The Best Prison Film??

[SquidPuppet]

The poll aint showing for me yet? It better have Papillon.

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by squidpuppet

the poll aint showing for me yet? It better have papillon.

+1

[JudasPainkill3r]

Hands down SR is the best prison movie. I dont know how many times i've watched it and it never gets old. The story line grabs you and sucks you in to the characters. Truly a brilliant movie, start to finish.

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by Wings of Steel

Hands down SR is the best prison movie. I dont know how many times i've watched it and it never gets old. The story line grabs you and sucks you in to the characters. Truly a brilliant movie, start to finish.

+1 Got Em!!

[Batman1980]

To be honest, as incredible and amazing as Shawshank Redemption is, Green Mile is right there with it. Both have incredible casts, cruelty, stand-out performances and happy endings. Both come highly recommended by me, also.

[jhiggy23]

The fact that Papillon is not on the list significantly reduces the credibility of the list when it is universally considered one of the top 10 best prison films by every critic and movie organization. The credibility of the list is also reduced by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest being included as it is NOT a prison movie, it took place in a mental institution.

Just my two cents, but maybe you should make shorter lists and include films that absolutely should be on there, instead of making long lists that miss out on major films and include ones that do not even fit.

As such, I did not vote.

[Secretagentnumber6]

Let's Go to Prison FTW!!

Just kidding Shawshank in a runaway landslide.

[jadedeath]

Ernest goes to Jail.

Followed closely by the one with the rapper.

Logan

[Secretagentnumber6]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

Ernest goes to Jail.

Followed closely by the one with the rapper.

Logan

If I did not know you were joking I think I would put you on my ignore list.

You are joking right

[surfdude12]

cuckoo's nest as a prison film? only if you count a nut ward as a prison. most of the patients were there voluntarily. hardly a prison...

also, no "the Rock"?

edit: oops just saw that jhiggy already posted about cuckoo's nest, didn't see that.

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

The fact that Papillon is not on the list significantly reduces the credibility of the list when it is universally considered one of the top 10 best prison films by every critic and movie organization. The credibility of the list is also reduced by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest being included as it is NOT a prison movie, it took place in a mental institution.

Just my two cents, but maybe you should make shorter lists and include films that absolutely should be on there, instead of making long lists that miss out on major films and include ones that do not even fit.

As such, I did not vote.

Opinion respected, sorry to dissapoint u! Got Em!!

Originally Posted by jadedeath

Ernest goes to Jail.

Followed closely by the one with the rapper.

Logan

Got Em!!

[master_8ball]

Havent voted yet, tough choices...

Question to everyone.... I am trying to remember the name of a prison movie from either early 90s or late 80s... It had to do with some rich guy offering a bunch of money and freedom to whichever prisoner was left standing. I know there are a few like it, but this was IN a prison and a remember a scene in the jail where they are dumping bags of guns and stuff from the second story down into the cell block.

[andyman1970]

Midnight Express, Escape from Alcatraz as far as what is on the list. I think the Shawshank Redemption is ok but really overrated IMO. I have to agree with jhiggy that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is not a prison movie.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

The fact that Papillon is not on the list significantly reduces the credibility of the list when it is universally considered one of the top 10 best prison films by every critic and movie organization. The credibility of the list is also reduced by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest being included as it is NOT a prison movie, it took place in a mental institution.

Just my two cents, but maybe you should make shorter lists and include films that absolutely should be on there, instead of making long lists that miss out on major films and include ones that do not even fit.

As such, I did not vote.

Thank you.

Anyone voting for Shawshank who has not seen Papillon, shouldnt be voting. Papillon was made 20 years earlier and the themes found in Shawshank are all too similar (almost identical). The prison environment and prisoner treatment in Shawshank PALES in comparison to Papillon. The efforts (multiple) to escape are much more dangerous in Papillon and the consequences for failed attempts are insane. The penal colonies of the French Guiana themselves were to be more feared than a dangerous inmate. Just enduring the conditions was monumental feat of survival. The "buddy" theme runs strong and deep in Papillon, to the point of pulling many tears.

Two excellent actors, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman give powerfull performances.

I really believe that fans of the genre are doing themselves a tremendous disservice if they skip this film. This is the Gone with the Wind or the Ben Hur or the Judgement at Nuremberg of prison movies. I left the theater emotionally and physically exhausted and it rattled around in my head for many days.

[zombie63]

Brubaker (Im sure a young Morgan Freeman is in this)

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Thank you.

Anyone voting for Shawshank who has not seen Papillon, shouldnt be voting. Papillon was made 20 years earlier and the themes found in Shawshank are all too similar (almost identical). The prison environment and prisoner treatment in Shawshank PALES in comparison to Papillon. The efforts (multiple) to escape are much more dangerous in Papillon and the consequences for failed attempts are insane. The penal colonies of the French Guiana themselves were to be more feared than a dangerous inmate. Just enduring the conditions was monumental feat of survival. The "buddy" theme runs strong and deep in Papillon, to the point of pulling many tears.

Two excellent actors, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman give powerfull performances.

I really believe that fans of the genre are doing themselves a tremendous disservice if they skip this film. This is the Gone with the Wind or the Ben Hur or the Judgement at Nuremberg of prison movies. I left the theater emotionally and physically exhausted and it rattled around in my head for many days.

