, Pete Postlethwaite
"In the Name of the Father" tells the true saga of Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis), a petty thief in strife-torn '70s Belfast. After angering the IRA... Read more
The Testament of Dr Mabuse (1933)
7.9/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke
In this sequel to "Dr Mabuse, The Gambler", Dr Mabuse has been in prison for ten years, plotting his master crimes of chaos and destruction, while hi... Read more