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| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Jules Dassin |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 30 June, 1947 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Criterion |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC |
| TYPE: | B&W, Bleak, Crime Drama, Downbeat, Drama, English, Exposes, Feature, Feature Film Drama, Feature Film-drama, Fighting the System, Film Noir, Gloomy, Harsh, High Historical Importance, Movie, Poignant, Prison Film, Questionable for Children, Social Injustice |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 715515022828 |
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Customer Reviews of Brute Force (Criterion Collection)
WE ARE ALL TRAPPED! "BRUTE FORCE", ever since I first saw it on TV forty years ago,has been one of my favorite films.Directed with great vigor by Julues Dassin,it tells the story of "the men on the inside",and "the women on the outside.Burt Lancaster,Jeff Corey,Howard Duff,and John Hoyt,are some of the men "on the inside",Ann Blyth,Ella Raines,Anita Colby,and Yvonne DeCarlo are the woman on" the outside".Hume Cronyn gives a masterfull performance as the sadistic,fascist Caption of the guards.All the male characters, which also includes Charles Bickford,Sam Levine,and Roman Bohnen (as Warden Barnes) are oustanding,the women less so.This is not an easy DVD to get,so I wish someone maybe Universal,the original releasing company,would come out with a full-length commetary,with a special emphasis ,on the political repercussions that were felt by many members of the cast and crew of this and other left-leaning films.The films message is definitily anti-capitalist.The film rates 5 Stars,the DVD,with no special features rates a 3 and half Star rating.
Uncompromisingly Brutal, Pessimistic, and Affecting.
"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).
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>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!"
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>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.
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>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.
Man - hate! Woman - love!
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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?
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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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