La cárcel de La Victoria: El cuarto hombre

Dominican Republic isn't famous for it's movies. Better yet people worldwide recognize the sound of merengue or the name of a famous baseball player and associate it with this country. But I think this film, "La cárcel de la Victoria: El cuarto hombre", is going to make some difference. Setting the plot in a major penitentiary in the Dominican Republic named "La Victoria" (spanish for victory), the real value of this movie is it's documentation. There aren't real prisons in this caribbean island, just big concentration camps that isolate delinquents, rapists and "white collar" crooks that feed on corruption. It is incredible how they portray prisoners sleeping on the floor, eating what they can find, trying to survive in the depths of purgatory. And right in the middle we find the story of a man who imprisoned himself in search of the brutal killer of his little boy. Looking for vengeance he discovers that it won't be so simple as planned and with the help of his wife from the outside the plot thickens. A story that will make your skin crawl due to the inhumanity shown and the reality that is lived day after day in the Victoria prison in Dominican Republic. Great script and direction from television producer Jose Pintor and exceptional photography from Claudio Chea. Good acting comes from dominican Richard Douglas. The rest of the cast is rather cold but still delivers its purpose.

If you like violence, this movie might interest you.

This movie is about a foreigner(a Spaniard in Dominican Republic) who's child has been murdered by a hit-man/robber. He's been told his son's killer has been sent to La Victoria (a Maximum security prison and maybe the worst in Dominican Republic, or who knows, maybe the worst of the within whole Caribbean sea islands); he decided to pursue this killer up to the prison, where he is inducted as another convict; once in the slam he must determine which prisoner is the real killer.

Director spent much of the film trying to capture the essence of this place (La Victoria), using real convicts, shooting in the whole environment, giving a glimpse of the brutality and wildness breathing in this Slam City (it's a crude movie, must be rated R at least). You will see some chocking scenes, violence, abuses (of all kind, including sexual); and all to express how bad is living in this Jail-house, and all the pressure and difficulties the convicts and their relatives are exposed to. Maybe that's why by the end the storyboard writer ran out of ideas and decided to come out with a quick End; they fail to develop the plot, to cause enough suspense/thrill; this movie is more like "a Day in Prison Documentary" rather than a real movie.

Photography is regular (average), camera is sometimes to close you can't figure out the whole environment (stage), maybe they could take some other shots (landscapes, aereal, wide) the spectator doesn't have an idea of how big is the place, how dirty, how populated, and no one would know there's a village just next to the prison(where the people come from at weekends to a fairy/party with the convicts, this is a real fact).

Audio es just what the director needed, this is not a super-mastered-ac3-with-lots-of-audio-effects-flick, but you can easily hear what you need to hear; it doesn't have a great soundtrack (there are no well-known songs). I don't know if it has to do with the theaters and their quality, but in several dialogues voice seems to be out of synchronism.

In several cases some behaviors denote overacting; that's why I only consider Richard Douglas' interpretation as remarkable. He portrays a mobster a Provó/Padrote (kingpin/boss, somebody with influence among the prisoners and the prison authorities), a really interesting character; and he success in performing as one of the real Lords of La Victoria (even though in some scenes his overacting too). Others have almost acceptable and just over regular performances.