On the Yard

Based on a novel by Malcolm Braly who did time in various prisons himself. Braly died a few years after this movie was released.

It was a run off gritty movies about prison life in the late 1970s and early 80s. Brubaker and Escape from Alcatraz come to mind.

Trouble starts for wife murderer Juleson (John Heard) who buys cigarettes on credit from a Chilly (Thomas G Waites.) He is the inmate who runs the show when it comes to contraband. Chilly has the heavies as back up and pay offs to the guards.

Only the promised money from Juleson's aunt does not arrive. Now Chilly needs to make an example out of him or he will lose face.

Blake (Lane Smith) the prison captain is out to get Chilly. He puts pressure on Juleson to grass Chilly up which he refuses to do.

On the Yard is a grim and downbeat film but tones down the violence. It wants to be a character piece with multiple storylines.

Red one of Chilly's heavies, a veteran jailbird is hoping to get parole. Morris is panning tom escape on a hot air balloon. Gasoline is another heavy that Chilly orders to attack Paulson.

The trouble is a lot of these plot threads get lost. Even the central story is underwhelming.

It is worth it for several understated performances.

It was funny to watch. My girlfriend and I agreed this movie was entertaining. I have to say though it's one of the oddest treatments of the protagonist I've ever seen. The movie pretty much leads one to believe that Juleson is the main character, and with John Heard acting the role it seemed like the whole story would revolve around him... and it does, until it doesn't. That was an odd surprise and it definitely felt odd in the movie. The ending is unspectacular as well. They couldn't spend a few thousand more to get a proper ending? Felt like the ending to a TV show with a corny "oh well, this is us and we've got to live with each other" kind of vibe that wraps up in 30 seconds with a couple of one liners and a slap on the back. Using modern movies as a guide it's easy to look back on what to change so overall I thought it was a 6 or a 7 for the time period...

I watched this film, which was on TV recently (in the early hours of the morning - I taped it, naturally!). I agree with the comments made about the ludicrous plot situation re the balloon. If the author (who has served a prison sentence) based this on fact, that's fair enough. But there was more than enough to enjoy apart from that. Particular mention should be made of Mike Kellin ("Red")who gave a very poignant portrayal of a man who's spent the majority of his adult life in prison, and Ron Faber (Manning, the first time offender) whose face told it all at the devastating effect of prison. The swearing was kept to a minimum, which was no bad thing, though offenders tend to use four letter words every other word. Whilst this is not THE prison film, it's certainly worth a viewing.

On The Yard is a 1979 drama that follows a con artist who gets himself indebted to the leader of a ruthless prison gang while serving his sentence.

Based on Malcolm Braly's 1967 novel of the same name and starring John Heard and Thomas G. Waites, On The Yard is a rugged prison drama that doesn't offer the most exciting story, but takes a realistic approach that keeps its characters center point and interesting. Waites delivers a great performance and really stands out in every scene that he's in keeping you intrigued to see what happens next. It's gritty and tough with a raw quality that captivates your attention right from the get go.

This won't be a film that gets mentioned in the same sentence as other similar flicks in the prison genre, but I thought it was a very good movie. If you've never seen On The Yard before, it's definitely worth checking out.

The film is a typical prison yarn that ticks all the boxes of your prison film which lowered its rating to me somewhat. It brought nothing new to the genre, albeit being from 1978.

The daily routine of the prisoners including recreation time 'on the yard' was a bore just as much as the prisoners mundane daily routine I would have thought.

All the usual tropes of the genre including the inevitable parole hearing, top dog (although said character is never referred to as top dog), murder, cruel guards are all here.

The film tries to bring in a bit of extortion, murder and ingenious escape attempt aboard a hot air balloon to excite its audience but by that stage I was in a slumber watching it. I mean take the said escape attempt in a hot air balloon. The balloon is just slowly rising from the prison in full view of the watch towers lights. Why didn't the guards just shoot it down?