On the Yard

Based on a novel by Malcolm Braly who did time in various prisons himself. Braly died a few years after this movie was released.

It was a run off gritty movies about prison life in the late 1970s and early 80s. Brubaker and Escape from Alcatraz come to mind.

Trouble starts for wife murderer Juleson (John Heard) who buys cigarettes on credit from a Chilly (Thomas G Waites.) He is the inmate who runs the show when it comes to contraband. Chilly has the heavies as back up and pay offs to the guards.

Only the promised money from Juleson's aunt does not arrive. Now Chilly needs to make an example out of him or he will lose face.

Blake (Lane Smith) the prison captain is out to get Chilly. He puts pressure on Juleson to grass Chilly up which he refuses to do.

On the Yard is a grim and downbeat film but tones down the violence. It wants to be a character piece with multiple storylines.

Red one of Chilly's heavies, a veteran jailbird is hoping to get parole. Morris is panning tom escape on a hot air balloon. Gasoline is another heavy that Chilly orders to attack Paulson.

The trouble is a lot of these plot threads get lost. Even the central story is underwhelming.

It is worth it for several understated performances.

"On the Yard" has good acting, and a great prison location. What is missing is a compelling story. The "Rockview State Correctional Facility" where this was filmed is an actual Pennsylvania prison, but even though the drama has a very realistic feel to it, the story itself is not that interesting. Everything revolves around "top con", Tom Waites, and his control of the cigarette trade within the walls. John Heard makes a habit of making enemies, bucks the system, and finds out that a carton of cigarettes can be very expensive. Meanwhile a no nonsense guard captain, Lane Smith, is trying to shut down Waites enterprise, while a totally superfluous hot air balloon escape is thrown into the mix. Not bad of it's type, but I've seen better. - MERK

RIP to John Heard, this guy i always remembered from Home Alone 1&2 as i grew up watching those on video, also John was great in the fun 80's cult horror favourite C. H. U. D

Here John plays a weirdo prisoner who wants to be alone constantly & is in for murdering his wife. It's hard to feel anything for John's character because he's so shut away emotionally & comes accross very weird & arrogant. His inmate character keeps to himself & doesn't abide by the prison codes. His character is annoying because everything that happens is his own fault, because he SMOKES!!!

IF he didn't smoke none of the films events with him wouldn't have happened, see Smoking is bad for your health...FACT.

Anyway John's weirdo inmate borrows a box of smokes & later can't pay his debt back to the head of a prison gang, the guy you go to when you want something, & it gets out of hand.

This go-to-guy is named Chilly & is played superbly by the underrated Thomas G. Waites (The Warriors, The Thing, McBain) this guy was excellent in those old school films & his best performance is right here as prison inmate go-to-guy. There's a small role for James Remar who would go on to be one of The Warriors with Waites in the 1979 Cult Classic.

Chilly is a fair dude, if you owe him he will collect & he does use violence, but if your cool with him & pay on time then he's a friendly dude actually & likeable.

Thomas Waites had an intensity in his eyes & should've been a much bigger a actor in my opinion. Waites would've made a great Serpico (yes Pacino was excellent but seeing Waites here with his long hair & beard he looks every bit Serpico) & should've been cast in much more dramas & thriller's.

On The Yard is a well made gritty prison drama with bunch of odd-ball characters who shuffle about in prison doing inmate stuff. There's a little side story of some of Chilly's pals who are building a big air balloon to escape but that part feels abit out of place to be honest.

I loved the gorgeous saxophone music score throughout the movie, it had a sad softness to it that contrasts the gritty harshness of the prison.

At the heart of On The Yard is how rules & codes are life in prison & this story is about two inmates butting heads over something so trivial as a carton of cigarettes. Small things mean so much in a prison environment & that is played out well here. The refreshing thing about this prison film is there's no horrific rape scenes, i was happy about that as the story didn't need that sort of vile stuff included.

All in all, On The Yard is very well acted gritty, sometimes violent story of inmate life in a 1970's prison. A reminder: Do Not Smoke.

I saw this film recently on TV - shown in the early hours of the morning. It's an above average prison drama, with excellent performances - especially by John Heard, Ron Faber (Manning, the first time offender), Lane Smith and Mike Kellin; the latter was especially good. I've also read the original novel, which is far tougher (the ascent in the balloon caused a large fire, with many dead). The author has himself served several sentences in the 1950s, so I'm wondering if conditions portrayed in prison are really up to date. All in all, well worth a viewing.

Nowadays not too many people may remember "On the Yard" when this type of film is brought up, but that's too bad as it's not a bad film at all. It does achieve a sort of "docu- realism", treating the daily routine of convicts in a thoroughly straightforward manner. Everything about it is so matter-of-fact, including the violence, the pecking order among the prisoners, the attempts by the guards to keep them in line, etc. It never goes too far into melodrama, although it does have its poignant moments nonetheless. The characters are reasonably interesting if never that commanding, save for the veteran convict played appealingly by the sad eyed Mike Kellin, who keeps trying to get paroled even though he knows that he can't really function on the outside.

A fairly likable John Heard stars as Juleson, who's locked up for the murder of his wife. Desperate for a smoke, he acquires some from jailhouse kingpin Chilly (Thomas G. Waites). However, he soon finds that he will be unable to settle the debt. And the more time that goes on, the more the interest increases. There's also the timid Morris (Joe Grifasi), who's attempting to put together a hot air balloon so he can escape. Chilly realizes that his little empire is threatened by ambitious fellow inmates. And Blake (Lane Smith), the captain of the guards, is likewise determined to put Chilly in his place.

As you can see, there are some top notch character actors in this thing. Also among them are Richard Bright of the "Godfather" series, Dominic Chianese of 'The Sopranos', David Clennon (Waites's future co-star in John Carpenters' "The Thing"), Don Blakely, J.C. Quinn, Eddie Jones, Ben Slack, and James Remar. The casting of Waites (best known as Fox in "The Warriors" and Windows in "The Thing") as the top con is interesting as one has to wonder just what it is about this man that's allowed him to obtain such influence. As it is, he does deliver a subtle, nuanced performance; Chilly is usually not the type to throw his weight around when he can have other people do that for him.

Granted, the subplot about the balloon is hard to swallow, but for the most part, "On the Yard" is a decent tale well told by director Raphael D. Silver, and produced by "Hester Street" director Joan Micklin Silver (Raphaels' wife). Authentic location shooting in a real Pennsylvania institution and an effective music score by Charles Gross also help to make this good entertainment.

Seven out of 10.