Fortune
and Men’s Eyes (1971) dramatically alerted Americans
to the ever-present danger of rape in prison. Some three decades
later, the same issue is presented in this year’s Animal
Factory, directed by Steve Buscemi, who plays a part
in the film. Based on the novel of the same title by Edward
Bunker (who also acts in the movie), the story centers around
Ron Decker (played by Edward Furlong), an alienated but good-looking
middle-class boy who was convicted of selling dope. Despite
a favorable probation report as a first-time offender from
a good family, the female judge reasoned that the wrong signal
would be sent if he were given a suspended sentence, while
poorer drug pushers were sent to jail. If the judge was out
of touch with the reality of current prison conditions, filmviewers
quickly learn that Decker will be forced, for his own protection,
to seek protection from another prisoner in exchange for possible
sexual favors. His cellmate is a transvestite named Jan (played
by Mickey Rourke), so he is not forced to be a sex slave in
his cell. The real hero is Earl Copen (played by Willem Dafoe),
the favorite prisoner of the security guards, as he helps
them to write reports while keeping the lid on potential violence.
Copen, who has been in prison for eighteen years, immediately
perceives that Decker not only needs protection from rape
but also should be released as soon as possible, even though
he is sexually attracted to Decker. Copen first saves Decker
from a gang rape planned by Puerto Rican inmates. When Decker
gets in trouble, Copen sanitizes an incident report. Copen
arranges for Decker to be transferred to assignments that
will win points with the parole board. But the parole board
turns Decker down, despite a favorable evaluation by a psychologist,
because his lawyer parrots the prosecutor’s report indicates
that he is a "danger to the community." Frustrated that he
will be serving the full ten years of his sentence, Decker
becomes sullen and is no longer the good looking sparrow for
sex haws; he starts to turn into an animal within the zoo.
Although Decker tries to avoid lustful glances from a Black
inmate (whom we later see humiliated as the "bitch" of a more
burly Black prisoner), he is cornered by a Caucasian who nearly
forces him to have sex. Copen then assists Decker in stabbing
the one who attacked him, though both end up in maximum security
cells because they are suspected of having a role in the violence.
While in solitary confinement, Copen hatches a plot to join
Decker in a prison escape by hiding in a trash compactor truck,
using a metal bar to stop the machine from chewing them up,
a clever precaution than was not followed in an unsuccessful
prison break two years earlier. The climax of the film, thus,
resembles The Shawshank Redemption (1994), though
we are led to believe that Decker is bound for Costa Rica
with the help of his father, who finally realizes that he
loves his son when he sees him turning into a punk. The film,
thus, informs us that prisons are factories that turn out
animals (rather than rehabilitated prisoners) who are unable
to survive outside, so those who are released will inevitably
return. We also view racial tensions, kept in check by Copen
in the film but doubtless nowhere else, and outbreaks of violence
as prisoners get even with one another for various slights.
Animal Factory questions simplistic approaches
to crime that have locked up some two million persons in prison
today, nearly two-thirds for drug offenses, with more money
now spent per person on prison inmates (whose food and lodging
are substandard) than on America’s schoolchildren. Few California
voters saw the film, when on cable or in cinemas, but they
nonetheless accepted the premise of the film by passing Proposition
36, which provides that drug offenders will receive treatment
for their addictions rather than incarceration. As for sex
in the big house, consensual or otherwise, that is not of
concern to the prison authorities at any time in the movie.
MH
I
want to comment on this film
