User reviews

This is Westgate Penitentiary, the Warden is a weak man, the prison is practically run by the cruel and highly ambitious Captain Munsey. But the prisoners are no walk overs, they deal their own justice to those that don't tow the line, tired and fed up of mistreatment, and fuelled by the Munsey influenced suicide of a popular inmate, the prisoners, led by big Joe Collins, plot a break out, the fear of failure not even an option.

Brute Force is a cracking moody picture directed with innovation by Jules Dassin and starring Burt Lancaster (brilliant as Joe Collins), Hume Cronyn (Munsey), Charles Bickford (Gallagher) and lady support (shown in excellent flashbacks) from Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth, Ella Raines and Anita Colby. We open in the pouring rain at the monolithic gates of Westgate Penitentiary, Dassin's camera looking up at the gate like some foreboding warning, William Daniels black and white photography is stark and making its point, all this as Miklos Rozsa's score thunders in our ears, it's clear that this is going to be a mean and moody prison picture.

So it proves to be, sure all the formula traits that lace most prison films are in here, but Dassin and his team have managed to harness an oppressive feel to put us the viewer within the walls of Westgate as well. This is a bleak place, there are six men to a prison cell, their only chance of staying sane is memories of loved ones and a unified spirit to not be put upon by the vile Munsey, we are privy to everything, we ourselves are part of the furniture. Brute Force thankfully doesn't disappoint with its ending, the tension has been built up perfectly, the mood is set, so when the ending comes it's explosive and a truly fitting finale to what has been a first rate prison drama. 9/10

I've read recent reviews of this film that condemn it for being "outdated" or not "relevant". Um, hello? This movie is is fifty-seven years old! As such, we are treated to typical 1940s Hollywood stereotypes and acting methods, not to mention references to the recently completed war. Yet, even within the pitfalls of the studio system, this film shines as a great example of film noir.

Director Jules Dassin is brilliant with light, and sets the example for the French "new wave" of cinema. Lighting Burt Lancaster from the side, or from underneath, makes him and the other actors look almost surreal.

Most of the dialogue is "clipped" and preposterous, but films from this era often suffer from this same problem. Yet "Brute Force" retains its original power simply by virtue of the dynamite performances, the stirring score, and the gritty techniques of Dassin.

I had to smile during the scene where Hume Cronyn's character turns up the Wagner on his hi-fi so the guards outside his door won't hear the inmate he's about to beat scream. This was mimicked during David Lynch's ground-breaking TV series "Twin Peaks" when a character turned up his radio before he beat his wife. Of course beating people isn't funny, but seeing obvious references in cinema is always a kick.

I highly recommend "Brute Force" to anyone who appreciates the art of film, great directing, and fine performances.

One of the best prison movies ever made.Jules Dassin's direction is so strong ,so precise,so mind-boggling it packs a real wallop.Hume Cronyn gives a subdued but extremely scary portrayal of a sadistic brute.Always in a suave voice,always saying "I want to help you",there's only one way for him:the hard one.Burt Lancaster is equally efficient as a tough inmate .But the whole cast cannot be too highly praised.

The cast and credits read :"the women from outside" .There are four flashbacks which really fit into the movie.All of them last barely two or three minutes but they could provide material for four other movies. The first one (Flossie's ) verges on farce ,it is the comic relief of a desperate movie and we need it!Then the "fur coat" segment which is some kind of Cinderella turned film noir.The third one,perhaps the less interesting (everything is relative!), features Yvonne De Carlo as an Italian girl during the war the former soldier was in love with .And finally Burt Lancaster's story, he tries to find money to pay his girlfriend's operation.

These flashbacks are not gratuitous:all that is left to those men is memories .Besides,the last line tells us something like that:"nobody will escape!nobody!" More than ten years before ,Dassin had shown what French director Jacques Becker would do in his famous prison movie "le trou" (1960) : the prison as a metaphor of the human condition.

