THE MAN WHO BROKE 1000 CHAINS

US, 1987, 115 minutes, Colour.
Val Kilmer, Charles Durning, Sonia Braga, Kyra Sedgwick, Billy Bob Thornton, Elisha Cook.
Directed by Daniel Mann.

The Man Who Broke 1000 Chains is the story of Robert E. Burns, the writer of the story, `I Am a Fugitive from the Chain Gang', filmed in 1932 by Mervyn Le Roy with Paul Muni. It was a book and a film which helped stop the Georgia chain gang prisons.

This film shows a story of `the wrong man', imprisoned after his war service for a robbery he was forced to participate in. He was victim then of the warders and the trustees in a Georgia prison. After escaping, he moved to Chicago and founded a magazine. After six years he was arrested and extradited to Georgia and imprisoned again. Again he escaped, writing the book that was to be so influential.

This is a very good treatment of the story of Robert E. Burns. It was directed by veteran Daniel Mann (though a credit sequence indicates that the producer, Michael Campus, who wrote the screenplay, had an influence in the final cut). Val Kilmer is quite effective in the central role. Charles Durning is the sadistic trustee. Sonia Braga has a different role as a lonely woman in Chicago who befriends Burns.

The film creates its atmosphere, portrays the prison experience with some forcefulness. The audience is emotionally involved in looking at this episode in American history and the prison system.

1.The chain gangs, prisons, escape? The story of a self-made man who influenced prison reform?

2.The war sequences, their vivid presentation, visuals, sound? Special effects? The soldiers suffering, shock? Dreams?

3.The '20s and New York, the jobless, the south and the Depression? Georgia prisons? Chicago and the workplace? Chicago society? The musical score?

4.The film as a true story? I Am a Fugitive from the Chain Gang? The author and his book, the movie? Reform?

5.The portrait of Elliott: the war experience, his return, nightmares? Isolation from his family? The bond with Vincent? Going south, tramping, the fights and the robberies amongst the tramps? The one-armed man and forcing him to participate in the robbery, his trying to save the victim? The arrest, the court, pleading guilty, the heavy sentence? The prison, the chain gang? The warden and his trustees? Brutality? The work, the fellow prisoners? His friendship with Pappy? The humiliations, the box? Suffering? The decision to escape, Sam breaking his chains? (And the echoes from the film?) The escape, the pursuit, on the boat?

6.Chicago, typing his story? Work? The room? The friendship with Emily, the bond between them, sexual relationship, her giving him the money? Her possessiveness, the marriage? The magazine and his enthusiasm, selling the copies on the streets? The respect for the magazine? His father's death and his return, grief? Alienation from Emily, humiliating her? The break? The years passing, the speech to Chicago society? The attentiveness of the waitress? His arrest, the headlines, the attempted deals?

7.His return to prison, the warden and the trustees and their continued cruelty, malice? Work, his being whipped? Trying to keep his spirits? The girl visiting him? Vincent and the money? The plan, the man with the newspaper and the car, paying the money, the escape?

8.His writing the book, the making of the movie? Wandering the bookshops, going to see the film? The girlfriend having married? His achievement? The final pardon in 1944?

9.The portrait of the warden, in the system, the sadism, attitudes towards the men? The trustees and their following the orders of the warden? Cruelty to prisoners?

10.The prisoners, their life, uniforms, work, the chains? Relationships?

11.Emily, her loneliness, love, possessiveness, her being hurt? The waitress, admiring Elliott? Visiting, marrying him?

12.Vincent and the family, the clergyman, his help for his brother?

13.The picture of an ordinary man, his experiences and suffering, doing good?