Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
Brubaker is a solid, earnest prison reform drama anchored by Robert Redford's commanding performance as the idealistic warden who goes undercover to witness the brutal conditions firsthand. The acting across the board is strong, with fine supporting work from Yaphet Kotto and David Keith. The plot is competent but follows a fairly predictable arc of reformer vs. entrenched corruption, and the ending — while true to the real-world limitations of institutional change — is somewhat deflating without being dramatically surprising. Cinematography is functional and gritty but unremarkable. Its novelty lies in the true-story undercover premise and its unflinching depiction of prison farm abuse, though the overall template of the crusading idealist undone by the system was already well-worn by 1980.