There are lots of scenes which will leave you on the edge of your seat.My favorite scene: the informer's death while Lancaster is securing his alibi with the doc.But the final is awesome too,something apocalyptic.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Brute Force is a classic movie that still stands today, as a powerful piece of film-making. Everything about this movie is top notch - the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the pacing are all essential ingredients in this superb film. Although there's not a weak link in the entire film, special mention must go to Burt Lancaster, Art Smith, John Hoyt, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, and Hume Cronyn as the evil & sadistic Munsey. The deft touch of Jules Dassin is there for all to see, and the film builds to a tremendous climax. In 1947 this must have been an extremely powerful and hard-hitting film, and it remains so to this day. For anyone who appreciates movie-making at its best, this is hard to beat.

Remember how brutal Caged was, and how it exposed the filth and danger in women's prisons? Check out Brute Force, the male counterpart which came out three years earlier. Burt Lancaster is the lead, personifying the title in only his second movie. He's in prison, alongside Charles Bickford, Jeff Corey, Sam Levene, John Hoyt, Jack Overman, Whit Bissell, and Howard Duff. Their prison cell, R17, is shown so often the film might as well have been titled after it, because the cell itself seems to become another character. Each man has a different story about how he became incarcerated, and through flashbacks, we learn the circumstances, and in some cases, the innocence of the men behind bars. It's a very interesting story, and even though the women billed in the opening credits, Ann Blyth, Yvonne De Carlo, and Ella Raines, have a mere five minutes apiece on the screen, it's effective since the movie is about the men and their deep desire for freedom.

Inside, the prison is run by spineless warden Roman Bohnen, who kowtows to the sadistic, manipulative guard Hume Cronyn. Art Smith plays the prison doctor, but since he's chronically drunk, his wisdom isn't taken seriously. As the movie starts, some of the prisoners play along to get on Hume's good side, but when conditions grow worse, they start planning an escape. If you like famous prison movies like The Great Escape and Escape from Alcatraz, you owe it to them to watch the grandfather of prison-break movies, Brute Force. This is a heavy movie, and at times very upsetting, but it's incredibly exciting and remarkably raw for its time. Strong parallels from The Shawshank Redemption have been drawn to Brute Force, and with good reason. If you liked that masterpiece, try out Burt Lancaster's version.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to violence, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

In the Westgate Penitentiary, the Warden A. J. Barden (Roman Bohnen) is a weak man, and the institution is actually ruled by the ambitious and sadistic Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyon), who uses violence, fear and treachery to control the prisoners. After the suicide of Tom Lister (Whit Bissell), one of the inmates of cell R17, provoked by Captain Munsey, the prisoners loses their privileges and rest of the group of cell R-17 leaded by Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) is sent to hard and insalubrious work in the drain pipe. Joe uses a successful strategy of war trying to escape, attacking the tower of the penitentiary from the outside with his men, and from inside with the team leaded by the leader Gallagher (Charles Bickford). However, the plan fails, ending in a bloodshed.

Sixty years after the original release date, "Brute Force" is still a great movie of prison. The story is very well constructed, with flashbacks showing the connection of three inmates with his women. The violence is not explicitly disclosed like in the present days, but the cruelty of Captain Munsey can be understood even by the most naive viewer. The direction of Jules Dassin is outstanding with many memorable scenes. Yvonne De Carlo has a minor participation, but a strong role. The moralist message in the end, when Dr. Walters (Alt Smith) tells that nobody can escape from penitentiaries, does not spoil this great movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Brutalidade" ("Brutality")

Burt Lancaster is great in this, filling the screen with his powerful presence in the role of a convict, and Hume Cronyn is solid too, as the sadistic guard who takes pleasure in torturing inmates both physically and mentally. The film's basic position, that prisons that focus too much on punishment vs. treating inmates with dignity and respect so that they can be rehabilitated, is a good one, and voiced by a doctor over the course of an argument with the kommandant, er, chief guard with lines like these:

"You put up prisons, thick walls, and then your job is over. Finished. But is it over?" "All I know, is that when people are sick, you don't cure them by making them sicker. By your methods we send a man back to society a worse criminal than he was than when they sent him to us." "All you want is destroy instead of build. What we need here is a little more patience, and much more understanding."

