In the opening shots we see James Woods, with his mad grin and his cackling, driving along a country road and passing a joint back and forth with his black friend, Charles Weldon. When they reach their destination, they step out of the car and Woods dons the jacket, tie, and cap of a prison corrections officer before stepping through the iron door and going to work. A CO smoking DOPE! This is supposed to shock the audience, and maybe it did, someplace up in the hills.
The movie is an quirky mixture of comedy and drama. The prison's physical plant itself is in pretty good shape. It's not a hell hole like Sing Sing. The building and grounds are in Deer Lodge, Montana. They may not be the only man-made structure in Deer Lodge, although close to it, but they're certainly the most impressive, and they're not unpleasant, either inside or out.
A flourishing narcotics business is going on among the inmates. It's run by Timothy Carey, looking spookily old, but after Carey is thoroughly beaten, Tim McIntire takes over. All the lower-echelon COs appear to know about it but nobody cares enough to make waves.
Not that it's all hunky dory. The black inmates don't like the white inmates, and vice versa, another shock. The dramatic Schwerpunkt of the story is the arrival of a black liberation figure, Robert Hooks, whom the higher-ups plan to have accidentally knocked off. Hooks is treated sympathetically and so are his outside compañeros, who have arranged for Hooks' escape. Woods, seeing that the alternative is that Hooks is killed, involves himself in the escape plan as a matter of principle and of fifty thousand dollars.
Woods plays his usual wisecracking self. The movie could have been called "Fast Talking." He not only smokes dope, he confiscates and instrumentalizes it from the madam of the local hang out, Susan Tyrell -- my supporting player in the much-neglected gem of an art house miniseries called "Windmills of the Gods." Or maybe it was "Rage of Angels." I've done my best to forget. Woods also runs a couple of hookers at Tyrell's place and gets to hose them down naked in the back yard after their strenuous labors. One of the hookers is Kay Lenz, who gives what I judged to be a magnificent, artistic performance in the nude, and also masturbating in the visitors room, giving head at her first meeting with Woods, and what not.
Tim McIntire gave me a bit of a problem. He's supposed to be the head honcho among the inmates -- ruthless, bearded, a trusty with outside influence, narcotics big wig. Yet he has a low voice with every speech sound clearly articulated. He's a juggernaut of evil but sounds like a Vassar graduate. I understand he was an excellent musician too. He died at 41.
The comic moments are a nice relief. In one scene, the sergeant in charge of the COs leads Woods into an office where Woods has left a roach on the desk. After chewing Woods out, the sergeant, M. Emmet Walsh, notices the joint, picks it up, and shouts, "What's going on here?" Woods plucks the joint from his fingers, glances at it sternly, and leaps out of the room, saying, "We'll get to the bottom of this."
The movie is an quirky mixture of comedy and drama. The prison's physical plant itself is in pretty good shape. It's not a hell hole like Sing Sing. The building and grounds are in Deer Lodge, Montana. They may not be the only man-made structure in Deer Lodge, although close to it, but they're certainly the most impressive, and they're not unpleasant, either inside or out.
A flourishing narcotics business is going on among the inmates. It's run by Timothy Carey, looking spookily old, but after Carey is thoroughly beaten, Tim McIntire takes over. All the lower-echelon COs appear to know about it but nobody cares enough to make waves.
Not that it's all hunky dory. The black inmates don't like the white inmates, and vice versa, another shock. The dramatic Schwerpunkt of the story is the arrival of a black liberation figure, Robert Hooks, whom the higher-ups plan to have accidentally knocked off. Hooks is treated sympathetically and so are his outside compañeros, who have arranged for Hooks' escape. Woods, seeing that the alternative is that Hooks is killed, involves himself in the escape plan as a matter of principle and of fifty thousand dollars.
Woods plays his usual wisecracking self. The movie could have been called "Fast Talking." He not only smokes dope, he confiscates and instrumentalizes it from the madam of the local hang out, Susan Tyrell -- my supporting player in the much-neglected gem of an art house miniseries called "Windmills of the Gods." Or maybe it was "Rage of Angels." I've done my best to forget. Woods also runs a couple of hookers at Tyrell's place and gets to hose them down naked in the back yard after their strenuous labors. One of the hookers is Kay Lenz, who gives what I judged to be a magnificent, artistic performance in the nude, and also masturbating in the visitors room, giving head at her first meeting with Woods, and what not.
Tim McIntire gave me a bit of a problem. He's supposed to be the head honcho among the inmates -- ruthless, bearded, a trusty with outside influence, narcotics big wig. Yet he has a low voice with every speech sound clearly articulated. He's a juggernaut of evil but sounds like a Vassar graduate. I understand he was an excellent musician too. He died at 41.
The comic moments are a nice relief. In one scene, the sergeant in charge of the COs leads Woods into an office where Woods has left a roach on the desk. After chewing Woods out, the sergeant, M. Emmet Walsh, notices the joint, picks it up, and shouts, "What's going on here?" Woods plucks the joint from his fingers, glances at it sternly, and leaps out of the room, saying, "We'll get to the bottom of this."