prison movie clichés

Rowley Birkin QC

prison break looks good but so far it has ticked all the boxes with my list of prison movie clichés......which IMO is bad.

theres the guy who can somehow get everything and anything he wants into the prison..........(red....shawshank redemtion)

theres the mobster who runs the joint............

theres the crooked prison guard.........(percy the green mile)

theres the gullible and trusting prison governor who requires our heroes specialised assistance....(james gandolfini the last castle)

theres the helpful and likeable guy who shows the new guy around and warns him to "stay away from those guys" and who ultimately is tragically killed.........

there are the gangs..

there is the slightly crazy usually "ledgendary" inmate who "knows this place inside out"......

i know there are more so please add to this list..........

Rollo Tamasi

Newsflash!


IT'S A PRISON! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO BE GOING ON IN THERE?


Picnics in the yard on break, hairdressing tips from the gaurds? Dog shows?

Seriously though, com'on! All the people are in there for a reason. Of course your cell mate is going to show you around. You have to live with him for like a year minimum in a small cell. It's in your interest to get along.

theres the guy who can somehow get everything and anything he wants into the prison..........(red....shawshank redemtion)

There is a black market everywhere, jails are no different

theres the mobster who runs the joint............

Mobsters in the prison, who would have thought!

theres the crooked prison guard.........(percy the green mile)

Bent officers! Nothing new there either in fairness.

theres the gullible and trusting prison governor who requires our heroes specialised assistance....(james gandolfini the last castle)

The wardon got the job because he is a political & educated man. It's not like he's going to be Judge Dread!

there are the gangs..

Gangs in America! Oh lord!

there is the slightly crazy usually "ledgendary" inmate who "knows this place inside out"......

Maybe 20 years in a cell does that to do? Just a guess!
Who are you referring to anyway?

i know there are more so please add to this list..........

No you don't know! If you ever post in here again you're getting the pockett! And bigkev49 will turn into littlekev69 with two shakes of a lambs tail. So there!

Necronomicon

90 days in the shoe for this one!

Rollo Tamasi

indeed, send the phish down!

It's SHU (Segregated Housing Unit) btw!

Bounty Hunter

even tho everyone is rippin into thisthread i would like to add the brookes charcter from once again shawshank the person who has been in the prison for years and has attained some level of trust froom those in command and also has a pet in brookes case Jake the bird in prison break a cat.

mike65

Therse's always a guy who's got a gammy leg or suffers from clautrophobia

Mike.

Rollo Tamasi

i think there may even be a guy who is getting parole or even a few who claim to be innocent. What are the chances of that kind of situation within a prison? 19-1 is a fair guess i'd imagine!

even tho everyone is rippin into thisthread i would like to add the brookes charcter from once again shawshank the person who has been in the prison for years and has attained some level of trust froom those in command and also has a pet in brookes case Jake the bird in prison break a cat.

once again....they have this in every single prison. In Spike, in the Joy, there are guys who do community service, they don't all work on their tans and pump steel in the yard.

I'm going over to the Battlestar Gallactica forum now to tell them that Cylons aren't real and that it's the year 2006, i may even pop over to the Soaps forum too to dish out some truths. Cya lads.

Mossy Monk

but what i want to know is

who cares

Rowley Birkin QC

Fair enough those people are probably to be found in real life prisons but they are probably not as shallow and one-dimensional. I had just watched the first two episodes when i posted and everything seemed so familiar.
The programme seems to be following a code of conduct for writing prison drama/adventures. It all looks so predictable, much better examples of the prison movie genre in films such as The Last Castle, The Great Escape, Shawshank Redemption, Escape From Alcatraz & Birdman of Alcatraz, Midnight Express etc etc which yes I admit contain these stereotypical characters but manage to introduce and use them much more subtly. Already in the first two episodes nearly all the characters have been introduced and their roles clearly defined. I liked the "idea" of prison break because it seemed original but again it just seems too familiar.
I dont think a prison setting can be varied enough to sustain a couple of series as appears to be the case with prison break.

Mossy Monk wrote:

but what i want to know is

who cares

lol, im not that bothered to be honest but im driving a tractor for 12-14 hours a day at the moment so I have waaay too much time to be thinking about things!!

lostexpectation

last castle vs prison break

which has a worse premise?

Mossy Monk

bigkev49 wrote:

lol, im not that bothered to be honest but im driving a tractor for 12-14 hours a day at the moment so I have waaay too much time to be thinking about things!!

fair enough

weemcd

bigkev49 wrote:

theres the helpful and likeable guy who shows the new guy around and warns him to "stay away from those guys"
there are the gangs..

there is the slightly crazy usually "ledgendary" inmate who "knows this place inside out"......

i know there are more so please add to this list..........

Willem Dafoe in Animal Factory springs to mind.

djkeogh

I dont think a prison setting can be varied enough to sustain a couple of series as appears to be the case with prison break.

Check out the HBO series OZ which ran for 6 seasons and is one of the best and most enthralling shows I've ever had the pleasure to watch. Also there was Prisoner Cell Block H (which i never saw) which are both pretty good examples to disprove the above statement.

omahony99

A guy with only a short time left until he is released is killed.

Agamemnon

It also sooooooooo cliched the way the prisoners are all criminals who were convicted of crimes and then sent to the prison. How many times have we seen that before? And you just know one of the prisoners will try to escape as well. Whatever happened to original and imaginative plotting? That's it, I refuse to watch it on RTE any more. Mind you, I have seen the whole thing 2 and a half times already...

manti452

You coulda posted a spoiler warning.. I'm not done watching season one and now I know someone likeable dies.. CHEERS MATE >> FOR NOTHING

starman100

Just after watching 'Shawshank Redemption' (again!) on Film 4 and yeah, some of the same old 'cliches' have appeared in PB.

Really soft concrete.........

Use of miniature tools - hex screw vs. rock hammer........

Stone-cladded prison walls.......... (also in 'The Last Castle')

The art of escape 'concealment' - tattoos vs. Rita Hayworth......

Highly educated main protagonist - Micheal vs. Andy

Now I'm only on RTE pace for PB so maybe there's more to come (no spoilers please).

But Shawshank is still the original and the best IMO.

$Leon$

starman100 wrote:

Just after watching 'Shawshank Redemption' (again!) on Film 4 and yeah, some of the same old 'cliches' have appeared in PB.

Really soft concrete.........

Use of miniature tools - hex screw vs. rock hammer........

Stone-cladded prison walls.......... (also in 'The Last Castle')

The art of escape 'concealment' - tattoos vs. Rita Hayworth......

Highly educated main protagonist - Micheal vs. Andy

Now I'm only on RTE pace for PB so maybe there's more to come (no spoilers please).

But Shawshank is still the original and the best IMO.

If you watch "Escape from Alcatraz" with Clint Eastwood (late 70's) you can see what Stephen King was watching before he wrote Shawshank and the PB writers have also seen it as well.
Clints character befriends the Boss of the a few of the gangs - like Michael
Clint climbs thru an air vent in the back of the cell to escape into the wall
Clint has ally's who have certain stills