Unfortunately the film is filled with issues, starting with just how heavy-handed this message is delivered, and how that's compounded with political, antifascist overtones. The inmates aren't nearly menacing enough (that blowtorch scene where they deal with a snitch notwithstanding), and there's a single African-American called Calypso who sings all his lines in silly rhymes (ugh). The main characters are all given flashback stories in the attempt to humanize them, but they don't really work, generally involving stories where women are involved or are to blame for their misfortunes. The situation for Lancaster's character is a little different; he's in love with a young woman (Ann Blyth) in a wheelchair, stricken with cancer, who doesn't know he's in jail, which is about as cloying as you can get. I suppose these flashbacks are also in there in the attempt to liven up what is a very simple plot and to add a female presence, but they just break up the narrative flow and elongate the film unnecessarily.

Meanwhile, Cronyn's character listens to Wagner, is borderline effeminate, and seems like he's only tough because of his position, taking advantage of it to beat an inmate with a rubber hose. The Nazi coding couldn't be plainer. The doctor warns him that he has his position out of "Not cleverness. Not imagination. Just force. Brute force. Congratulations! Force does make leaders. But you forget one thing - it also destroys them." Not a bad concept, but so clumsily executed. And of course, this little world where morality is inverted was flying into the face of the Production Code, which limited the degrees of freedom director Jules Dassin had in ending it. As a result we also get some requisite dialogue inserted at the end, no doubt to get the film passed, that has all the artistry of a sledgehammer. This is one that could have been so, so much better.

BRUTE FORCE This intense, powerful drama stars Burt Lancaster as Collins, a prisoner who's got to find a way out, and Hume Cronyn as the sadistic Captain Munsey, who delights in torturing the inmates. Cronyn is masterful -- cast wonderfully out of character, his slick, soft delivery takes on a skin-crawling menace. Lancaster is appropriately hard and driven, but the fact that he's breaking out to be by his dying girlfriend's side seems facile. The weakest elements of this film are the flashbacks to how his cellmates got locked up. (It seems obvious these scenes are contrived to introduce women into an otherwise all-male cast.) It turns out none of them are really bad guys except Lancaster, who appears to be some kind of gangster. We aren't given much insight into his character; we know he's smart and a leader, but he's clearly got a tendency toward violence. Ultimately, however, it's not about how they got there, but who they are when they get there. It's about what pushes a man past his breaking point and what happens after that. Weaknesses aside, this is a worthwhile, thought-provoking film with excellent performances all around.

It's the overcrowded tough Westgate Penitentiary. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is the hard-nosed guard who actually runs the prison. Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) refuses to bend to his will. He's let out of solitary after getting set up by Munsey. Joe's wife Ruth is unwilling to get an operation for cancer without Joe being there. He has a plan to escape.

The prison movie has been done all the time. This is an early brutal vision of incarceration. The flashbacks of various prisoners are unnecessary and distracting. In fact, most of the flashbacks can be eliminated. Prison is a tough place where there is little hope. Lancaster and Cronyn serve as good foils and it has an action packed battle in the end.

I never knew you were young Hume Cronyn.

I gotta say, I hated your character. I wanted to stone him.

The first time I'd ever seen Hume Cronyn on screen was "Cocoon" in 1985. He was a 74 year old man by that time and I was a mere babe. I remember him again in "*batteries not included" (1987), and as far as I knew he'd just began acting.

It turns out, naturally, that Hume had been acting for decades. In "Brute Force" he plays a tyrannical prison guard at Westgate Penitentiary named Captain Munsey. He was the right hand man to Warden A. J. Barnes (Roman Bohnen) who had a totally different approach to running a prison. The warden believed in rehabilitation while Munsey believed in debilitation.

One well respected con was fed up with prison life and the daily abuses, and had plans to break out. Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) had a sick girlfriend on the outside and he would do whatever it took to see her. The only problem was that Munsey had informants everywhere. Joe couldn't sneeze without an informant reporting back to Munsey.

Joe was one of six occupants of cell R17. That alone was reason enough to want to escape. How can you possibly share one cell with five other guys?! Even if you liked each other it would still be hell.

