Every now and then in this very dark prison film, you see graphic elements of humanity coming from the alleged dredges of society, suddenly turning people who go out of their way to harass each other all the time becoming brothers. It's moments like this that turn alleged monsters into true human beings, and there's sympathy for the title character, a child molester played by Bruce Davison who becomes the lowest of the pecking order even though he already is because he's a minority, a white man. But a short eye, the slang term for a child molester, is the lowest of the low, and being both a short eye and white makes Davison an automatic hated victim, exposed viciously while at chow thanks to an angry guard who knows why he's there.
This certainly is a much better movie than the film version of "Fortune and Men's Eyes", and while equally depressing, it has characters in it who have more dimension than the majority of characters in that more well-known film. The film is verbally graphic in its description of certain inmates' desires to sexually dominate others, usually the weaker ones, and the lust towards a pretty boy Puerto Rican by a much stronger Hispanic inmate indicates the surpressed homosexuality of the more masculine inmate. The protection that some of the inmates have without required rewards towards weaker inmates really adds to the humanity of these mixed up men.
When an old guard is suddenly attacked, one of the inmates berates the attackers for their taking advantage of the guard's vulnerabity. It's moments like this that shows the soul underneath these law breakers and that leads to the main story, the friendship between the white "short eye" Davison and the sympathetic Hispanic prisoner Jose Perez. You're not supposed to forgive Davison for what his character allegedly has done, but you do get to see the other side of the story, from the regrets to the pain within his mixed up mind, and also question how wrong sometimes first impressions of people based on race or their physical appearance can be. The acting, script and direction are all terrific, with a few surprise musical guests as well. Davison has a speech that is sickening in words but poetry in the way he speaks. It's the type of film that can induce tears and create so many different emotions, and that makes it a film that is high art, wonderful and painful at the same time.
This certainly is a much better movie than the film version of "Fortune and Men's Eyes", and while equally depressing, it has characters in it who have more dimension than the majority of characters in that more well-known film. The film is verbally graphic in its description of certain inmates' desires to sexually dominate others, usually the weaker ones, and the lust towards a pretty boy Puerto Rican by a much stronger Hispanic inmate indicates the surpressed homosexuality of the more masculine inmate. The protection that some of the inmates have without required rewards towards weaker inmates really adds to the humanity of these mixed up men.
When an old guard is suddenly attacked, one of the inmates berates the attackers for their taking advantage of the guard's vulnerabity. It's moments like this that shows the soul underneath these law breakers and that leads to the main story, the friendship between the white "short eye" Davison and the sympathetic Hispanic prisoner Jose Perez. You're not supposed to forgive Davison for what his character allegedly has done, but you do get to see the other side of the story, from the regrets to the pain within his mixed up mind, and also question how wrong sometimes first impressions of people based on race or their physical appearance can be. The acting, script and direction are all terrific, with a few surprise musical guests as well. Davison has a speech that is sickening in words but poetry in the way he speaks. It's the type of film that can induce tears and create so many different emotions, and that makes it a film that is high art, wonderful and painful at the same time.