Best Prison Movies...

[PeruvianSkies]

What is everyones favorite movie about prison???

[Kam]

i went with Kwai, but it's a little unfair as that is one of my alltime favorite movies and would probably win in any poll it's in. i'm a huge lean fan.

[GMichael]

Being a fan of comedy, I would pick The Longest Yard from this list. But I haven't seen half of these. It wouldn't be right for me to vote.

[recoveryone]

Prison movies are hard to nail down due that the real story line can be a completely different catorgory and the Prison is just apart of the scenery. But I'll play along and pick Cool hand luke from the the list, but my real vote would be for Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawence. Burbaker is another good one too.

[PeruvianSkies]

Prison movies are hard to nail down due that the real story line can be a completely different catorgory and the Prison is just apart of the scenery. But I'll play along and pick Cool hand luke from the the list, but my real vote would be for Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawence. Burbaker is another good one too.

This was #11, but wasn't able to make the cut. I was trying to get a decent spread including a comedy and a few war films as well. Obviously a few of these are 'classics' and some are more modern. COOL HAND LUKE is certainly one of my favorites, but BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is so epic that it's hard to beat in terms of magnitude and scale. I, like Kam, am a huge David Lean fan, with this being only surpassed by LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in scope.

I think that prison movies are of interest because it shows alot about the human condition. I did leave the to strictly English-speaking films. If I globalized this a bit I would have included LE TROU (probably the best escape film EVER MADE) and THE GRAND ILLUSION, which is one of the best war-prison films and is a must-see.

[Smokey]

Recently I saw the Last Castle with Robert Redford, and it was an enjoyable movie. But
nothing great.

Birdman of Alcatraz with Burt Lancaster come to mind as a great prison movie, but it is not for everyone as it have a very dark tone. So for me it is a toss up between The Bridge on the River Kwai and Stalag 17.

[PeruvianSkies]

Recently I saw the Last Castle with Robert Redford, and it was an enjoyable movie. But
nothing great.

Birdman of Alcatraz with Burt Lancaster come to mind as a great prison movie, but it is not for everyone as it have a very dark tone. So for me it is a toss up between The Bridge on the River Kwai and Stalag 17.

I also was considering putting this on the list, but opted for ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ instead. Although it's a great film as well. I also agree about THE LAST CASTLE. If Redford had NOT been in the film it would have been incredibly lame. He helped make it tolerable. I enjoyed the concept of the film, but it was just messy in a few ways. The ending of that film was actually different than what we ended up with because of 9/11. The original ending had Redford raising the flag upsidedown.

[Worf101]

Not to be a party pooper but there are a LOT of better prison movies out there.

1. "I was a fugitive from a chain gang" (1932) - A film so powerful it lead to prison reform in some southern states.

2. " The Defiant Ones" (1958) - Chain Gang/Fugitive movie with a great twist. Poitier at his finest.

3. "Midnight Express" (1978) - Finally showed that there can be worse prisons than ones here.

4. "The Big House" (1930) - One of the earliest, a best, penitentiary movies.

5. "Brubaker" - Better than some on the list. All those bodies..

Da Worfster

[PeruvianSkies]

Not to be a party pooper but there are a LOT of better prison movies out there.

1. "I was a fugitive from a chain gang" (1932) - A film so powerful it lead to prison reform in some southern states.

2. " The Defiant Ones" (1958) - Chain Gang/Fugitive movie with a great twist. Poitier at his finest.

3. "Midnight Express" (1978) - Finally showed that there can be worse prisons than ones here.

4. "The Big House" (1930) - One of the earliest, a best, penitentiary movies.

5. "Brubaker" - Better than some on the list. All those bodies..

Da Worfster

a good reason for having the option for the poll higher than 10 selections. I was trying to get a good cross-section of films. I think MIDNIGHT EXPRESS was a good one that I overlooked and could possibly take the place of THE GREEN MILE. THE BIG HOUSE and I WAS A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG are stretching it a bit as most people on here probably have NOT seen them or even heard of them. Some of us are more into older films (like myself), but I was trying to be realistic...there was already a comment from someone about only seeing half of these and I thought that these were pretty common films. Again, had this been a more global poll it would have included films like THE GRAND ILLUSION (1939) and LE TROU (1959), but I was trying to keep foreign films out of the poll, especially much older ones.

[dean_martin]

I guess women-in-prison films are a genre unto themselves. I guess that's why Caged Heat didn't make the list.

[PeruvianSkies]

I guess women-in-prison films are a genre unto themselves. I guess that's why Caged Heat didn't make the list.

When I was compiling the list I did some google searches to see if there had been some lists already made and about 99% were Women in Prison films, which ...until that moment, I didn't really think of, but perhaps it IS in a genre of it's own. Or maybe it's just a Roger Corman thing. Whatever the case I think most people will agree that these are not really well-made productions and are 'tease' flicks for those with interesting fetishes.

[bobsticks]

... Whatever the case I think most people will agree that these are not really well-made productions and are 'tease' flicks for those with interesting fetishes.

Not that there's anything wrong with that