Brubaker (1980)

Brubaker is one of those underseen hidden gems I had no idea existed until I began researching little-known movies that might peak my interest. I adore prison dramas no matter how ordinary or clichéd they may be. This movie is abundant of prison movie clichés, but it is the political nature of the story that fascinated me, as well as the strong cast. Let's get the bitter stuff out of the way first. What do I mean by a clichéd story? It is all about the characters and who they represent. We got the idealistic reformer, the tough-as-nails colored guard, the rotten person on the prison board, and the psycho prisoner. These type of characters pop up in nearly all prison movies, but at least we have a very talented cast playing these roles with near perfection.

Before I can delve in with what fascinated me the most, we need to discuss the plot. There is a new prison warden at Wakefield Prison. Henry Brubaker (Robert Redford) decides to begin his new position in an unorthodox way-disguised as an inmate. He looks, thinks, and pays attention to what the situation is at the prison. After having enough of the corruption, he reveals himself as the new warden. His agenda is ending the corruption once and for all. When the local business community led by John Deach (Murray Hamilton), whom benefits from the corruption begins to fight back, Brubaker is going to have plenty of trouble on his hands Now we got that out of the way, I will talk about what truly fascinated me about the movie: the corruption of the prison system and the attempted overhaul of the system. One thing that struck out to me immediately is that there are no prison guards. Instead, there are prisoner trustees that get promotions if they shoot any escaping prisoners. The first thirty or so minutes of the film highlights the brutality such as the beatings, the sexual assaults, the bribery, and so forth. The way Brubaker revealed himself to his prisoners is very genius and it gives him a sense of all the corruption happening around him. But then the underlying theme that change is hard for some people happens. We get a sense of how big this corruption scam is. How all the people in the local community are benefiting from this scam. The movie does a great job highlighting the events in the movies.

Because the story is moved forward though events, the characterization of the people in the movie is an afterthought. It did not bother me as it may have bothered other people, mainly because the story intrigued me. That being said, the cast did a terrific job. The one character that was fleshened out was Robert Redford's Brubaker. Redford is a really talented actor and his performance kept you riveted, although I kept thinking he seems too nice to be a prison warden. We all know Murray Hamilton gets through by being a slimeball, and that is no difference here. We get an early Morgan Freeman performance as one of the deranged prisoners spent too much time under solitary confinement. There are also notable supporting character performances from the likes of Yaphet Kotto (from Alien fame) and Jane Alexander. There characters were not written well, but the actual performances were solid.

Overall, Brubaker is an underrated gem. It is a drama that highlights the corruption in the prison system and what makes this film more interesting is that it is based on the true life events of warden Thomas Murton who was hired by Arkansas governor Winthrop Rockefeller to reform one of the prisons, but was let go after one year due to bad publicity. W.D Richter's scre

Fmovies: This almost forgotten film should be analyzed today after its unexpected and unimagined possibility of an alternate reality that wasn't a complete fabrication. The story of a prison warden who wants to change everything that's wrong in the prison system of his state really happened. "Brubaker" focus on a challenge to a corrupt system that on the surface seems to be doing its service of punishing convicted criminals but also is a vile and dirty business whose purpose is to profit above all costs.

The lead character, played by an unusual and remarkable Robert Redford, is introduced to us as a prisoner who barely speaks but observers everything concerning how inmates are treated by the guards, how the machine works behind bars and the constant brutality of the place. The plot twist to everyone is when he presents himself as the new warden and he sets up a whole reformation on the place, condemning what's wrong and doing what he believes it's right. There's plenty of benefits for the prisoners but the guards and the businessman who always gained advantages with the old administration aren't happy about this, and that misery and dissatisfaction goes back to the people who hired him, the governor and his staff who now pressure the man to go easy with his work. After all, they are losing a lot of money obtained with frauds and illegal schemes. One man alone means nothing so Brubaker is helped by some inmates and a local authority (Jane Alexander) who is close to the state governor, and will try to convince everyone that Brubaker's idealism if put to work can be profitable for everyone involved.

Brubaker's idea isn't just to denounce the illegal affairs of the state and make budget cuts. He's more concerned with the way convicted felons are treated, want to stop their exploitation and make the place a safe environment instead of the critical animal factories that don't punish anyone but is only useful to transform them into bigger monsters whose only fate is either death, or commit more violent crimes or to return to the animal factory again. Sure, this idea is good and valuable but not practical. In the film's case, it fails because one can't change a system unless if one being part of it; Brubaker made the terrible mistake of not firing the whole officials team, and those guys still managed to cause harm and work their way behind his back; and the people with the money will always speak higher.

