Brubaker - The Odds Against True Reform

Jun

6

Brubaker - The Odds Against True Reform

≡ Category: Action, Drama, Highly Recommended, Mainstream, Movie Reviews By Country, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Mainstream
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Year: 1980

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Brubaker is an example of a type of movie that is almost extinct. Take a story about a socially relevant issue, tart it up a little with some violence, and tell it intelligently. It’s an approach that requires expert execution in order to work, and even then you’re not going to hit a homerun, at least in terms of box office. Frankly, Brubaker makes me a little nostalgic for medium budget action pictures designed to appeal to intelligent adults.

Everything about Brubaker is a class act. The direction by Stuart Rosenberg is muscular but not ostentatious. The script by W. D. Richter is pitch perfect in terms of characterization and tells the story in a tight but unhurried fashion. The score by Lalo Schiffren has much of the flavor of the South without being slavishly imitative. The cast is a regular character acting festival: Yaphet Kotto, Jane Alexander, Murray Hamilton, David Keith, Morgan Freeman, M. Emmet Walsh, and Everett McGill are all wonderful. Robert Redford himself turns in an expert star performance. He oozes charisma but he’s not just playing himself.

Another admirable facet of Brubaker is it’s realism. It doesn’t insist on a rousing feel-good finish. Most of the scumbags in the story continue to thrive after the movie ends. Brubaker makes you feel just how difficult it is to enact any real sort of reform in the teeth of a corrupt government.

In Brubaker, a prison in the deep South is a hellhole for the prisoners and a cash machine for the members of the prison board. A reform warden is brought in by the newly elected governor, ostensibly to clean up the mess, but really to slap a new coat of paint over the rust.

When the warden insists on making real changes, the threat of imminent violence fills the air, like lightning before a thunderstorm.

Brubaker won’t please fans of attention deficit editing. It doesn’t coddle the audience every step of the way. This is a movie for mature adults. It won’t rock your socks, but it’s a solid mainstream drama that won’t insult your intelligence, and these days, that’s a breath of fresh air.