Love Dassin. Favorite parts of this where all the moments of prisoners just sitting around talking. The day to day life of being in prison. Acting is fine all around. Lancaster and Cronyn are both great.

It's also, appropriately for the title, a really brutal movie. Though the violence is mostly off screen it's sharp and quick. I like it's central thesis that the kind of brute force the guards engage in just cause an equal and opposite reaction. Clever and biting script from Richard Brooks (who wrote and directed Elmer Gantry and The Professionals).

"Nobody escapes, nobody ever escapes"

From the opening shots you realise you're watching a film from a director who knows how to shoot a film noir. Without realising it I was watching a Jules Dassin movie, not another run of the mill B-noir and I was hooked.

A violent portrait of prison and the men who populate them on both sides of the law, the violence that runs through them and society in general. It's an enjoyable piece, perhaps the most enjoyable of all of Dassin's work but even then it fails in places, most notably the flashbacks that take you out of the walls of the prison and therefore out of the reality presented.

"Nobody escapes, nobody ever escapes"

From the opening shots you realise you're watching a film from a director who knows how to shoot a film noir. Without realising it I was watching a Jules Dassin movie, not another run of the mill B-noir and I was hooked.

A violent portrait of prison and the men who populate them on both sides of the law, the violence that runs through them and society in general. It's an enjoyable piece, perhaps the most enjoyable of all of Dassin's work but even then it fails in places, most notably the flashbacks that take you out of the walls of the prison and therefore out of the reality presented.

Pretty good. So is Lancaster, if not on top form. The film belongs to Hume Cronyn who relishes his memorable role as the sadistic Munsey. The breakout attempt at the end was nicely done.

Good cast and acting. Fairly violent. Ella Raines is attractive.

"Prison drama - bad boy Joe Collins organises an escape by a group of prisoners. We see a drunklen prison doctor, an ineffectual governor and a sadistic and ambitious warder. The film was considered very violent at the time the film was released and has a lot of political overtones which were very relevant 60 years ago."

I love prison films, and Jules Dassin knows how to do it. Lancaster and Cronyn both have great performances and the black and white photography is done extremely well.

The violence is somewhat edgy for 1947, but the most striking thing about Brute Force - a run of the mill prison drama with bigger execution than idea - is the casting: Sensible, bookish Hume Cronyn as the sadistic, unrelenting prison warden. It doesn't always work, but it's always intriguing.

Love Dassin. Favorite parts of this where all the moments of prisoners just sitting around talking. The day to day life of being in prison. Acting is fine all around. Lancaster and Cronyn are both great.

It's also, appropriately for the title, a really brutal movie. Though the violence is mostly off screen it's sharp and quick. I like it's central thesis that the kind of brute force the guards engage in just cause an equal and opposite reaction. Clever and biting script from Richard Brooks (who wrote and directed Elmer Gantry and The Professionals).

Old-school jail film the way I like it: cynical & existential. But why the 1 black guy has to sing all the time?