From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brute Force
This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted after seven days from the date of nomination.
Directed by	Jules Dassin
Produced by	Mark Hellinger
Written by	Richard Brooks Robert Patterson (story)
Starring	Burt Lancaster Hume Cronyn Charles Bickford Kippee Valez
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography	William Daniels
Distributed by	Universal International Pictures
Release date(s)	June 30, 1947 (U.S. release)
Running time	98 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Brute Force is a 1947 brooding, brutal drama movie considered film noir. This prison movie, directed by Jules Dassin was shot in black and white and is unusual for the level of violence it depicted at the time. The direct inspiration for the unremitting desperate violence was the recent "Battle of Alcatraz" (May 2-4 1946) where prisoners trapped in a hopeless mutiny opted to die rather than surrender. Jules Dassin was an innovative film noir director and between 1947-1950 he directed many harsh and visually innovative noirs including Thieves' Highway, Night and the City and The Naked City -- movies that captured the cynicism and malaise of an America whose foundations had been rocked by World War II. Dialogue was by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks (who directed In Cold Blood) and photography was by William H. Daniels. The film's tagline, as seen to the right, is "Raw! Rough! Ruthless!"

The film opens on a dark, rainy morning. Prisoners of Westgate Prison are crammed four into a small cell watch out the window as Joe Collins leaves his term in solitary confinement. Joe comes out angry, and talking about escape. The warden is under pressure to improve discipline. The prison doctor warns that the prison is a powder keg and could explode if they are not careful, not to mention that there is little rehabilitation going on.

Joe's attorney comes to visit and tells Joe his wife Ruth is not willing to go forward with an operation unless Joe is there with her. Her life is at risk if she does not have surgery (cancer). Joe asks his attorney to get some cash together and have it at his office. In the machine shop the prisoners plan to attack Wilson at 10:30. While other prisoners cause a commotion, Wilson is pushed into a compactor and killed. Not coincidentally, Joe is in the doctors office when the murder takes place.

Joe presses Gallagher to help him escape but Gallagher has a good job in the prison and could get a parole. But after instigating a prisoner suicide, the administration revokes prisoner privileges and cancels parole hearings. Gallagher decides breaking out with Joe may be a good idea after all. Joe and Gallagher plan an assault on the tower where they can get access to the lever that lowers a bridge they have to cross to escape.

While the escape plan is taking shape, the cons in cell R17 each tell a story, via flashback, about how being in love somehow got them all in trouble with the law. Standing in the way of the prison break is a sadistic prison guard (a surprisingly vicious Cronyn). When the break goes bad the normally subdued prison yard turns into a violent and bloody riot.

The film has a number of memorable brutal scenes including the crushing of a stool pigeon under a stamping machine and the beating of a prisoner bound to a chair by straps. Film writer Eddie Muller writes that "the climax of Brute Force displayed the most harrowing violence ever seen in movie theaters." Dassin was disappointed in the flashback sequences in Brute Force. He strongly believed the flashback sequences watered down the film and he objected to their use. It was a battle he lost to the MGM studio bosses. He was not happy at MGM, he said, "I want to forget all films I made for MGM."Director Dassin later called the movie "stupid" because the film made the inmates seem honorable.

• Burt Lancaster as Joe Collins
• Hume Cronyn as Capt. Munsey
• Charles Bickford as Gallagher
• Yvonne De Carlo as Gina Ferrara
• Ann Blyth as Ruth
• Ella Raines as Cora Lister
• Anita Colby as Flossie
• Sam Levene as Louie Miller #7033

• Gallagher: Those gates only open three times. When you come in, when you've served your time, or when you're dead!
• Dr. Walters: Force does make leaders. But you forget one thing: it also destroys them.
• Dr. Walters: [to Captain Munsey] That's why you'd never resign from this prison. Where else whould you find so many helpless flies to stick pins into?

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Director Jules Dassin fled the United States because he was to be named a Communist in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He fled to Europe and made Night in the City in London.
• Oliver Stone cites the film as an influence for his prison break climax in Natural Born Killers (1994).

• The Art of Noir, by Eddie Muller.