Brute Force | | Cast : | Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford | | Director : | Jules Dassin | | Studio : | Image Entertainment | | Format : | Black & White | | Released Date : | June 30, 1947 | | DVD Released Date : | July 06, 1999 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 29, 2005 | | Summary | Uncompromisingly Brutal, Pessimistic, and Affecting. | Content
 | "Brute Force" is one of the most violent film noirs of the classic era, as well as one of the most pessimistic -and this is after some violence was removed to comply with the Production Code. The story takes place within the confines of Westgate Penitentiary, an overcrowded prison whose deficient living conditions and sadistic guards make the inmates' lives nearly unbearable. Prison life is no less than a war between the inmates and guard Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn), who routinely uses blackmail and torture to control the prisoners. When the warden revokes all the inmates' privileges in response to the deaths of two men, inmate Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) hatches a violent and risky escape plan with his cellmates and a senior, well-respected prisoner named Gallagher (Charles Bickford).
Director Jules Dessin doesn't let a glimmer of hope into this film. The violence is brutal and wholly without sentiment or regret. The utter hopelessness of the situation in the prison is overwhelming. Brute force is the only means in Westgate Penitentiary. The standout performance is by Hume Cronyn as the Nazi-inspired Captain Munsey, an unabashed sadist who uses social Darwinism to rationalize absolute dominance of the prisoners, who are, after all, behind bars, not free to challenge him. The prison doctor, a disgraced surgeon named Walters (Art Smith), numbs himself with alcohol and articulates the film's themes. "Do you know what this prison is?" he says. "One big human bomb!"
The film is a little too long, and the flashback scenes of wives and girlfriends are superfluous. This is perhaps the most blatantly existential film noir. It takes the position of Sartrean philosophy, articulated by Dr. Walters, which is juxtaposed with Nietzschean philosophy, articulated by Capt. Munsey. I'm not normally captivated by either of these schools of thought, but "Brute Force" kept me interested for the duration of the film. It is a brutal, beautiful film with sharp dialogue, solid character writing, and great attention to detail.
The DVD (Image Entertainment 1999): This is a good print of the film with no obvious image or sound problems. Bonus features include filmographies of director Jules Dessin, writer Richard Brooks, and 3 of the film's stars. (Choose "Filmographies", then "next" to see them.) The "Stills and Pressbook Gallery" (4 minutes) is a slideshow, with accompanying them music by Miklos Rozsa, of production stills, posters, and advertisements for the film. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 11, 2005 | | Summary | Man - hate! Woman - love! | Content
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"Nothing's okay," Westgate Penitentiary inmate Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) says, "I gotta get out." That's because the sadistic screws are keeping the otherwise tractable inmates down with BRUTE FORCE. You treat a man like an animal and he turns into one, right?
At least so sayeth the usually reliable director Jules Dassin in this overripe movie about a prison on the edge of explosion. You see, the bad guys - the inmates - have a backstory, told in a series of flashbacks, that proves they're good guys under the prison grays. They just got hooked up with bad women who made them do bad things. Flashbacks don't lie. They don't necessarily entertain, or keep a movie chugging onward at a comfortable clip, but they don't lie. The prison officials, on the other hand... the otherwise decent warden is weak and vacillating. The avuncular doctor drowns his reprehension in brandy, emerging from his alcoholic stupor periodically to crack wry about the inhumanity of it all.
The baddest good guy is Capt. Munsey (`Sir' to you), Hume Cronyn, an effete sociopath with a blood taste for dishing it out (he seems particularly fond of whips) and a penchant for the insinuating seduction.
I wanted to like it, but as BRUTE FORCE plodded forward, piling melodramatic excess on melodramatic excess, I found myself fighting it. Fighting the notion that everyone in effective authority was a heartless goon, the ineffective ones were broken (presumably by the ruthless System), and the inmates were misunderstood choirboys. Despite its good looks, good performances and exciting final scene I had too many "Aw, c'mon" moments to honestly say I liked this movie.
