Prison movies can let the audience feel a moment of imprisonment, and then they will know the sweetness of liberation .
The movie has a curious function.
Just like a prison movie, the audience has never been in prison, but they have a glimpse of prison life .
Among the many prisons in the world, Thailand's Compreh is notorious.
There, you can die if you don’t follow the rules, you can die if you follow the rules, the gangs are formed, the law of the jungle prevails, and people are trapped beasts.
The movie [The Messenger of Purgatory] took place in this Shura field.
In the tropical summer, the air is humid and water is flowing quickly. The prisoners of Comprex wear only a big pants, shirtless, and full of tattoos. The sweat evaporates in the sultry heat and becomes sticky.
Dozens of people live together in a prison. The environment is messy and quarrels and fights are commonplace. Every day, prisoners die and get out of purgatory.
Even the black prison in [Prison Wind and Cloud] back then should be given three points.
Prison, a place abandoned by God, but movies like it here .
Whether it is Shawshank, who is well-known for film history, or Comprey, who is suffocating.
The prison in the movie has never been silent for so many years.
The first prison movie was born in 1901, called [Prison Bar] .
This is thanks to a circus owner named Walter Barnsdale . Before that, he ran a family circus, which was a kind of mobile circus.
Later, the film spread from Europe to North America, but it could only be seen in cities. At this time, Walter had a whim, if he could make the film go to the countryside and be seen by farmers, he would make a lot of money.
Just do it, and immediately, he spends a lot of money to buy a set of equipment, bring movies and a mobile circus, and go to the countryside.
In the early movies, there were no serious theatrical films. They were all made experimentally, and the subject matter was not restrictive, just like the different kinds of goods in the imported goods section of the supermarket, and how they are trendy .
In the beginning, Walter cooperated with the Wisconsin State Prison to film its internal life, because people who can go into the tent to see the movie must have never heard of prison life.
So there are early prison movies, and these are all documentaries, just records, and no plot.
Later, the film gradually matured, and the pure scenery recording could no longer attract customers, and Walter's mobile cinema was also closed.
On the contrary, the prison movie did not die out, and because of the special place, it began to appear in other movies.
In 1920, the comedy master Buster Keaton acted in a movie called [Prisoner No. 13] . This is after Walter, the prison again appeared on the screen.
Because it is a comedy, the prison inside is not realistic, just a scene filled with funny elements.
Until 1929.
That year, due to the introduction of the "new criminology" theory, large-scale prison riots broke out in many places in the United States.
Among them, the Colorado State Prison was killed with eight guards, five criminals failed to escape and committed suicide, and the prison building was burned to the top by all the prisoners.
The incident shocked the nation and inspired film practitioners. In the same year, screenwriter George Hill wrote a script called "Reign of Terror: A Story of Crime and Punishment" accordingly.
In the second year, the book was made into a movie [Prison Yuan], and the first prison escape movie was born .
The film is almost the same as today's prison movies, and it is also regarded as the originator of modern prison movies.
After that, the theme of prison escape has almost become an inexhaustible treasure for directors, such as [Desperadoes] in 1932, which has elevated prison films to the height of the judicial system and political criticism, which has strong practical significance.
At this point, prison films have officially become a genre film and have gained a firm foothold on the screen.
Why are prison movies fascinating?
Curious is on the one hand, on the other hand, it can cast the same depressive viewing cage for the audience in 100 minutes .
At the end of the film, the audience who withdrew from the cage can always feel the sweetness of free air.
And prison movies are nothing more than two types, one is about jailbreaking, and the other is not about jailbreaking.
No matter what it is, there is a warden with a distinct personality .
Prisons are free and oppressive, and the warden, as the leader of the environment, is mostly the villain.
Just like [Shark Island Escape] in 1936 , there is the first warden on the screen. He tried all means to prevent the wronged man from escaping from Shark Island Prison, even when he almost escaped. Caught it back.
But the director didn't let him be completely bad. After the male protagonist saved his life with a grievance, the warden turned his head.
In the originator of the Hong Kong prison film [Prison Wind] , the atmosphere in the first half of the film is desperate and sad, thanks to Zhang Yaoyang's role as the warden, who bullies the soft and fears hardship and uses despicable methods, making the prisoners suffer.
In addition, there is Sam Norton of [Shawshank's Redemption] , who is polite and lustful. After learning that Andy is innocent, he not only does not rehabilitate him, but also kills innocent prisoners and breaks his bridge to justice.
In the end, Andy, who successfully escaped from prison, overthrew the dark rule of Shawshank Prison, and Norton ended up committing suicide by bombing.
Of course, not all wardens are villains.
Like Brubeck in [Black Prison Storm] in 1980 , he is an idealist. In order to investigate the secrets of prison corruption, the newly appointed he did not hesitate to pretend to be a prisoner.
Later, because of the interests of officials, he was transferred from prison, but with his efforts, reform has become the general trend.
Just like Paul in 1999 [The Green Mile] , he was a conscientious law enforcer, not bad.
When he met John, the god-like prisoner, he was shaken by the ruthless law.
In prison movies, the warden's all manner of style is also the breath of the prison .
Prison is a small society. In addition to the absolute hegemony of the prison, there is an unwritten chain of contempt among prisoners.
At the bottom of this chain of contempt are the rapists .
In 2002, the American Roman Catholic priest John Geoghan was sentenced to ten years in prison for molesting a child. He was killed in prison after only one year in prison.
In fact, more than any person serving a sentence can step on a rapist, and even prison guards have their eyes closed to this behavior.
Therefore, in 2017 [Manipulated City] , rapists were beaten indiscriminately by prisoners in the same prison after they were put in prison.
At the top of the chain of contempt, it is the prison gang . In some prison movies, they have done more evil than the warden.
In [Purgatory Messenger], the gangster in Comprey Prison is covered with tattoos, which is enough visually.
They even abused prisoners who had just gone to jail and caused them to commit suicide.
In the Korean movie [Betrayal in Prison] , the prison gang colluded with the warden, turning black and white, and covering the sky with only one hand.
It is precisely because of the three-six-nine-classes in this small society that newly imprisoned prisoners are self-protected and usually choose strong gangs as their backers.
But if you want to be attached, there must be a threshold.
The rapist is no play, and the rest of the prisoners need to have excellent skills or the crime is sufficiently "prominent" to be recognized by the gang in prison.
"Epic" crimes are primarily financial crimes.
The vast majority of prisoners are the people at the bottom, and they all have a common dream-" Fuck those who are rich, and then become rich themselves. "
Financial scammers not only completed the first half sentence, but they also helped the prisoners complete the second half sentence.
Therefore, even if Andy was not in jail for financial fraud, his banker status still allows him to be appreciated by Warden Norton, the "biggest gang leader in prison".
In Comprey Prison, Muay Thai must be an excellent skill.
In [The Messenger of Purgatory], even though Billy is an Englishman, with a good punch, not only has he not been persecuted by the gang, he has also made a fortune.
Prisons where criminals gather, with distinct levels and undercurrents of brutality, it is a society where the weak can feed on the strong.
Inside and outside the high wall, barbarism and civilization, two worlds.
The prison movie allows the audience to feel a moment of imprisonment, and then they will know the sweetness of liberation .
Up and down the screen, there are two moods of depression and freedom.
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Author/Yaoyao Wine
The article was first published on the WeChat public account "Pocier"
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