| Plot Summary |
June 16th, 1995, Jerry Brown killed for a small bag of marijuana. He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, America's most infamous and largest maximum-security prison. 5000 prisoners, mostly African Americans, are serving their time there. Most of them won't ever get out. Jerry Brown is the star of a brutal and unique rodeo: the Angola Prison Rodeo. "The Wildest Show in the South" as some call it. The participants are volunteers but are not allowed to train. This spectacular event allows them to make some money and earn a few seconds of fame in front of 10,000 spectators. For Burl Cain, Angola's warden, it is the occasion to make large profits and to develop with impunity his religious programs. By training certain prisoners to become missionaries, he wants to spread religion throughout the prison. Razor Wire Rodeo is the story of Jerry and these thousands of inmates, whose lives have been defined by violence in the poorest neighborhoods. In the arena, the fight against the bull becomes symbolic: it is indeed the fight of men against a crushing legal system.
Written by Ian Jaquier
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