By Lee Pfeiffer
There's a new kid in the neighborhood in terms of DVD labels, and they are most welcome. Olive Films has sub-licensed a number of worthy films from major studios and released them on DVD. We'll be reviewing them in the weeks and months to come. First off the bat is Riot, a 1969 film that has been little-seen in recent years. Imagine a scenario in which a state prison not only allows a movie company to film on the premises (nothing unusual there), but does so in the aftermath of an actual mass riot, then hires real-life prisoners as extras in order to recreate the chaos. Add to the mix the fact that prison officials are painted as uncaring brutes and the real warden plays a villainous warden on screen. Sound too crazy to be true? Perhaps, but all of this actually occurred in the making of Riot.
The movie was shot at Arizona State Prison with convicts filling out the supporting cast. The movie treads into Cool Hand Luke territory with prisoners pushed to the brink by sadistic guards and an uncaring justice system that sees them abused and treated like animals. Gene Hackman is the ringleader of an audacious plan to stage a riot, followed by a massive breakout. The first part of the plan succeeds and the prisoners hold guards hostage while a long-forgotten tunnel inside the jail is reactivated for purposes of escape. Jim Brown is Hackman's reluctant ally, a guy just biding his time who finds himself swept up as one of the ringleaders of the revolt.
The main flaw of the film is that fact that the staging of the escape is a loosely-knit, haphazard affair, the details of which change constantly. This may be what happened in real life, but it causes confusion for the viewer and drains the movie of suspense. On the positive side, this must have been the most realistic prison movie made until that time. Forget those old images of Bogart and Cagney sitting around the "prisons" on the Warners back lot. By filming on the premises, the movie benefits from a heightened sense of realism. The film also deals directly (and suprisingly not judgmentally) with homosexual life in prison, and features what must have been considered a very daring sequence in which a drag queen performs a slow striptease to the delight of other gay inmates.
The cast is first-rate and one appreciates now, perhaps more than ever, just what a solid leading man Jim Brown was. Largely dismissed at the time by critics as a football player masquerading as an actor, Brown actually had plenty of style and charisma. It's safe to say we don't have many leading men like him today. He also had plenty of sex appeal and director Buzz Kulik gives him ample opportunity to remove those cumbersome shirts. You can pretty much imagine women who saw this in theaters swooning. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect is Hackman's character, whose part is woefully under-written. The part takes little advantage of his talents and the role could have conceivably been played by virtually any other seasoned actor.
Curiously, the film was produced by horror movie legend William Castle and scored by Christopher Komeda, who had collaborated with him the prior year on Rosemary's Baby. Riot may not rise to the top of the prison film genre, but it is good enough to provide 96 minutes of gut-busting action entertainment - and any time spent watching Mr. Brown is always time well spent.
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