The transfer print is in good condition, and the disk includes a hands-free Stills Pressbook Gallery with a number of behind-the-scene photographs, publicity stills, lobby cards and posters.
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| Rating | | | Date | April 17, 2005 | | Summary | Anti-fascist moral disguised as a movie | Content
| Hume Croyin is the sadistic prison captain aiming for the warden's position, while Burt Lancaster is the prisoner trying to break a bunch of the cons out. The message is clear: treat people like animals and they'll act like animals. The flashbacks get in the way of the movie, but otherwise this is an excellent men-in-prison flick, with an exciting let's-try-to-break-out ending.
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| Rating | | | Date | January 04, 2005 | | Summary | Who knew Hume Cronyn could be so mean? | Content
| After reading all of the reviews on here and other sites talking about the gritty realism and violence of this film I was very disappointed when I finally located a copy. I think that I AM A FUGITIVE OF A CHAIN GANG blows BRUTE FORCE out of the water. And it was made 15 years earlier in 1932!
Burt Lancaster and his cellmates keep knocking heads with Captain Monsey (played wonderfully by Hume Cronyn who steals the show) so finally after a revenge killing in the metal shop, a suicide and a handful of melodramatic flashbacks they lead a break-out/riot that doesn't go exactly as planned.
I like most of the scenes with Burt Lancaster (hell, he one of my favorite actors), but the stuff about the whiney warden and the softhearted doctor were killing me. Please this is supposed to be a prison movie. Then when they started in with the cellmate's flashbacks I couldn't help but roll my eyes - the tough guy in love with the girl in a wheelchair...spare me.
Like I said watch I AM A FUGITIVE OF A CHAIN GANG instead then afterwards lighten your spirits with Woody Allen's TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN. Or if you're looking for something more recent watch THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, PRISON ON FIRE or CARANDIRU.
D: Jules Dassin (THE NAKED CITY, RIFIFI)
Joe Collins - Burt Lancaster (SORRY, WRONG NUMBER, ELMER GANTRY)
Capt. Monsey -Hume Cronyn (BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED, COCOON)
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| Rating | | | Date | August 20, 2004 | | Summary | "Force does make leaders." | Content
| Westgate Prison is a powder keg. It's overcrowded, and the prisoners are treated inhumanely. Warden, A.J. Barnes (Roman Bohan) can't seem to control the prison, and he's being eased out by Captain Munsey (Hume Crohn). Munsey is the villain of the film. He has his own ideas about running the prison, and Munsey can't wait to install some real discipline. His corrupt methods include maintaining stoolies in the system and beating prisoners to get information out of them. In contrast to Munsey, is the prisoner Collins (Burt Lancaster) who effectively leads a prison break. Collins possesses the sensitivity and humanity that the fascist Munsey lacks. The two men are the antithesis of one another.
"Brute Force" has a slow beginning. The idea that all the nice men are locked up while the brutes run the prison was quite frankly, overdone. Several of the prisoners in cell R17 recall their relationships with women in flashback. These scenes are dated and preposterous. Collins, for example, is shown tenderly ministering to his beloved--a sunny girl in a wheelchair. Another character has a dalliance with Yvonne de Carlo who hams up her role with an incredibly bad accent. These flashbacks are poorly executed, and they add to the absurdities of the film.
For film noir fans, however, "Brute Force" is worth catching for the sheer audacity of the prison break. While this, unfortunately takes place all too briefly at the end of the film, these scenes reveal the film's power. The film's message is clear--treat the prisoners like animals, and animals they will become. The sheer hate and violence that's been simmering in these desperate men is suddenly unleashed at the prison system. This superb latter section of the film is gritty, realistic and savagely violent. Munsey reveals his true evil nature while many prisoners sacrifice their lives in an attempt to even the score. For this ultimate realism, we can forgive the film's beginnings and accept "Brute Force" as an astonishing film for its time--displacedhuman
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