Riot

"Riot" is a decent prison film, produced by William Castle (known as a director of things like "House on Haunted Hill") and directed by Buzz Kulik ('Brian's Song'). It stars Jim Brown, as cool as ever, as inmate Cully Briston, who realizes that the men of the isolation block have taken over that portion of the prison. Led by Red Fraker (Gene Hackman), they intend to pull off an escape, while pretending to the outside world to be petitioning for better conditions.

Ad copy may try to sell this as some kind of action film, but in truth it's more of a drama with some thriller elements. And it's NOT as violent as some people may fear, with some little bits of gore here and there. It doesn't attempt to show the lives of most of these inmates before their "riot". Cully has his misgivings about the whole thing, but gets caught up in it just the same, trying to talk some sense into Red.

The main asset of "Riot" is a degree of realism. It was based on a novel by Frank Elli, which was itself inspired by a real-life riot in a Minnesota prison. It features a number of inmates in supporting roles and bits, and even casts tough-as-nails real-life warden Frank Eyman to basically play himself. While it may not be truly action-packed, it has some great moments, especially the escape scenes near the end which are fraught with tension. The whole thing is professionally packaged, and nicely scored by Christopher Komeda.

Hackman is fun as the confident ringleader, while Brown remains highly watchable in his more even-keeled portrayal as a convict with some principles. Mike Kellin (who would return to the prison genre a decade later with "On the Yard"), Ben Carruthers (as the volatile, violent "Joe Surefoot"), and Clifford David (Beethoven in "Bill & Teds' Excellent Adventure") co-star as various inmates. Gerald S. O'Loughlin is good as a guard who's tried to dominate Cully for years, then turns weak after being used as a hostage.

"Riot" won't take a place as one of the great prison films, but it does entertain solidly for 97 minutes, which is all you can really ask for sometimes.

Seven out of 10.

Small budget movie,which Gene Hackman's fans might want to see.Its main originality lies in the fact that it does not show life in prison,but the inmates' revenge ,after a few wardens have been held hostages .The prisoners try to fool the prison authorities as they write a petition in order to improve their living conditions in jail while digging a tunnel .But it's many a mile to freedom .Not as good as Siegel's "escape from Alcatraz" (both movies are reportedly true stories).Very violent ,mainly in the second half.

Note:the movie was produced by William Castle with a score by Christopher Komeda.This team worked on "Rosemary's baby" the year before.And "Riot" music resembles that of "Rosemary".Notably,the sequence when the men are walking through the tunnel uses almost the same music as the sequence when Rosemary ,with a knife in her hand,walks through the corridor that leads to the Castevet's apartment.

While I had watched this movie previously in the '90s, I forgot many of the details such as a dream sequence of Jim Brown being surrounded by a bevy of young black women in bikinis at a swimming pool or the following scene of the homosexual prisoners dressing up in drag. Quite exciting especially during the second half when the warden returns from his vacation and decides to fire away, his staff being held hostage damned. And, yes, Gene Hackman is also very good as a fellow prisoner who instigated the whole thing with Brown being a reluctant participant. So on that note, Riot is highly recommended. P.S. That Bill Medley song sure is hauntingly effective every time it plays on the score.

okay, here are what i don't think this movie and its screenplay are good enough: 1) never thought the black prisoners and the white ones could be so united in any prison history 2) the leader of the white prisoner, and the leader of the black ones seemed to respect each other quite well, they also cooperated with each other like brothers. the movie was released in 1969, and probably shot in the year before. do you think in that era and time frame, the blacks could have mixed with the whites so smoothly? they were used to be oil and water, they never could be mixed together, no matter what. 3) the black guy got a thick and high quality cow hide belt, and when he wanted to punch somebody, he just unbelted it from his waist and wrapped around his right fist. are you sure, dude? prisoners could have regular belts around his waists and never considered a dangerous weapon to other inmates and the prisons authorities? if shanks made in plastic or metal are considered deadly weapons, what about the belts? they could also be used as deadly weapons, don't you think? there are so many details that didn't feel all right but you can also let them go if you really need to watch a not quite exciting prison riot film but either a black prisoner's day dream or fantasy.

Buzz Kulik's pulpy, lurid Riot, an R-rated glob of clichéd prison- flick trash shows us two things:

1. Since this would be PG-13 now, with almost dirty language, sort- of naked prisoners being beaten, sparing gouts of blood, and way, way too much of a gay prisoner doing a bump and grind in his cell, one can marvel at how our tolerance of crudity has risen over the last five decades. Kulik must have been in constant combat with the standards and practices folks at Paramount, either to put more movies-sure-are-different adult stuff in this story of a riot masking an escape in an Arizona prison, or to clean this thing up, now!

2. Kulik's ability to take such a nasty, ugly, and pretty-much stupid prison-break story and infuse it with a professionalism the movie doesn't deserve is a testament to his talent. Jim Brown and Gene Hackman, along with a number of recognizable character actors and a whole bunch of real-life inmates are either catatonic or chew up scenery at an alarming rate. The stuff that comes out of their mouths could only be called dialogue in the most general sense of the word. In other words, Riot is a blob of sweat-covered clichés that, for some reason, is watchable enough to keep watching. Go figure!

I saw Riot the first time in, I think, 1973 when ABC showed it during the summer down-time. I could tell the movie had about a third lopped out for all the crudities and nudities and other prisonese. I could only imagine what the little old ladies with the pinking shears and the blue hair at ABC were snipping out, but I thought it was a pretty fearsome movie anyway.

Now, I just marvel at how far Riot pushes the edge of the envelope.

It's still a crappy movie, but it's also a snapshot of what a movie studio was willing to allow for public consumption, way back when you couldn't say "damn" on TV.