Titicut Follies (1967)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Frederick Wiseman

Release Date:

4 September 1992 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama

Tagline:

Don't turn your back on this film... if you value your mind or your life.

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Paranoia | Old Man | Insanity | Prison Asylum | Paranoid Schizophrenia

Awards:

1 win

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Australia:M | USA:(Banned) (distribution blocked by legal order, 1967-1992)

Filming Locations:

State Prison for the Criminally Insane - 20 Administration Road, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA

Trivia:

The only American film banned from release for reasons other than obscenity or national security, Titicut Follies was filmed inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Bridgewater, a prison hospital for the criminally insane. After the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sued the filmmakers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the film constituted was an invasion of inmate privacy and ordered the withdrawal of the film from circulation.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

The most disturbing film I've ever seen.

I've had the good fortune to see TITICUT FOLLIES, which for legal reasons has long been a difficult thing to do. It's an appalling, unnerving, and deeply important film. It has cut into my mind the way very few films, documentaries or otherwise, have succeeded in doing.

I urge people, documentary fans or no, to seek this out. It casts a terrible reflection on society's view of the mentally ill, and the treatment thereof. Perhaps the conditions at Titicut have improved, but I'm not sure society's attitudes have at all.