Hölle hinter Gittern

Xenon deserves a big nod for releasing these long lost 70s blaxploitation movies on home video. PENITENTIARY does have some enjoyable moments, including the wild boxing matches. This one obviously takes the sleaze-o route than being a fulfilling and motivating drama about prison life, something this really should've been meant for. A good story, but it drags miserably in acting performances and a sense of weirdness. If you want to see how cheap production values do exist, then don't blink when a close-up view of an inmate actually isn't holding the knife to thrust the guy's chest in. Good fun for "blaxplo" fans, but the majority of us would pass this up and stick to the ROCKY movies.

Penitentiary (1979)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Martel Gordone (Leon Isaac Kennedy) comes to the rescue of a hooker who is being insulted by a couple white trash bikers. A fight breaks out and before long we see Martel in a prison where he quickly draws the wrong type of attention. The prison Lieutenant (Chuck Mitchell) tells him about a boxing contest, which could help him get out.

PENITENTIARY comes from director Jamaa Fanaka and it's certainly one of the strangest but most entertaining prison movies from the decade. I guess you could say that if ROCKY was on crack cocaine and set inside a prison then you'd have something like this movie. There's no question that there are some truly awful performances and some incredibly campy moments scattered throughout the film but at the same time this here just adds to its rather goofy charm.

What makes the film so memorable are the actual boxing scenes. There are some pretty wild fights here including an incredible one where Martel must fight his cell mate. This sequence has to be one of the longest and wildest fights that you're ever going to see and it certainly keeps you entertained. A lot of times I don't really like these types of exploitation movies lasting that long but I must admit that the 99-minute running time went by rather quickly.

Leon Isaac Kennedy has become a cult figure over the years and while he wasn't the great actor, he at least has a certainly style and persona that leaps off the screen. He certainly keeps you drawn into the movie and adds a lot of fun. Fans of PORKY'S will also enjoy seeing Mitchell here in a good role.

If you're looking for class or high art then PENITENTIARY certainly won't be for you but those who like fun trash then dig in.

I saw this film with a pal over twenty years ago at the theater, first-run. I sat there amazed at how wincingly terrible it was from start to finish. After about forty-five minutes my friend (who was a drama student at the time) wanted desperately to leave the theater. I refused, explaining that in the years to come we would both look back at this film as a standard for cinema awfulness. I was right.

A man is wrongly imprisoned for murder. While in the penitentiary he gets involved in a boxing competition that the prison hosts.

Penitentiary is a somewhat odd blaxploitation movie. It seems to be a curious mix of realism and ridiculousness. While on the one hand, the idea of a prison boxing competition where the male and female inmates can get together is a very silly idea. But on the other hand, the movie also deals with issues of institutionalisation and the tone overall is often quite sombre. So it's a strange combination. It has to be said though that the best moment is the excellent fight scene between the hero and his psychotic cell mate. It's a pretty ferocious and exciting affair and I suppose just emphasises that Penitentiary is definitely a fight film over and above anything else.

This is definitely a good example of its type. It's certainly not a typical prison drama though that's for sure. It even spawned a couple of sequels that recycled the same idea to ever more ridiculous extents. It's certainly one of the least likely franchises you could imagine.

"Penitentiary" is definitely a superior prison/boxing movie. It has a low budget, but like any good low-budget movie, it turns this into a strength, not a drawback. You don't miss what the money could have afforded. The lack of multiple locations, fancy camera angles and stunt-doubles just brings you closer to the action.

The actors are all superior, as is the direction. Fanaka made creative use of close-ups, slow motion, hand held cameras, and all this while still in film school.

The movie is considered "blaxploitation", though I think that great exploitation sub-genre was pretty much over by '79. The movie does have a predominantly African-American cast, but the usual themes of the sub-genre, such as racism and the cynical exploitation of black people by whites, is not really the focus here. The most powerful white guy in the movie, the warden, is even depicted as a good man in the end.

Of all the performances, aside from Kennedy - who carries the movie - the greatest is probably Floyd Chatman as a lifer who has plenty of wisdom but can't face life on the outside. He looks like a black Colonel Sanders, or perhaps a wise koala bear.

The movie also has a sensitive attitude toward one infamous subject - prison rape, which along with everything else, elevates it above simple "prison movie" or "exploitation flick" status.

I say check it out.