In a film that straddles two of our Festival strands (Redford and Prisons), we follow the new prison warden who tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
Henry Brubaker (Robert Redford) witnesses firsthand the corruption and abuse inflicted upon the prisoners by the staff of a small Arkansas prison by going in undercover as an inmate. After revealing his true identity, Brubaker brings much-needed reform to the prison with the help of supporters Dickie Coombes (Yaphet Kotto) and Lillian Gray (Jane Alexander). When the benefactors of the old corrupt system are threatened by the changes, Brubaker's battles really begin. Based on a real-life case from 1960’s Arkansas, this dramatic film with a heavy social conscience includes a great supporting cast of well-known faces, including Morgan Freeman in one of his very first feature films.
USA 1980 Stuart Rosenberg 131m
