Brubaker (1980)
 Brubaker
is based on the real-life experiences of Tom Murton, who worked as
a warden in a primitive Arkansas prison in 1968, improving
conditions and irritating the corrupt prison officials until his
discovery of three bodies buried on prison property led to his
dismissal.
He hasn't worked in the prison system since, and it took him
almost eleven years to get his story to the screen.
It's a harrowing story, made even more grim and terrifying by
the filmmaker's poetic license, and the first hour or so (during
which Redford pretends to be a prisoner, to get a firsthand
glimpse of prison life) is as shattering as anything you're likely
to see in a movie.
Sleeping in filthy beds that become available only when someone
dies in them, sitting on floors of mud, kept awake by homosexual
rapes all around him, forced to watch the worst beatings since
slavery was outlawed, Brubaker witnesses enough cruel and beastly
punishments to make the Black Hole of Calcutta look like
Disneyland.
After Redford admits his true identity, he shaves, dons a plaid
shirt and clean jeans, and becomes the same Redford who could just
as well be lecturing at Yale, campaigning for ecology, or running
for political office.
Redford, or Brubaker (it becomes impossible to distinguish
between the two, which is a credit to the actor but ends up
backfiring on the movie itself) encounters as much graft,
corruption, and hostility on the outside as he does in the
barracks. The guards hoard the food supply, reselling it to the
inmates for a price; the state police are on the take; the
trustees are sabotaging the prison crops; the local businessmen
are ripping off the prison and the prison board members are making
a profit.
Brubaker makes the prisoners feel like human beings, but he
won't play the politician's crooked games, so he loses because he
won't compromise his principles. It's a perfect role for Redford -
the brave, noble hero fighting the system.
Stuart Rosenberg has done a fine job of documenting the
details, there is authenticity in W. D. Richter's screenplay (even
though some of the events have been manufactured) and the actual
Ohio prison locales lend an almost documentary realism to the
grisly events.
Fine, concerned performances abound--by Redford, Jane Alexander
as a state government employee with high connections, Yaphet Kotto
as a tough prisoner who is the last to come around to Brubaker's
ideas, and Murray Hamilton as a slimy politician.
Brubaker is an honest attempt to examine the evils and
injustices in the prison system, but ultimately the film holds no
real excitement and no thrill of new discovery.
Redford is so self-righteous, so determined, and so
unyieldingly heroic that there's nothing left in his performance
for the viewer to discover. His jaw is so set you can almost hear
the bones crack.
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