Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Today I made my annual pilgrimage to the local theater to see all the Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts. My good friend came with me and force once we were in agreement as to which shorts were strongest and weakest--which is a little unusual. While we agreed in the rankings of which films were best to least best, I think I ended up enjoying "Prison Terminal" a bit more than my friend. That's because I really, really respect a film that honestly and openly talks about death--and very few films do. It's not pretty but it's real and honest.

When the film begins, you learn a little about Jack Hall*. He was apparently a decorated soldier during WWII and a POW. However, a couple decades ago, he was convicted of murdering a drug dealer--the same dealer who sold his son drugs--the same son that soon killed himself. You could certainly understand the rage that led to the murder--but this isn't really the point of the film. The point is that now, into his 80s, Jack is still incarcerated and is nearing death. Surprisingly, he and the prison have allowed the filmmakers amazing access to him during these final days in the prison's hospice program--one of the few in any prison in this country (most prisoners normally just die in their cells or, perhaps, in the prison hospital). The film follows him during a period lasting a couple weeks--and is amazingly touching and sad. And, it's BRUTAL to watch--as you see the man gasping and choking for air as well as when he actually dies--you see it all. But it's also hopeful in some ways, as you see that most of the hospice folks are actually prison inmates volunteering--in order to make SOMETHING positive out of their wasted lives. And then there's Jack's other son--his story and his father are pretty amazing as you hear their stories. And, there's Jack's WWII experience, PTSD and alcoholism. In fact, there is enough to make several more shorts out of this one story.

Be sure to have a handkerchief or Kleenex nearby--you'll need them. The film is my vote for second best of the five nominees because it has so much to say, so many interpretations and doesn't try to sugar-coat things. It is what it is--the death of a man.

*As I watched, I noticed that there were apparently PREVIOUS incarcerations--well before the murder conviction. What these were, the film oddly never says. But when he's talking to another old timer in prison, they make mention of life in prison together back in the 1950s.

"I have a feeling it ain't gonna be long; I'm ready. Eighty-two years is enough." - Private Jack Hall in Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall.

Edgar Barens' Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall personifies the idea and the convention we've long heard about "rotting in prison." Like its title explains, it focuses on the last days of Private George William "Jack" Hall, an eighty-two-year-old World War II veteran with severe respiratory problems that make simple walks to the bathroom a challenge to settle down from. Hall had a heart attack in 2001 and his been in the infirmary cellblock of the Iowa State Penitentiary and since then, has remained there, contracting pneumonia and developing worse breathing over time.

Barens gives us a shockingly intimate and personal look at the life of Hall, as well as the tireless efforts of the Iowa State Penitentiary's recently-hired hospice staff, who work around the clock at attending the needs of patients who can no longer help themselves. We learn early on in the forty minute short that 20% of prisoners are indeed elderly and few penitentiaries have adequate healthcare for their patients. Hall is one of the lucky ones, although judging by the nights he has had to deal with in recent times, he'd speak differently.

Hall has been serving a life sentence since he caught up with his son's dope dealer and murdered him in cold blood. Barens, however, devotes almost no time to explaining this and only allowing Hall to address in a very brief monologue in the beginning of the short. Now that we know why he is behind bars at this penitentiary, and because we aren't aware of all the details, it allows for a less judgmental affair when seeing how Hall spends his days coping with his many different diseases and his struggle to adapt to old age. Barens allows us to explore the idea of dying in solidarity - behind bars where there's little you can do about it - with the depressing sadness and brutal honesty this topic deserves. At some points in the documentary, we see Hall interact with his old pals, many of whom aging men serving life sentences for murder just like him, exchanging humorous obscenities and verbal banter, but only for a brief time as Hall's energy is dwindling fast. Even in a wheelchair, just to say two sentences in a row practically takes away the man's breath.

When Hall must cater to the idea of his own fate, he becomes very nostalgic, recalling the hells he faced during his turn of duty in Germany, stuck in a prison and making a three month commute from one specific base to another. "I'll never go to hell cause I been there," Hall states, recalling the suffering he endured in the German prison. Forced to watch him suffer is his son, the one who he saved from a life of drugs and torment in a criminal way. Even though Hall committed an atrocious act, it's easy to see the human side of this man throughout, and his talks with his son are as heartbreaking as they are natural and not put-on for the camera in any way.

Barens directs this short beautifully, never veering into mawkishness and simply showing the ugliness and the tedium of death at face value. The other subtlety Barens seems to marvel at for a while is the vulnerability of Hall over time. A man who was once somebody capable of taking another person's life is the same man who gets winded just by saying the man's name. This gradual change isn't shown, but obviously assumed, and Hall's final days are shown to polarizing effect, giving time for us to ponder how this man went from a killer to someone slowly being killed by his poor health.

As the title tells us, Hall dies at the end, and Barens handles it appropriately, not milking it, not over-sentimentalizing it, but simply showing it as is. Until this point, Barens has been given unprecedented access to the most personal moments of the Hall family's entire life. To treat it with any kind of emotional manipulation would be criminal. The fact that he gives an already amazing short documentary an amazing ending just adds to this being one of the best short documentaries in recent memory.

NOTE: Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall will air throughout April 2014 on HBO.

Directed by: Edgar Barens.

This is produced by the documentary of Home Box Office (HBO) and by sheer coincidence the last documentary I watched was also by HBO , a documentary called THOUGHT CRIMES . I do wonder if HBO might be American television's premier documentary makers . It's a station that shot to my attention in 1997 when Channel 4 started broadcasting the no holds barred drama OZ set in a maximum security prison . In fact even today every time the HBO logo flashes up I always expect the theme tune to OZ start playing . How very appropriate then this documentary features life and death in an American maximum security penitentiary in Iowa

All the other commentators on this page have stated how moving this documentary is . It's difficult not to be moved since Edgar Barens pulls out all the stops and clichés in order to elicit sympathy for its subject . I don't mean empathy I mean out and out sympathy where the manipulation is splashed on with a trowel . Take for example the title THE LAST DAYS OF PRIVATE JACK HALL . Private Hall spent 1942-45 fighting in the European theatre of the Second World War which involved being taken prisoner by the Nazis . This had absolutely nothing to do with what he was convicted of . What happened was Hall's son became a junkie and hanged himself so Hall murdered a drugs dealer . Are we supposed to be on Jack's side ? Perhaps if Jack was a better father his son might not have become a junkie ? But let's not be too judgemental . It's not like this is an objective documentary . A caption tells us "20% of America's prisoners are elderly . Over the next decade 100,000 inmates many serving life sentences will die alone in their cells" . Mind if I ask what they're serving life sentences for ? Murder perhaps ? Serial child sex abuse ? Difficult to feel sorry for certain people but Barens does his utmost by having an intrusive muzak soundtrack of a piano and a string instrument constantly playing , Let me state here there's a gulf of difference between being moved and being manipulated and I was left with the deep seated conviction that I was constantly being manipulated by events in this documentary