Prison Song

The opening of this movie3 reminds me of a time in this country when the standard for porn was "socially redeeming value." They would have some doctor appear at the beginning or show some scrolling information to justify the movie to follow. In the same way, prison Song starts with a recap of the number of black in prison and the wasted youth. That is tragic, but no more tragic than this movie.

Yes, there is a story of a promising artist who ended up in prison for being at the wrong place at the wrong time and getting a bum lawyer in a system that just doesn't care about minorities. But, basically, this is a vehicle for the rapper Q-tip. Not being familiar with his work, I cannot comment on the music, just the boring story.

Young people with talent. It's a good movie. You have to watch it in order to know how life go.

The name Darnell Martin attracted me to this movie . Martin was a director of season one of the prison drama OZ which is my all time favourite drama show to have come out of America . Martin was in my humble opinion the best director of the show and made the stand out episodes of the series including the debut episode that gripped me tighter than a vice . The synopsis of PRISON SONG led me to believe I'd be watching more of the same . Did I ? Well yes and no

The story is the well worn one of a ghetto kid called Elijah who struggling against the crushing adversity of his environment finds he has a special talent for photography and as he grows up he gets a place at college . What could possibly go wrong ? Destiny apparently because Elijah finds himself facing some hard time

If Martin had concentrated on this we'd get a tough prison movie which while seeing it all before would have been a tough gritty film . You have to take in to account as to who the cast are Q-Tip and Mary J Blige which means we get a pumping soundtrack which will prejudice your opinion . If you enjoy hearing a thump thump thump rap track involving I think the word is " mother figures " then this will enhance your feelings for the movie . If like me you don't then you'll be constantly irritated by the soundtrack

This is a pity because PRISON SONG does just about works as a tough prison drama but only intermittently . The film starts by giving out some sociological figures by pointing out crime stats involving African American men but then quickly gives up the pretence of any social comment and concentrates on the music . At the end of the day PRISON SONG suffers from too much song and not enough prison

Musical segments don't always work that well. I think it's Amazing that SNOW of Informer is in this as a guard. He is very talented has like 5 Albums. He should've had a musical scene. Even if he did play a guard, it could've been a dream scene where qtip dream the guard sang his reggage rap.

I had it in DVD then sold it.

Prison Song was a film that I unintentionally passed up since it was on BET all of the time, instead I waited until the DVD came out to watch. When I did I realized that this is a very powerful film about a young man who gets caught in the system the same way his parents did - only it's a bum conviction that sends the kid to jail for life. For me, it's a very bothersome subject as I do have many friends who've been in and out of jail and as I'm aware of the fact that black people make up majority of the jail's population...

The movie even gets surprisingly graphic sometimes and really depressing as it's hard to not feel for the main character who was robbed of his dreams and his life by an unfair "justice" system. I relate to the main character as it's hard to emotionally detach yourself from a situation as messed up as the one he's in...

9/10 - solid and rewarding movie