QHS

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...

The main plot of ON THE YARD revolves around inmate Juleson borrowing a couple of packs of cigarettes from prison Mr Fix-it Chilly , but Juleson finds himself unable to pay back Chilly which means intrest on the debt and Chilly is a man who doesn`t like non payment .

If the entire movie revolved around its central plot it would have worked far better , but the story is crowded with a few too many characters and subplots . This might have worked in the novel ( Which I haven`t read but I know is well regarded mainly due to the fact that the author wrote it while in a maximum security prison ) but doesn`t really work here . And I`m also led to believe the original novel influenced the HBO prison drama OZ , a show that shares the exact same strength and weakness as this film . Both are gritty , involving and slightly shocking , but both contain too many minor characters who only come to the fore to drive the plot along and then disappear when they`ve done so , and some of the subplots are faintly ridiculous in ON THE YARD especially the one at the end which will have you asking " How did he manage to get all that stuff without the guards noticing ? "

One other thing I disliked about ON THE YARD was the mixed bag of acting . John Heard gives a solid performance as Juleson swinging between fear and fatalistic resignation but I had a problem with Thomas G Waites as Chilly , not so much with his acting but more with his physical appearence . He doesn`t carry enough tatoos , scars or look in any way like he`s an archetypal prison thug , but maybe that`s the whole point ? because he`s running things he can pay other inmates to do the dirty work . Most memorable performance is by Hector Troy as the looney latino hitman Gasolino.

So if you love OZ you`ll certainly like ON THE YARD . It`s by no means a classic but at least it doesn`t descend into the oft used cliche of having inmates gang-raped every ten minutes so it deserves some credit

I saw this film recently on TV - shown in the early hours of the morning. It's an above average prison drama, with excellent performances - especially by John Heard, Ron Faber (Manning, the first time offender), Lane Smith and Mike Kellin; the latter was especially good. I've also read the original novel, which is far tougher (the ascent in the balloon caused a large fire, with many dead). The author has himself served several sentences in the 1950s, so I'm wondering if conditions portrayed in prison are really up to date. All in all, well worth a viewing.

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.

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?