PRISON

US, 1988, 102 minutes, Colour.
Lane Smith, Chelsea Field, Vigo Mortensen.
Directed by Renny Harlin.

Prison starts like a documentary but then veers into the popular supernatural thriller of the late '80s. It is reminiscent in many ways of Wes Craven's Shocker which was to come out the following year.

The film starts with a nightmare of the warden, shows the execution of a criminal - and the suggestion that he is not at rest and will come to haunt and wreak vengeance. When the prison is reopened after a quarter of a century, this is precisely what he does.

Lane Smith is a very effective actor (portraying Richard Nixon, the senator in Air America). He gives some credibility to the film as the cruel and relentless warden. However, there is the usual gallery of hardened criminals, earnest social workers, ambiguous hero.

The film is entertaining enough if you enjoy this kind of genre thriller, life in prison, serial killings - some with a touch of the macabre special effects. However, the film is interesting as the first Hollywood feature of Finnish director Renny Harlan. After Prison, he was to go on to The Adventures of Ford Fairlane with Andrew Dice Clay but, most especially, great action success with Die Hard 2, then Cliffhanger, Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. From the evidence of Prison, it is clear that the producers had confidence in giving him Die Hard 2 as a project.

1.Prison thriller? Supernatural thriller? Serial killings?

2.The Wyoming settings, the old abandoned prison, exteriors and interiors? The atmosphere of the old prison of the past? Squalor and oppression? The contrast with the special effects and stunts for the gruesome killings? Musical score?

3.The title, the focus on the prison, life in prison? The tradition of prison films? The hard warden, his captain carrying out his orders, the guards and their callousness, the prisoners and the various routines - the arrivals in the buses, the attempted escape, men being put in solitary, the entry of the men into the prison, their work, in the cells, the clothes, the routines? The documentary-like aspects of the prison film?

4.The suggestion of the supernatural: the warder's initial dream, the cross taken from the executed man, the horror of his death, the warden identifying with it? The lightning, the prisoner with the voodoo prayers? The forces of energy and light, heat? The men burnt in solitary? The lightning strikes, the telekinesis with the barbed wire, with the guns shooting etc? The spirit of the man wandering the prison?

5.The social worker, her concern about the prisons? The board meeting, the crisis, politics, the reopening of the prison? Her clash with the warden? His patronising her? At home, her concern, the report about the deaths? Her return to the prison, the dangers and threats, the final escape?

6.The personality of the warden, the dinosaur type, his hard treatment of the men, the attempted escape, going in front of the bus, stopping mail for six months? His influence on the captain? With the various prisoners? Opening up the execution block? His growing fear, nightmares? The truth about the past, his murdering the man, the deal with Cresus, allowing the man to be executed? His fears, attempts to escape, his death?

7.Cresus, the sympathetic elderly black man, his relationship with the hero, his advice? His growing fears, the protest, shooting himself in the foot, in prison, the warden attempting to kill him, the escape with the hero and Katherine? His death?

8.The focus on Burke as hero, the young man, the reputation of being tough, the reaction of the other prisoners, in the breaking down of the execution block, his rescuing the burning man? The attitude of guards? Power play in the prison? Having the symbol? The final heroics? The final rescue?

9.The portrait of the prisoners - the Bronx man and his friendship with Burke, his death? The tough man and his victimising the young man, homosexual relationship? The black men and their strength, violence? The protests, the work, the deaths? The man rescued from solitary and his attempted escape, the cover-up, the execution with the wire? Voodoo-praying prisoner? The protests, the punishment of being kept out all night, in the cells, the escape and the mayhem?

10.The brutal tone of the film? Yet the blend of documentary style, horror thriller? The quality of the performances giving strength to the film?