Not many prison movies since Hawks's Criminal Code (1931) have made the warden the hero, and it would be foolish to expect that Robert Redford, taking on just such a role, would play any sort of Authority Figure. He is the new style of warden, one who arrives at the prison disguised as an ordinary convict in order to learn all about the beatings and the graft and the maggots, who succeeds fleetingly in bringing laughter into that dark and dirty place, who ultimately trips himself up through his unwillingness to kowtow to his superiors on the prison board, and whose sole reward for his efforts is the big hand he gets from the inmates upon his leave-taking. With Yaphet Kotto, David Keith, and Jane Alexander; directed by Stuart Rosenberg. (1980) — Duncan Shepherd
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