Brute Force (1947)

Dr. Walters: "I'm a very ordinary man, I get drunk on whiskey. What makes you drunk? Power?"

By Jules Dassin
With Burt Lancaster and Hume Cronyn

Brute Force was one of the similar movies on the IMDb page of They Drive By Night (1940) and when I checked it out I realized it was made by Jules Dassin, a director I've wanted to see more of ever since I saw The Naked City (1948).

Joe Collins is a prisoner at the Westgate Penitentiary coming out of solitary confinement and after the death of an inmate friend, Joe Collins realizes nothing will ever be fine until he is out. Along with his cell mates he plans to escape, working the ropes and ways of prison. His main obstacle is the sadistic and power hungry captain of the guards: Munsey. The old warden is being put on the line for the recent events and Munsey is looking to create more incidents to have the state replace the warden--a spot that Munsey would gladly take over.

In most appearances, Brute Force looks like many prison movies you could see. It holds the bonding and rivalries between inmates, the tough captain who believes he has to enforce more discipline, the different prison jobs which give access to different goods, the fatalistic nature of the loss of freedom, and last but not least, the escape plan. In all these aspects the movie is quite what you would expect it to be, however, the humanism displayed is stunning and makes the movie more than your ordinary prison movie.

The key character comes in the person of the prison's doctor, a drunk who has lost any freedom and who is just as stuck in the prison as the inmates,  but who sees through Captain Munsey's lust for power and even dares confront him.

The photography is raw and industrial, an aspect that struck me when seeing The Naked City (1948) and which also shines here. The play on shadows, bars, building shades and corners gives the prison a much greater dimension than it would have in color I think, as we really feel the oppression.

The few flashbacks about the inmates were not necessary and didn't bring much to the characters or the story but it prevented the movie from being an all-male cast.

I liked: The absurd. Philosophical takes. Humanism. More than a prison movie.

I disliked: Captain Munsey is the typical psychopathic guard, the character borders stereotype/Nazi imagery.

80/100
On top of having the interesting prison atmosphere it also shines in its clever ponderings about freedom.