Like "Shawshank Redemption," "Stir Crazy," or "Escape Plan," you want to see the guys break out. "Brute Force" brings a human element to the prisoners while showing just how demonic the guards can be. Joe had an ardent desire to escape, but he couldn't do it alone. It would be all about how many he could get to join him and who.

In every society, there are certain men who for lack of a Good Attorney, or perhaps, a bad decision on their part, they find themselves at the receiving end of court inflicted judgment. One thing societies forget or may be they don't want to know, is that the men they have imprisoned, will eventually get out. The harshness of their punishment at the hands of the Warden or the Prison Guards is what drives inmates to remember how to treat their next victim when they do get out. In this Robert Patterson story, " Brute Force " our hero is one Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) who comes to the attention of a most sadistic Captain of the Guards named Munsey (Hume Cronyn) (superior acting) who prides himself in knowing how to rule. His egotistic style pits him against Collins and every other prisoner at the prison. Directed by Jules Dassin, this early Black and White movie is a great example of find casting of superior talent. Men who will make their mark in other superior movies. Men such as Jeff Corey, Jay C. Flippen, Howard Duff and Whit Bissell. Throughout this story, audiences hate to root for the hero, as he is a convict. Nevertheless, when it comes to Burt Lancaster, we cannot help but feel that he may yet succeed. The end result of this memorable film is the making of a Classic and in looking back, few can argue otherwise. Superb Movie. ****

Though I'd only previously watched this movie once almost 25 years ago on a long-defunct Sicilian TV channel called Antenna 10, some scenes have stuck with me to this day and being able to reacquaint myself with the film was a long-cherished prospect which, thanks to Criterion, I now have.

The film is the epitome of the great, hard-hitting prison dramas of the 1930s, but the style in which it was filmed also makes it fall in the "Film Noir" category. This was only Burt Lancaster's second movie but he is already a tough, powerful screen presence and his character is one of the most respected within the prison community. The casting (in characterizations which would be much imitated in subsequent prison films) is perfection: pint-sized Hume Cronyn is very effectively cast against type as the quintessential brutal prison captain of the guards, Charles Bickford is the bigwig inmate who gets things done, Sam Levene is his reporter sidekick. Lancaster's gang includes Howard Duff (making his film debut), Jeff Corey (as a surprising 'rat'), suave ladies' man John Hoyt and Whit Bissell as the most vulnerable and least likely inmate who falls victim to Cronyn's "brute force". There's also Jay C. Flippen as an easy-going prison guard, Sir Lancelot as a happy-go-lucky jack-of-all-trades whose songs often sarcastically comment on the action, Vince Barnett as an old-timer who brings food (and messages) to the most dangerous inmates currently serving in the drainpipes, and an uncredited Charles McGraw as an arms dealer. Actually, one of the best roles in the film – the alcoholic, philosophizing prison doctor who is the only one genuinely interested in the fate of his "patients" – is splendidly portrayed by an actor who was unknown to me, Art Smith, and his confrontations with Cronyn offer some of the film's quiet highlights.

While the film itself offers relatively little new in terms of plot – a few of the prisoners are planning a breakout, the sadistic and power-hungry captain is more evil than the inmates themselves, an informer is punished during a staged scuffle, a traitor is present within Lancaster's gang, the climactic escape is a botched massacre, etc – and some of the plot points rather contrived – Sam Levene being sent to the drainpipes, which results in his being tortured by Cronyn – but Dassin's assured handling still makes all of these situations work superbly well. Ironically, after a period directing mostly light fare, this was the start of a peerless run of five noir classics – culminating in his celebrated caper film, RIFIFI (1955), made while exiled in France. Curiously enough, another Hollywood exile would later on basically make the British equivalent of BRUTE FORCE – i.e. Joseph Losey's exceptional THE CRIMINAL (1960) – while the failed prison break (in similar circumstances) also brings to mind Jacques Becker's masterful swan song, LE TROU (1960).

