Brubaker | | Cast : | Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, Morgan Freeman | | Director : | Bob Rafelson, Stuart Rosenberg | | Studio : | Fox Home Entertainme | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | June 20, 1980 | | DVD Released Date : | May 20, 2003 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | March 08, 2005 | | Summary | One of the last gasps of ultra-liberal socialist hollywood | Content
 | By the time this film was made, liberalism was running on empty
and running up against truth in the form of Ronald Reagan. After
selling America on the virtues of drugs, being a prostitute or
being a bum. After selling America that religion was evil, that
the government was evil and that our own institutions were the
enemy, this was the end of the line. The last message the
liberals had for was this: Empty the prisons and let the
criminals go free. Thankfully for the survival of America,
the people stepped back from the pit at that point and the evil
hold liberals had on the country was done.
The film starts with Robert Redford, the new warden, pretending
to be a convict so he can understand the system from the inside.
He finds out that prison isn't a very nice place. But as a
liberal, he decides thats the fault of everyone but the
people in jail for crimes.
After he reveals himself as warden, he declares war on the
entire prison system. Everyone who works for him (guards,
trustees, etc) is the enemy. He then proceeds to start to turn
the prison over to the good government of the prisoners
themselves. The prison becomes an anarchist commune.
But just as the prison is turning into a worker's socialist
paradise, the evil guards and their political friends fight
back. So in a despirate gamble to save himself, the warden
sends the inmates out to dig up a graveyard. The film the
goes over the top straying from any portion of the real story
it was loosely based on and the man who told the warden about
the graveyard is murdered.
Redford then totally loses it and we get a big baby-boomer
blow-up about how the system is oppressing him and how working
within the system can't really change anything. I really half
expected to see him return to the prison at that point and
marry one of the inmates. Or to organize a mass uprising
against the guards. But he just lets off steam against his
liberal friends who have traded their revolutionary ideals
for power within the system.
This film is better as a showcase of what went wrong when
the liberals took power in the 1970's and went on the rampage.
Those liberals who were strictly in it for money or power turned
on the true revolutionaries (like Redford) as quick as they
could. The true revoltionaries who wanted to wave the red
flag over the entire government could not run a coffee shop
let along big institutions like prisons. They alienated
the people who did the work to a point where they had to leave.
The revolution from above failed and they were driven off into
whatever gutters in the big cities would have them.
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| Rating | | | Date | April 16, 2003 | | Summary | A real story, like Walking Tall | Content
| Of course, I'm biased. "Brubaker" is a fictionalized account of the real story of Tom Murton, warden of Tucker & Cummins prison, in Arkansas, in 1967-68. Tom Murton was my dad & I lived on both those prisons as a 5th grader, before we were unceremoniously kicked out of Bill Clintons state. Most of the movie's events really happened, including the electric torture--called the Tucker Telephone--the whip, the horrid food, the inmate trustees carrying guns, painting death row, & digging up some of the 200 unmarked graves, most of which remain unmarked on Tucker farm. Fictional events include the female prison board member, the black old inmate dying--his name was Reuben Gaines & he got out of prison. My dad assuredly did NOT infiltrate the prison as an inmate, but the scene w/ the old warden barricading himself in his office w/ a Thompson submachine gun was true. Like Redford's character, my dad was not PC & probably unecessarily antagonized both the corrections board, & the governor. But who could really agree to cover up 200 murdered inmates? Governor Winthrop Rockefeller fired my dad, even as the Arkansas legislature was moving to indict him for grave-robbing. We had 24 hrs to exit Arkansas. My dad went on to be a tenured professor of Criminology at the Univ. of MN, Minneapolis & passed away in 1990. The book about all this is "Accomplices to the Crime" by Tom Murton & Joe Hyams, Grove Press. Long since out of print, but available over the internet from rare booksellers for a reasonable price. My verdict on the movie: considering that it's primary purpose was to make money, it's a lot more factual than it could have been. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 17, 2003 | | Summary | Not your average prison movie.... | Content
| Brubaker is based on a true story and tells of the events of one man's attempts to reform a prison system mired in corruption, brutality, and a lack of order to any general degree. Henry Brubaker, as stated in the movie, gained his past experience in corrections working in military prison systems. Brubaker hatches the ingenious plan to insert himself into the prison population at Wakefield Penitentiary as an inmate to experience first hand all the problems inside the facility. What he uncovers is nothing less than barbaric punishment methods, no structured management of inmates, lack of medical care, and the penitentiary itself in advance stages of disrepair. Henry Brubaker, after revealing his status as the new warden and assuming his duties, goes on to discover that there are no state hired corrections officers on the staff. Inmate trustees, armed with weapons, are given the responsibility of manning watch towers, supervising work crews, and keeping the peace inside of the prison. Furthermore, prisoners are farmed out to local businessmen in the community for work with no pay which amounts to slave labor. Upon deeper investigation into all the activities in and around the prison, Brubaker discovers other illegal activities including theft of prison food supplies and equipment, inmates being charged fees for almost non-existent medical care, and the revelation that there are prisoners buried on the prison property that were the victims of murder by fellow inmates. Brubaker confronts the state prison board with these problems only to find out that the prison board is not only aware of these incidents, they think the system should reamin unchanged because it has always been this way and should remain so. You can sense their unhappiness with Brubaker as the new warden who wants to come in and upset their system rather than tow the line. Henry Brubaker is portrayed as a man of honesty, integrity, and professionalism and in defying the prison board's message to leave well enough alone, he launches his own campaign to reform the prison and correct the wrongs he has inherited as the new warden. Unfortunately, with the power of the prison board and the governor of the state against him, he is eventually removed as the warden and fired. In the final outcome, many inmates saw the necessity of the changes attempted by Brubaker and were dismayed at seeing him removed and the new warden not making proper progress to reform the prison. This prompted many inmates to file lawsuits against the state for inhumane prison conditions resulting in the governor not being re-elected the following year. This movie is a fine drama with a very good plot, great acting, and poignant conclusion. I highly recommend this movie to everyone. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 27, 2003 | | Summary | Must See | Content
| A wonderful movie for it's day, and even today.
I could see it being the Shawshank Redemption of the early 1980's, except this movie is true. |
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