The Best Prison Films
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- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsPaul MuniGlenda FarrellHelen VinsonWrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFrançois LeterrierCharles Le ClaincheMaurice BeerblockA captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.
- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsSteve McQueenDustin HoffmanVictor JoryA French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsAndré BervilJean KeraudyMichel ConstantinDistrust and uncertainty arise when four long-term inmates cautiously induct a new prisoner into their elaborate prison-break scheme.
- DirectorJacques AudiardStarsTahar RahimNiels ArestrupAdel BencherifA delinquent Muslim man struggles to get by in prison until he is taken under the wing of a powerful mob boss. But his gradual rise through the mob's ranks brings him in conflict with his mentor.
- DirectorStuart RosenbergStarsPaul NewmanGeorge KennedyStrother MartinA laid-back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.
- DirectorRyszard BugajskiStarsKrystyna JandaAdam FerencyJanusz GajosTonia goes out drinking. She wakes up in prison, not having a clue why she's there. She is tortured to encourage her to confess to a crime she is not aware of.
- DirectorCosta-GavrasStarsYves MontandSimone SignoretGabriele FerzettiA high-ranking official is forced to confess to high treason.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsBrad DavisIrene MiracleBo HopkinsBilly Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsJames CagneyGeorge RaftJane BryanA corrupt D.A. (Thurston Hall) with political ambitions is angered by news stories implicating him in criminal activity and decides to frame the reporter (James Cagney) for manslaughter in order to silence him.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsClint EastwoodPatrick McGoohanRoberts BlossomAlcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.
- CreatorTom FontanaStarsErnie HudsonJ.K. SimmonsLee TergesenA series chronicling the daily activities of an unusual prison facility and its criminal inhabitants.
- CreatorPaul T. ScheuringStarsDominic PurcellWentworth MillerAmaury NolascoA structural engineer installs himself in a prison he helped design, in order to save his falsely accused brother from a death sentence by breaking themselves out from the inside.
- DirectorHector BabencoStarsWilliam HurtRaul JuliaSonia BragaA gay man and a political prisoner are together in a prison. The gay man narrates the stories of two fake movies and his own life.
- DirectorJulian SchnabelStarsJavier BardemJohnny DeppOlatz López GarmendiaThe life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas.
- DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsTom HardyKelly AdamsLuing AndrewsA young man who was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending three decades in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter-ego, Charles Bronson.
- DirectorRick RosenthalStarsSean PennReni SantoniJim MoodyChicago crime kid Mick O'Brien is sent to reform school after accidentally killing a rival's kid brother.
- DirectorAleksandr MittaStarsAnthony AndrewsVladimir IlinElena MayorovaA political drama about Stalin's prison-camp system in Russia.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsSean ConneryHarry AndrewsIan BannenIn a North African military prison during World War II, five new prisoners struggle to survive in the face of brutal punishment and sadistic guards.
- DirectorTony RichardsonStarsMichael RedgraveTom CourtenayAvis BunnageA young thief takes up long-distance running when he is sent to a borstal.
- DirectorMarc RoccoStarsChristian SlaterKevin BaconGary OldmanAn eager and idealistic young attorney defends an Alcatraz prisoner accused of murdering a fellow inmate. The extenuating circumstances: his client had just spent over three years in solitary confinement.
- DirectorSteve McQueenStarsMichael FassbenderLiam CunninghamStuart GrahamIrish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
- DirectorAndrzej MunkWitold LesiewiczStarsAleksandra SlaskaAnna CiepielewskaJan KreczmarWhile aboard a transatlantic passenger ship, a German woman, Liza, notices someone who looks like Marta, a former inmate at Auschwitz, where Liza used to be a guard.
- DirectorLina WertmüllerStarsGiancarlo GianniniFernando ReyShirley StolerThe defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and its effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.
- DirectorChristian-JaqueStarsRenée FaureLucien CoëdelLouis SalouFabrice del Dongo, a young archbishop, gives his all to romance rather than to the Church, creating complications for everyone around. The Countess of San Severina, is but one of the women who love him a la folie, spurring jealous retribution in high places from those who in turn want her. From his prison window, Fabrice falls in love with the jailer's daughter who takes a vow to the Virgin Mary to never see him again if his escape succeeds.
