Penitentiary

February 7th, 2012

Fancy watching possibly one of the coolest films ever? This blaxploitation cult classic is one of the most commercially successful independent films of the 1980s – not to mention that Snoop Dogg and Quentin Tarentino are fans. Penitentiary – written and Directed by one of the leading pioneers of the ‘LA Rebellion’ film movement Jamaa Fanaka – gives its viewers both the trashy entertainment that exploitation cinema is popular for, and yet also succeeds in making a few more profound points.

Penitentiary begins with protagonist Martel ‘Too Sweet’ Gordone (Leon Issac Kennedy) catching a ride from a beautiful prostitute named Linda ( Hazel Spears), who is on her way to see two clients. Events take a turn for the worst when, after witnessing the abuse Linda receives from her clients, Martel decides to confront them. A fight breaks out, and Martel is knocked out. When he comes round, he discovers that one of Linda’s clients has been murdered, and he has been framed for it.

Martel must now come to terms with the fact that he is stuck in prison, and to make matters worse, his violent and mean spirited cellmate Half Dead Johnson (Badja Djola) takes a disliking to him. As a result Martel nearly kills Johnson in an intense bare knuckled fight (with much growling and grunting), and proves that he has some serious fighting skills.

Martel is given a warning by Lieutenant Arnsworth (Chuck Mitchell) for fighting, and is told he should use his skills to compete in the illegal boxing tournament he has organised. The prize is early parole. Arnsworth then decides to put Martel in a cell with fighting expert Hezzikia ‘Seldom Seen’ Jackson (Floyd Chatman), who becomes his mentor.

Penitentiary presents a claustrophobic and troubling society where for African American men, a future in prison results not from justice but from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of the most noticeable characteristics of this film is its dialogue. It brings to mind the alienating effect the language had in such literature as ‘Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Naked Lunch’. Penitentiary was made for an African American audience, and as Theodore Dalrymple reveals ‘although I worked in a prison for 14 years, I never came to understand the language that prisoners used as they shouted to one another across landings and between buildings. It was their means of resisting domination.’

The characters frequently give dramatic monologues, which makes the film feel strangely poetic – think Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. For example Hezzikia ‘Seldom Seen’ Jackson comes out with such lines as “I’m not about to get too old to get a little bold and knock one of you little chumps out cold” and, “Coz if I can’t have it all, I don’t want any of it, and I’m for real.”

There are lapses into the absurd at times, but this functions as light comic relief. For example in the first prison yard scene a funk band plays whilst prisoners dance choreographed routines. Later during the boxing tournament, the camera frequently cuts between the match and an orgy between several female and male inmates in the toilets. There is also an eccentric obese cross dresser in the audience constantly hurling insults at the fighters.

It appears that many of the male characters have something to prove, which they do through excessive macho behaviour. One film critic notes that the film ‘allegorizes African American life, seeing the prison system as an arena of violent struggle against forces both external and internal, that plays out on the bodies of the inmates, who are either sexual sissies (the exploited) or beasts (the exploiters).’

Whether America likes it or not, there are voices within its vast space that have been ignored or forgotten. This film suggests that African Americans must look out for each other if they are to make it in a hostile country that fetishises white over black. As Martel tells his mentor, “We can make it out there man. We can do it. We got to at least try.”

Words > Kelly O’Neill

Tags: Arrorwdrome, Blaxploitation, Cult Classic, Jamaa Fanaka, Prison Movie, Quentin Tarantino, Snoop Dogg