On the Yard

On the Yard

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.

It was funny to watch. My girlfriend and I agreed this movie was entertaining. I have to say though it's one of the oddest treatments of the protagonist I've ever seen. The movie pretty much leads one to believe that Juleson is the main character, and with John Heard acting the role it seemed like the whole story would revolve around him... and it does, until it doesn't. That was an odd surprise and it definitely felt odd in the movie. The ending is unspectacular as well. They couldn't spend a few thousand more to get a proper ending? Felt like the ending to a TV show with a corny "oh well, this is us and we've got to live with each other" kind of vibe that wraps up in 30 seconds with a couple of one liners and a slap on the back. Using modern movies as a guide it's easy to look back on what to change so overall I thought it was a 6 or a 7 for the time period...

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.

The film is a typical prison yarn that ticks all the boxes of your prison film which lowered its rating to me somewhat. It brought nothing new to the genre, albeit being from 1978. The daily routine of the prisoners including recreation time 'on the yard' was a bore just as much as the prisoners mundane daily routine I would have thought. All the usual tropes of the genre including the inevitable parole hearing, top dog (although said character is never referred to as top dog), murder, cruel guards are all here. The film tries to bring in a bit of extortion, murder and ingenious escape attempt aboard a hot air balloon to excite its audience but by that stage I was in a slumber watching it. I mean take the said escape attempt in a hot air balloon. The balloon is just slowly rising from the prison in full view of the watch towers lights. Why didn't the guards just shoot it down?

source: On the Yard

"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

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.