- DirectorIgor GostevStarsAndrey TashkovAnton AndrosovAleksandr MokhovA drama from the life of the prisoners in a regular jail in Soviet Union.
- DirectorJules DassinStarsBurt LancasterHume CronynCharles BickfordAt a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
- DirectorMikhail GrigorevVladimir StudennikovStarsViktor SukhorukovIvan KrivoruchkoNadezhda ZharikovaThe action is set in 1970 as the Soviet Union (and the entire progressive world) are preparing to celebrate Lenin's centenary. Not to be outdone, the camp commander decides to have the prisoners put on a play about Lenin's life. However, the ensuing preparations turn everything upside down and seem to offer a God-given chance to plot an escape.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsBurt LancasterKarl MaldenThelma RitterA surly convicted murderer held in permanent isolation redeems himself when he becomes a renowned bird expert.
- DirectorPeter MedakStarsTom CourtenayChristopher EcclestonEileen AtkinsThis drama reveals the controversial postwar 1950's London murder trial that sent an intellectually challenged young man to the gallows for a murder he did not commit.
- DirectorBarry LevinsonStarsRobert De NiroKevin BaconBrad PittAfter a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, an unexpected random encounter with a former guard gives them a chance for revenge.
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsDavid BowieTom ContiRyuichi SakamotoDuring WWII, a British colonel tries to bridge the cultural divides between a British POW and the Japanese camp commander in order to avoid bloodshed.
- DirectorRobert M. YoungStarsWillem DafoeEdward James OlmosRobert LoggiaIn Greece during World War II, a young Jewish boxer, his girlfriend, and their families are sent to Auschwitz. When the camp guards learn of his boxing abilities, they force him to participate in weekly boxing matches.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsElvis PresleyJudy TylerMickey ShaughnessyAfter serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.
- DirectorSergei BodrovStarsSergey BodrovViktor BorisovAleksandr BureyevAn independent young boy living in a prison-like state children's home escapes multiple times, searching for his imprisoned father.
- DirectorPark Chan-wookStarsNam-mi KangJeong-nam ChoiHye-Sook GoAfter being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly brutal means.
- DirectorTim Blake NelsonStarsDavid ArquetteVelizar BinevDavid ChandlerA Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkommando, Jews who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow Jews, find themselves in a moral gray zone.
- DirectorHector BabencoStarsEnrique DiazWagner MouraCaio BlatStories of crime, revenge, love, and friendship at the Carandiru Penitentiary, the largest prison in Latin America.
- DirectorAlan ClarkeStarsRay WinstoneMick FordJulian FirthAn uncompromising story of life in a British juvenile offender institution in the '70s.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsClark GableJoan CrawfordIan HunterConvicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter).
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsVittorio De SicaHannes MessemerSandra MiloBardone, a petty con man, is arrested by the Gestapo and coerced into impersonating a partisan leader in order to expose another resistance organizer.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsWarner BaxterGloria StuartClaude GillingwaterThe story of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was imprisoned after innocently treating President Lincoln's assassin in 1865.
- DirectorCasper WredeStarsTom CourtenayEspen SkjønbergAlf MallandIvan Denisovich Shukhov has been sentenced to a camp in the Soviet gulag system. He was accused of becoming a spy after being captured briefly by the Germans as a prisoner of war during World War II. He is innocent, but is sentenced to ten years in a forced labor camp. The day begins with Shukhov waking up sick. For waking late, he is forced to clean the guardhouse, but this is a comparatively minor punishment. When Shukhov is finally able to leave the guardhouse, he goes to the dispensary to report his illness. It is relatively late in the morning by this time, however, so the orderly is unable to exempt any more workers and Shukhov must work. Based on the life of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
- DirectorJean-Stéphane SauvaireStarsJoe ColeVithaya PansringarmCherry MikoThe true story of an English boxer incarcerated in one of Thailand's most notorious prisons as he fights in Muay Thai tournaments to earn his freedom.