Shawshank Redemption & Cool Hand Luke

[Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt]

Bob, grinning, sez:

>                                    I recently went on
> a court-sponsored tour of San Quentin (as a federal court employee) and was
> told by a prison guard that the Shawshank Redemption was the most realistic
> depiction of prison life that he had ever seen on film.  But maybe he hadn't
> seen Cool Hand Luke. <grin>
> 
> Bob

Of course, a prison guard _would_ say that. <grin> 

My 'putdown' of the Sh/Redemption was "despite [it] trying hard to 'ring 
true' to the hardships of prison life". The obligatory guard brutality and 
male rape stuff is there, but any criticism of the system itself is 
greatly watered down. In the end, Morgan Freeman is released by the 
very people he criticises, rendering his critique worthless (message: 
"see? the system works!") - before that, the warden and captain are punished, 
showing that they do not represent the authorities after all 
(message: "see? the system works!") - and worst of all, Tim Robbins 
turns out to be 'innocent' (message: "see? even if the system does not 
work on occasion, an individual's hard work and perseverance etc. can 
right what's wrong - so there's some other system behind the system 
which corrects it should it misfire") Summary: Rule 1. The system 
always works. Rule 2. Should it on occasion not work, refer to rule 1.
A society which deems it necessary to surgically remove parts of 
itself and put them behind bars is affirmed, it is not acknowledged 
that the forces operating inside are the same as the forces operating 
outside the prison, the categories 'innocent' and 'gulty' are not 
even questioned but maintained as they are, and so is the fiction of 
individual agency. 
Compare this approach with, oh, of the top of my head, say, that guy 
Thomas Pynchon's material. Or, to be fair to the genre, Cool Hand 
Luke. A little prissy for our jaded palates, maybe, but to quote from 
my previous post, "despite its obeisance to sexual propriety and other 
cliches of its time, [it] is still the prison film that rings most true to 
me". 

IMHO.
hg
hag at iafrica.com