Brubaker (1980)

The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.

Director:

Stuart Rosenberg

Writers:

W.D. Richter (screenplay), W.D. Richter (story)

Stars:

Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, Morgan Freeman

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Redford	...	Henry Brubaker
Yaphet Kotto	...	Richard 'Dickie' Coombes
Jane Alexander	...	Lillian Gray
Murray Hamilton	...	John Deach
David Keith	...	Larry Lee Bullen
Morgan Freeman	...	Walter
Matt Clark	...	Roy Purcell
Tim McIntire	...	Huey Rauch
Richard Ward	...	Abraham Cook
Jon Van Ness	...	Zaranska
M. Emmet Walsh	...	C.P. 'Woody' Woodward
Albert Salmi	...	Rory Poke
Linda Haynes	...	Carol
Everett McGill	...	Eddie Caldwell
Val Avery	...	Wendel

Storyline

When the new warden comes in disguised as an inmate, he sees firsthand all the corruption and scams the guards and prison officials are running. When he reveals himself and starts to implement reforms to stop the corruption, the local business community, who had been benefiting from the scams, fights back, and the corrupt prison system starts making political trouble for the new warden.

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Plot Keywords:

corruption | prison | abuse of power | undercover | based on true story | 

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Taglines:

One man against a cruel system.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 June 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Shadow Walk

Filming Locations:

Columbus, Ohio, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,748,079, 22 June 1980, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$37,121,708

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

131 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First of two prison movies for Robert Redford; the second was The Last Castle (2001).

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Goofs

Yaphet Kotto looks through the 1/3 open blinds and watches Redford test the electric 'torture' box on himself.... But immediately before & after, when he's in the office talking w/ Redford, the blinds on both sides of the door are totally closed.

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Quotes

Richard 'Dickie' Coombes: I don't get men like you, you're all dangerous men. You start wars and you let other people fight them, you come in and say 'do this, do that, think this way, walk this way', you put a sign in some fool's hand and say 'follow me around I've got the whole thing figured out, so you can change things for the better! Well that's a lot of bullshit! There's only one thing you do - that's get people killed!

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Connections

Referenced in The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs: Tourist Trap (2018)

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Soundtracks

Respect
(uncredited)
Written by Otis Redding
Performed by Morgan Freeman when he attacks another inmate

User Reviews

Get sent to jail, and you wonder whether this could happen.

Robert Redford plays another dignified character, this time as new warden Henry Brubaker posing as an inmate in a corrupt prison to understand the deplorable conditions there. As is the case with any prison-related film, we get to see some really ugly things here. Maybe "Brubaker" goes a little overboard in portraying its main character as a saint, but considering that the main point is to show the inhumanity of this country's penal system (which apparently hasn't changed much since this movie came out), they do a good job. I'd say that it's another movie that, if nothing else, deserves kudos for disproving the "Disney-ized" version of the world that we often get shown. A very good movie.