Discussion:
Brubaker ( 1980 )
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Stephen DeMay
2020-02-15 19:16:19 UTC
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Reform warden at Arkansas prison.
Political corruption at all levelsis an unavoidable fact of humankind. People who try to expose the way things are done will find out they are viewed as the problem.
While watching this for the first time in a long while i thought of Serpico which is a substantially better film.
It's of more interest to see Pachino fending off problems from every direction than to watch Robert Redford trying to clean house.
The people in Brubaker are more OK depictions of types than the " real feel " characters in the cop film. Though the cast is a good one the style of filming is just too undistinguished to convey much punch. Dialogue is OK but not imaginative. Arkansas is just not a place of interest . I am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang had an edginess and dynamic lead performance to pull a viewer into the circumstance of life on the chain gang. Here I was watching what I always was aware were scripted sequences that while moving the story along never grabbed me by the collar.
THe Redford character was a bit two dimensional and his opposition was dramatically weak as far as screen interest .
Still one of the better prison pictures it is never as good as the best parts of Cool Hand Luke . American prisons are terrible places that not only punish people by taking them out of society but psychologically grind inmates down just for the hell of it. While some cons may deserve rough treatment they are one harshness fits all institutions. Many cons adapt to the circumstances as they are brutish and crude for others the atmosphere is not much, if any better, than in this film's opening.
6/10 don't rock the boats
Stephen DeMay
2020-02-16 11:42:10 UTC
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Post by Stephen DeMay
Reform warden at Arkansas prison.
Political corruption at all levelsis an unavoidable fact of humankind. People who try to expose the way things are done will find out they are viewed as the problem.
While watching this for the first time in a long while i thought of Serpico which is a substantially better film.
It's of more interest to see Pachino fending off problems from every direction than to watch Robert Redford trying to clean house.
The people in Brubaker are more OK depictions of types than the " real feel " characters in the cop film. Though the cast is a good one the style of filming is just too undistinguished to convey much punch. Dialogue is OK but not imaginative. Arkansas is just not a place of interest . I am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang had an edginess and dynamic lead performance to pull a viewer into the circumstance of life on the chain gang. Here I was watching what I always was aware were scripted sequences that while moving the story along never grabbed me by the collar.
THe Redford character was a bit two dimensional and his opposition was dramatically weak as far as screen interest .
Still one of the better prison pictures it is never as good as the best parts of Cool Hand Luke . American prisons are terrible places that not only punish people by taking them out of society but psychologically grind inmates down just for the hell of it. While some cons may deserve rough treatment they are one harshness fits all institutions. Many cons adapt to the circumstances as they are brutish and crude for others the atmosphere is not much, if any better, than in this film's opening.
6/10 don't rock the boats
TO be fair I wrote the review before finishing the film and he meeting of the prison board. Those characters were plenty mean. But the film's last sequence was too corny. Does not alter my over all impression. Seem to recall that Jane Alexander is always in movies that have the flat feel of this one. Films set in The Southalmost always leave a bad taste in my mouth about the locals.
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