Riot in Cell Block 11

1954 social commentary

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Prisoners riot and take prison guards hostages in order to get their demands met.

Gritty isn't going to work all that well in a movie if it doesn't seem all that realistic. This movie's gritty, but it's a very PG grittiness that dates this movie and lessens any impact it might have 51 years after its release. The movie also ends up feeling very preachy. It gives it this self-importance that made it a little more difficult for me to enjoy the movie. It's the kind of thing that could have been summed up in five or ten minutes so that even at eighty minutes, this feels a little too long. I do like the realism that's added with the movie being filmed in an actual prison, and the rioting is all kinds of crazy cinematic chaos, as opposed to normal chaos which isn't crazy at all. Visually, it all seems pretty rebellious for 1954, and the social commentary, though a little clumsy because it's so explicit, makes it at least slightly revolutionary. It's not something I'm really interested in ever seeing again, but it's the kind of thing I'm glad I watched once.