The Other Side of Hell

I remember seeing the movie when it first aired as a TV movie back in 1978, and it has stuck with me since. I've been looking for it on video for 10 years as I would really like to see it again to see if it still resonates. Alan Arkin did an excellent job of conveying the desperation of being trapped. If you liked the Shawshank Redemption, this movie has similar themes-you really feel for the protagonist trapped in a corrupt system. It would also appeal to fans of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest as well. It is hard to believe that this was a made for TV movie, as they are rarely as engaging as this. I wish I knew who I could lobby to get this released on DVD.

I found this movie, The Other Side of Hell, on You Tube. My father was imprisoned at Farview Institution for the Criminally Insane from 1943 until he died in 1964. I had not known where my father was until 1970. I had always thought he was in a place where he had "a room," and only this past week had I learned about those events depicted in the movie. I have purchased "Cold Storage" and "The Shoe Leather Treatment." It was disheartening to say the least to learn that my father apparently was there during those events/years. He had not seen me since l943 and I am now 74 years old never having seen him after 1943.

I am trying to find out any information I can about him. Nothing to do with the dark side of the institution, that is all in the past, but just to know anything at all about him as a person. I have only this one fact: that he was an artist and a painting of his was displayed in the Superintendent's office.

I am grateful to the person who posted the movie, The Other Side of Hell, on You Tube. It was very revealing.

Well, as I have stated... if you are reading this you probably have seen this movie, if you haven't and are still reading, I very well may give away plot points... this shouldn't matter too much as it took the bulk of my life to actually find a copy of the darn thing. So if you wanted to view this movie... You honestly can't unless you REALLY try.

To start, it takes place in a mental institution that is more like a prison than a hospital. The main character, Frank Dole, is committed there hoping to receive medical help... He doesn't. He witnesses another patient (inmate) getting beaten to death, and decides he must escape. Befriending Jim Baker, another inmate who plead insanity at his wife's murder trial, the two try and escape. They fail... But Frank eventually manages to escape with the details of the Hospital's brutality.

There is so much story to go around in this movie, that I can't even begin to delve into it all... Some of my favorite parts include Frank collecting keys he finds; hoping one day to unlock the right door, Jim's involvement with the prison cock fights, and Johnson's insane brutality.

Characters are developed extremely well, and you truly feel for them. At least I did.

Should you ever find a copy of this movie, and you haven't seen it... if you like a good drama, give it a try. I saw it on HBO in 1988 or so, and eventually found somebody who had a video copy of it. It was never released on video, and hardly is shown on TV...

This is one of my top ten favorite movies of all time.

I have seen on Amazon in reviews about The Book, the shoe leather treatment, that commentators Believe that Farview staff were convicted of Murder and that the Hospital was shut down. No one was ever Convicted of a Crime although some were Charged. Farview continued to Operate in Pennsylvania as a hospital for the Criminally Insane (a Forensic facility) until it was Given to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in the 1990s to become SCI Waymart. It continued to Function with about 200 beds as a facility for Mentally Ill DOC inmates. Prior to that it served DOC inmates but also took inmates from County Jails who were considered "too Dangerous" for the Forensic facilities at Norristown, Mayview, and Franklin. Often these people had been Charged but not Convicted or sentenced, ie: unable to stand trial by reason of insanity (incompetent). But it also took Sentenced county prisoners who were Mentally Ill. The problem at Farview was essentially that it was Controlled by the Security Officials (law enforcement), not the Treatment Staff, and throughout its life as a State Hospital this conflict for Control raged. Technically ,all the prisoners (patients) were Involved with the Criminal Justice system, Sometimes as today, for Criminalized minor manifestations of their Mental Illnesses. Like most State Hospitals it probably had good wards, and Bad Wards where the atrocities took Place. The books, Cold Storage and The Shoe Leather Treatment, plus the movie The Other Side Of Hell, helped expose these conditions hidden from the Public's View. Now we need to start Looking into State Prisons and county jails where the Criminalized Mentally Ill are being warehoused without any claim to Providing Treatment or a medical model of Staffing. Farview is happening Everywhere.

Just making a point - the hospital mentioned in other reviews and about which Wendell Rawls Jr. wrote is Farview, not Fairview.

This hospital is still in existence today though it is no longer known as Farview (except for us locals who will always call it that.) It is SCI Waymart.

There appears to be some controversy over whether this film was about Farview or some other mental hospital. I wish someone could clear it up.

I drive by Farview often. It is a creepy looking place now - I can't imagine how ominous and awful it must have looked 40 or 50 years ago when these atrocities were still going on.