Like THE KILLERS (1946) before it, this was a Mark Hellinger production (it features no less than four actors from that film) and so would be Dassin's follow-up – THE NAKED CITY (1948). Miklos Rozsa's music is very good and subtly underscores the action. Unfortunately, the four flashback sequences added to the film to show that the hardened criminals here are good-natured people at heart, are mostly redundant and basically only serve to provide some female interest to the story; still, they are brief enough not be detrimental to the film's overall uncompromising bleakness. Incidentally, while screenwriter Richard Brooks was involved in this capacity with several noirs – the others being THE KILLERS itself, CROSSFIRE (1947), KEY LARGO (1948) and MYSTERY STREET (1950; which I recently acquired via Warners' fourth "Film Noir Collection" but have yet to watch) – he never revisited the genre once he graduated to the director's chair (though some sources do list his Mexican Revolution-set CRISIS [1950] and the crusading newspaper story DEADLINE – U.S.A. [1952] under this flexible banner).

Unlike most prison films, "Brute Force" is exceptional because it features some wonderful psychological portraits--not just the typical stereotypical hoods. In fact, the biggest villain in the movie is not even one of the inmates but the captain of the guards (Hume Cronyn). Cronyn manages to create a thoroughly despicable yet restrained character who you hate but who also is rather complex and gritty. He manipulates and pushes the prisoners to such lengths that you can't help to start to root for them instead of the sociopathic guards! This is an interesting twist and Cronyn can be credited for exceptional acting.

It also helps that the film has so many excellent actors. The star is a young Burt Lancaster, but she's ably assisted by the likes of character actors such as Charles Bickford, Whit Bissel and John Hoyt--as well as some flashbacks involving actresses Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth and the ill-fated Ella Raines. While most of these are not household names, all were very accomplished supporting character actors--and made the film classier and more interesting.

The theme of the film is Cronyn versus all the prisoners. He spends much of his time playing mind games with the men--pushing them until they break. His efforts, however, are pretty subtle--he is not an obvious sadist but delights in pushing the men over the edge--either pushing them to kill themselves, become an informer or attempt to break out of prison. One example is how he delights in pushing embezzler Bissell about his wife--telling him that she is going to divorce him. Nice guy, huh? Eventually, though, he pushes too hard. So hard that his machinations make the men snap--then, even the brilliant but sick Cronyn has lost control.

Exceptional acting, script and direction (with a stronger than typical film noir style to it) make this exciting throughout.

The inmates of an overcrowded prison become restless and plan a breakout. It features an impressive cast of familiar faces, led by Lancaster in just his second film, but his is essentially a one-note performance. Cronyn makes an appropriately slimy villain. Women are featured in brief flashbacks, which add little to the film. The corniest flashback features an encounter between Lancaster and a crippled Blyth. The lovely De Carlo is wasted in a cameo role. The script by future director Brooks is not very interesting and Dassin tends towards the melodramatic. On the plus side, the cinematography is crisp and the score by Rozsa is pretty good.

'Brute Force' is a film with a clear and present political agenda which sadly leaves it now dated and personally particular to its creator Jules Dassin.

A great opening and introduction invites the viewer to enter into this enclosed and moribund world of the incarcerated and their equally enmeshed guards in true films noir style with a glorious use of shooting, set design, photography and rain effects!

For my tastes though there is only one moment when 'Brute Force' validates the strength of this invitation and that is in a scene involving a genuinely cinematic torture abuse of one prisoner by the unregulated and repugnant chief guard.

The rest of this film fails to match it's promise and settles into the polemical project of political ideals by a particular filmmaker at a particular point in his beliefs and times rather than a truly captivating or convincing drama.

The climax does contain a couple of nicely achieved moments between Burt Lancaster and his co-conspirators.

Most of the rest of the film contains scenes of a much flatter and predictable procession with an incredible failure to humanise characters who exist to promulgate a polemicists project.

I suspect that if viewed without the intervening decades between it's production and the present 'Brute Force' would retain much more forceful effect.

As it is, I can only say that this film left me with a strong, forceful, impression of what one man didn't like but no idea of what that meant to Dassin and how he meant to rectify that which he begins to critique here, and no idea of what I am meant to draw from 'Brute Force' except it's now historical interest and two excellent scenes.

I guardedly give a 5/10 but this is a film that I am really unsure if I am rating artistically or philosophically or historically and whether I would arrive at different ratings from these different perspectives and what my score might have been in 1947