Squiddy -

Sophia Loren was once in a movie named "The Pride and the Passion," which involved hauling an enormous cannon halfway across Europe through deep mud. By the time they heaved the cannon into position, I had long since stopped caring, and even had a little difficulty remembering why they were doing it in the first place. The movie had expended enormous energy without cause.

"Papillon" is a movie like that: an expensive, exhaustive, 150-mintue odyssey that doesn't so much conclude as cross the finish line and collapse. It has been outfitted with expensive stars and a glossy production, but it doesn't really make us care. When Steve McQueen finally escapes from Devil's Island we're happy more for ourselves than for him: Finally we can leave, too.

The movie is based on a best seller by the late Frenchman Henri Charriere, who claimed it was a true story. Maybe. Not that it matters; fiction would have been fine if it had been entertaining. What happens in the movie, though, is that McQueen acts so dogged in his pursuit of freedom that we start looking around for supporting actors we can get interested in.

The movie begins with Charriere (McQueen), nicknamed Papillon (or "butterfly") on board a prison ship. He meets Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman, peering through Coke bottle glasses), the most famous counterfeiter in France. Dega's life is in danger for two reasons: (a) a lot of people were wiped out investing in his bogus 1928 national security bonds and (b) he has a lot of money concealed on (or should I say in?) his body.

Once they have arrived in prison, Papillon makes a bargain: He'll be Dega's bodyguard if Dega will finance an escape try. This Dega agrees to do, although it is hard to understand, or even sense, the emotional bond between the two men. (To paraphrase Pauline Kael, McQueen underplays, and Hoffman tries to out-underplay him.) The movie slogs on like Sophia Loren, hauling that cannon through the mud. You know something has gone wrong when you want the hero to escape simply so that the movie can be over.

At some point in the movie's pre-production, the theory apparently was held that we'd get interested in the contrast between Papillon, the man of action, and Dega, the gentle intellectual. The chemistry of McQueen and Hoffman was supposed to help. That was the theory, but in practice, we don't care because the characters never really escape as people. Hoffman is using his limp again from "Midnight Cowboy," and McQueen squints into the sun a lot, and that's about it.

Source - Roger Ebert's online reviews/Chicago Sun News

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Thank you.

Anyone voting for Shawshank who has not seen Papillon, shouldnt be voting. Papillon was made 20 years earlier and the themes found in Shawshank are all too similar (almost identical). The prison environment and prisoner treatment in Shawshank PALES in comparison to Papillon. The efforts (multiple) to escape are much more dangerous in Papillon and the consequences for failed attempts are insane. The penal colonies of the French Guiana themselves were to be more feared than a dangerous inmate. Just enduring the conditions was monumental feat of survival. The "buddy" theme runs strong and deep in Papillon, to the point of pulling many tears.

Two excellent actors, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman give powerfull performances.

I really believe that fans of the genre are doing themselves a tremendous disservice if they skip this film. This is the Gone with the Wind or the Ben Hur or the Judgement at Nuremberg of prison movies. I left the theater emotionally and physically exhausted and it rattled around in my head for many days.

Yea again my bad for not listing it but u shouldnt take shots at Shawshank. I think it would win regardless. Not only do a lot of people think its the best prison film, but best film period! But I may check out Papillion based on your take of the movie. Got Em!!

[uziel5000]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Thank you.

Anyone voting for Shawshank who has not seen Papillon, shouldnt be voting. Papillon was made 20 years earlier and the themes found in Shawshank are all too similar (almost identical). The prison environment and prisoner treatment in Shawshank PALES in comparison to Papillon. The efforts (multiple) to escape are much more dangerous in Papillon and the consequences for failed attempts are insane. The penal colonies of the French Guiana themselves were to be more feared than a dangerous inmate. Just enduring the conditions was monumental feat of survival. The "buddy" theme runs strong and deep in Papillon, to the point of pulling many tears.

Two excellent actors, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman give powerfull performances.

I really believe that fans of the genre are doing themselves a tremendous disservice if they skip this film. This is the Gone with the Wind or the Ben Hur or the Judgement at Nuremberg of prison movies. I left the theater emotionally and physically exhausted and it rattled around in my head for many days.

I have to disagree there. I haven't seen Papillon (an error that thanks to your recomendation I will try to correct as soon as possible) but just because the two films have similar themes it cannot be assumed that by watching both, one would automatically choose one over the other.

By reading about your reactions to Papillon, it seems that although the films share certain things they are not centered around the same themes. I hardly left the theater exhausted after watching Shawshank. Quite the contrary, I left filled with hope. The torture and prision treatment of the inmates is hardly the centerpiece of the film so maybe they are more different than you think.

However by your description, Papillon sounds awsome and will watch it as soon as I can.

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

The poll aint showing for me yet? It better have Papillon.

Hey I didnt get that one. Did the movie take place in prision?? Never seen it. if so my bad squid. I have a lot though so Im sure u can find the best there. Got Em!!

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by CZAR

Hey I didnt get that one. Did the movie take place in prision?? Never seen it. if so my bad squid. I have a lot though so Im sure u can find the best there. Got Em!!

It is THE difinitive prison film for me. Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. It makes the Midnight Express prison look like a nice safe cozy little place. Far more brutal and dangerous than Shawshank.

A MUST see.

Massive failure of epic proportions that it didnt make the poll.