Such idealism wouldn't work today, that's sure but it could worth a shot, specially in countries where the private initiative isn't the option (because politics are having their big time with a failing system that pays them well). Today's criminal minds are far more worse than the ones from the 1980's when this was made and they probably wouldn't leave a place where they could feel as if being on a hotel, practically with the cell keys on their hands, dictating orders like Pablo Escobar did in his "prison" time. But it can be made. And that final image of accomplish given here says everything even though things didn't turned the way it could.

The film has a fine progression and it's greatly well acted by Alexander, Redford and heightened by convincing performances from trustworthy character actors Everett McGill, David Keith, Yaphet Kotto, Matt Clark, M. Emmet Walsh, Murray Hamilton and a young Morgan Freeman. "Brubaker" has that rare quality of being dreamy, that enlightening power some movies have i

W.D. Richter did the screenplay for the 1978 remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He also did the screen story for this Robert Redford film about prison reform. In fact his screenplay/story was nominated for an Oscar.

I know prison reform is an anachronism today. Incarceration is simply removal from society with no concern for rehabilitation.

The film is based on real life. Thomas Murton of Arkansas tried to fix the system. I grew up in Arkansas and was exposed to stories about the "Tucker Telephone" from the Tucker prison farm, and stories of bodies of murdered prisoners being dug up on prison grounds.

So Redford sports a John Edwards haircut in the film, he still does a great job. He is assisted in this film by Yaphet Kotto, who I always enjoy, and Morgan Freeman.

Brubaker fmovies. Brubaker (Robert Redford) as a messiah-type, seemingly on the fringe of municipal importance, takes up the job of Warden at a Southern state penal farm and decides to see the extent of what he is up against by entering in disguise as just another inmate, with no privileges. He feels that to absorb the experience from the inside looking out is preferable to relying on preconceptions. He is right as the thrust of the film would have otherwise been lost and the overall plot (simple though it is) is stronger for the fact that Brubaker has 'been there'.

He manages to carve a bond with a few prisoners before he modestly reveals his true identity and, through a series of well acted confrontations, he begins to make the prison machine tick over nicely. In the final analysis his efforts are not totally successful, but the film does reflect change and at least the viewer can agree that he seized the chance to make a difference.

The film is possibly a bit too long and the principal character is under-developed. 'Brubaker' was apparently a rather mournful, strained film to work on and the original director, Bob Rafelson, was sacked for smacking Ron Silverman (producer) in the nose during an early on-set argument.

However, I think it is well acted and very absorbing to watch. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Brubaker gets his staff to release a few long term solitary confinements, stating that before they do so, the requisite pairs of sunglasses should be given to them as they come out of complete darkness for the first time in ages - the staff think Brubaker is crazy: of course, they cannot see that this is all about building trust. The master plan is therefore to get the inmates on board and allow the trustees to follow. Nice theory, not so nice to put into practice as he is up against a rancid, but self policing establishment from day one.

Watch out for Wilford Brimley as "Rogers" - a later teaming up with Redford took place in the outstanding "The Natural", with Brimley starring in a major role as the jaundiced, downtrodden, Pop Fisher.

Robert Redford plays another dignified character, this time as new warden Henry Brubaker posing as an inmate in a corrupt prison to understand the deplorable conditions there. As is the case with any prison-related film, we get to see some really ugly things here. Maybe "Brubaker" goes a little overboard in portraying its main character as a saint, but considering that the main point is to show the inhumanity of this country's penal system (which apparently hasn't changed much since this movie came out), they do a good job. I'd say that it's another movie that, if nothing else, deserves kudos for disproving the "Disney-ized" version of the world that we often get shown. A very good movie.

I saw this movie with my wife, who wasn't thrilled that I brought this back from the video store. She's the type that pulls movies off of the "new release" shelf without fail. But as we got into this movie, she changed her mind.

Robert Redford plays Henry Brubaker, a prison warden who is recruited to reform brutal Wakefield Penitentiary, in Arkansas. The conditions are terrible, with men sleeping in puddles of mop water and being regularly beaten, tortured, and murdered. Brubaker gets a handle on the conditions there by sneaking into the jail disguised as an incoming criminal.

When he finally begins his tenure as warden, he meets strong resistance from the community, which is used to the prison being the source of local income and slave labor. The scenes in which Brubaker has to deal with the morally corrupt prison board are powerful and captivating. A good view.

Cinematography is questionable, and the editing TV movie-like. Acting is superb, and the local color interesting. I give the film a B-.

Things to watch for: white trash sister, Morgan Freeman's debut, rape scene.