Trailer—Penitentiary

This film is about a wrongly convicted man who must fight for survival, then fights in a boxing tournament held by the warden. This film is a different take on Afro-American life, not taking the usual route of blaxploitation by showing the harsh realities inside prison. Director Fannaka makes use of limited resources and creates a classic. The fight scene in a cell is well choreographed and gives the viewer a take on what being in the most horrible situation feels like: locked in a cell with a madman and no weapon in sight. The comedic scenes are good and don't take away from the serious tone of the film. Good performances from unknown (at the time) actors. Watch this one, don't bother viewing the sequels...

I saw Penitentiary when it hit the theaters 37 years ago. I was 28 years old and a flick about convicts in a penitentiary sounded like a good source of two hour entertainment on a Saturday afternoon. It even got decent reviews, as I recall. But the movie had not yet gotten through the first reel when I knew it sucked. I'm not sure who wrote the script. I can assure you, it wasn't Steven Spielberg. The acting was worse than the script. It ranks right up there as one of the worst movies I actually paid admission to see, and I paid to see Good Times, a clinker of monumental proportions starring Sonny and Cher.

Following on Fanaka's promising first film "Emma May", with its strong feminist and community themes, this second, more commercially successful feature is a distinct disappointment belonging, as it does, in the entryway to the Museum Of Standard Prison Pics (somewhere between "The Green Mile" and "Papillon") and whose biggest lesson appears to be that what is to be most feared by African Americans about incarceration is bad acting. Solid C.

Penitentiary came out in the tail end of the Blaxploitation era. It got a cult following riding on the coat tails of Rocky but set in a prison. Martel Gordone (Leon Isaac Kennedy) a black man comes to the aid of a prostitute and winds up in prison on some trumped up charges. In prison the warden is organising an illegal boxing contest, the winner gets early parole. Luckily Gordone is handy with his fists which he has to be to fend of the notorious Half Dead his cellmate. This is a very low budget film and it shows. Some of the acting is amateurish. It mixes genres, a boxing film, a gritty prison drama and it also has farcical humour as well. One prisoner connives to hook up with female prisoners when they show up for a boxing match. At times the film lulls in its dullness but it contains hard hitting action that also examines institutionalised racism in the justice system. Director Jamaa Fanaka did an amazing achievement with his meagre resources but it is not a great film.

Xenon deserves a big nod for releasing these long lost 70s blaxploitation movies on home video. PENITENTIARY does have some enjoyable moments, including the wild boxing matches. This one obviously takes the sleaze-o route than being a fulfilling and motivating drama about prison life, something this really should've been meant for. A good story, but it drags miserably in acting performances and a sense of weirdness. If you want to see how cheap production values do exist, then don't blink when a close-up view of an inmate actually isn't holding the knife to thrust the guy's chest in. Good fun for "blaxplo" fans, but the majority of us would pass this up and stick to the ROCKY movies.

I read in an article that "Penitentiary" is one of John Singelton's favorite films. I can see why. It is an film that is kind of like an "acquired taste". It has its own audience. Hard-hitting, intense, and memorable, with some very well done casting, especially bad-man Badja Djola as "Half Dead". The musical score takes great risks that ultimately pay off. There is one part during the terrific fight scene between Too-Sweet and Half-Dead where there is no score, just screeching. Another interesting point, in Penitentiary 2, Ernie Hudson is just as good as Half-Dead's replacement.