IN THE CUSTODY OF STRANGERS

US, 1982, 100 minutes, Colour.
Martin Sheen, Jane Alexander, Emilio Estevez, Kenneth Mc Millan, Matt Clark, Ed Lauter, John Hancock.
Directed by Robert Greenwald.

In the Custody of Strangers is an excellent telemovie. It is topical. It focuses on family situations in the '80s, tensions within the family because of rules, discipline and authority. It also focuses on police, detention, imprisonment - and its dire effects on an angry young teenager. The background to the film is social difficulty, especially unemployment.

Martin Sheen is effective as the out-of-work father, angry with his son, believing in principles and wanting him to learn a lesson but finding that authorities take it further than he ever imagined. Sheen's own son Emilio Estevez is the focus of the film and is excellent as the rebellious Danny Caldwell. He makes audience realise the tensions within him, his motivation and confusion as well as the loneliness and sadness caused by what he experiences in jail. (Estevez was to go on to many films including Repo Man, The Breakfast Club, The Outsiders, St. Elmo's Fire; he wrote and starred in That Was Then, This Is Now.) Jane Alexander is very good as the mother and Kenneth Mc Millan, Ed Lauter and Matt Clark are effective as the representatives of the law.

While the film is a prison film, it gives the background of family and society - and the speeches of the stars at the end are arresting and thought provoking.

1. The impact of this telemovie? Serious-minded? Its message for its audience?

2. The impact for American audiences? Audiences world-wide? The portrait of home. the town, courts, jails and authority? An authentic picture?

3. The title and its reference to prison and courts, in relationship to teenagers and family?

4. The credibility of the screenplay: the ordinary family, youth, problems, angers, tensions and frustrations, employment questions? Questions of responsibility?

5. American society and its ability to handle rebellious teenagers: the police and arrests, brutal manner, detention. the people in the jails, homosexual passes, the custody of authorities, exposure of teenagers, the bewilderment, isolation, behaviour in the courts, the severe attitudes of lawyers and parole officers, the mistakes of bureaucracy, incompetence? The portrait of American society and legal matters?

6. The passion of the ending: Frank's speech and his reflection on what had happened, his bewilderment? Backed up by Frank's wife? The reaction of the judge, Caruso - their realisation that justice had not been done or seen to be done? Audience judgment on what had happened?

7. The focus on the Caldwell family? Audiences identifying with them and their situations? Love, domestic detail? Frank losing his job and seeking employment? The humiliation of driving to line-ups and being rejected? The possibility of jobs? The mother working and financial support? Danny and his boredom at home, permissions and rules, going out, anger and shouting, despising his father, stealing the radio, his friends, drinking? His girlfriend (the sadness of her leaving, the later visit to the jail and her change of heart and its effect on him), the beer-drinking and the driving, the arrest? Danny detained and Frank's decision to let him stay despite his mother's protest?

8. Danny left overnight in jail? Did he deserve this? Age, inexperience? In the cell, talking about himself, the homosexual advance? His father coming down, his having to stay in detention? The question of his guilt or not? The Probation Officer, the court deciding whether he was fit to go home, seeing him as dangerous, his being put in a cell, in isolation, growing frustration? The psychologist and her sympathy, helping him? The court hearing and the Prosecution being poorly prepared, not having reports? The visits of his parents, the clashes? His mother and her love? His rage, further isolation, Caruso transferring him to the kitchen, the possibility of overcoming boredom and doing something, the attack on the prisoner? The President of the Board refusing the application for him to go home? The oppression of the imprisonment, the bad managing of the case, his doing the exercises and slitting his wrists? Caruso wanting him out of the detention centre? The changing of the charges, the deals, the judge and the decision that he could go free? The realisation of what had happened? His ability to handle it or not? His return home - and the close-up of his face at the end of the film? His future?

9. Frank trying to do his best as father, employment problems, hopes, jobs failing, the family and the rules, shouting in frustration, the driving to the job, being-humiliated by Danny's attack, his anger at his stealing the radio, letting him stay in prison, going to collect him and being bewildered by what happened, the treatment of the courts, the discussions? The new job and his leaving town, returning? His speech in the court declaring what he had experienced, examining what he had done, trying to see if Danny's treatment was in proportion to what he had done? Being backed up by his wife?

10. Caruso and the detention centre. his anger at the youngsters, the advice of the psychologist, putting him in the kitchen, laying down the law, the end and wanting him out ?

11. The sympathy of the psychiatrist? Her help?

12. The judge and his sympathy, the parole officer and inefficiency, the lawyers and their severe attitudes? Attitudes towards teenage offenders - punishment, giving them time to think of the error of their ways? A lack of personal concern?

13. Themes of justice, society and punishment? The effect on the individuals? Possibilities of rehabilitation or oppression?