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".
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
7.4/10
Director: Hector Babenco
Starring: William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga
Two prisoners in a Latin American jail, one a Spartan revolutionary leader (Raul Julia), the other a movie-obsessed homosexual (Best Actor Academy Awa... Read more
Cool Hand Luke ( Blu-ray ) (1967)
8.1/10
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Starring: Dennis Hopper, George Kennedy, Harry Dean Stanton, Jo Van Fleet, Paul Newman, Ro...
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
Figures In A Landscape (1970)
6.7/10
Director: Joseph Losey
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Robert Shaw, Henry Woolf, Pamela Brown
In an unnamed totalitarian country, two escaped convicts (Robert Shaw and Malcolm McDowell) are on the run, hunted by a sinister black helicopter. Th... Read more
Escape From New York ( Blu-ray ) (1981)
7.2/10
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Donald Pleasence, Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Kurt Ru...
1997. New York City is a maximum security prison. When the President's plane crash lands within it's walls, he is taken prisoner by criminals demandin... Read more
Papillon (2017)
7.1/10
Director: Michael Noer
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Yorick van Wageningen, Roland Moller, Tommy Flanagan...
The epic story of Henri "Papillon" Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld who is framed for murder and condemned to life in the notorio... Read more
Escape from Alcatraz ( Blu-ray ) (1979)
7.6/10
Director: Don Siegel
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom
Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel re-team for their fifth film in this fascinating account of the only three men ever to escape from the infamous... 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
Shot Caller (2017)
7.3/10
Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Lake Bell, Jeffrey Donovan, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jon Bernthal,...
Recently released from prison, a gang member finds himself forced by his leaders to orchestrate a major crime with a rival gang. Read more
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
Call Northside 777 (1948)
7.4/10
Director: Henry Hathaway
Starring: James Stewart, Lee J Cobb, Richard Conte, Helen Walker
When a classified ad grabs the attention of Chicago Times editor Brian Kelly (Lee J. Cobb), he sends ace reporter P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) to dig u... Read more