Post by Dirty Epic on Mar 1, 2017 15:41:05 GMT
I’ve recently got hold of the Australian prison film Stir. I know it’s been passingly mentioned here but is anyone else a fan of this prison film starring and making a star out of Bryan Brown?
{Spoiler Alert - Click Here To Reveal}
‘China’ Jackson (Bryan Brown) is an ex con who has whistle-blown to the media about the brutality and treatment of prisoners within NSW in the 1970’s whilst serving a sentence at the fictitious Gantunga Goal – loosely based upon the infamous Bathurst Goal. He’s created a storm within the NSW prison service and resentment amongst the officers he’s alleged against. When convicted on what seems to be a trumped up shoplifting charge Jackson is sent back to Gantunga to serve his 6 month sentence. Instantly he’s met with resentment, brutality and violence from the officers and the realisation that things haven’t changed and in fact have got worse in Gantunga. Jackson’s fellow cons look to him to take on the establishment and improve the conditions in the jail. However Jackson simply wants to serve his sentence and get out as fast as possible. When a chain of events including prisoner brutality, trumped up charges, night time transfers of prisoners to the even worse Grafton Goal and draconian rules and loss of privileges initiated by an out of touch and disinterested Governor push the prisoners too far a riot and stand off results in Gatunga being burnt to the ground, prisoners and officers being severely injured and a broken system which eventually was reformed in NSW from the 1980’s onwards.
On the whole Stir is well acted and the story flows well beyond the usual prison brutality/riot tale. In some respects it has similarities to the Jimmy Boyle tale Sense of Freedom and was written by an ex-con Bob Jewson who I believe served time in Bathurst. Bryan Brown is very good in the lead role of Jackson however he is well supported by a wealth of Aussie acting talent like Max Phipps, Dennis Miller, Gary Waddell, Paul Sonkkila and Phil Motherwell. Also of note is Robert ‘Tex’ Morton’s performance as the Governor too more interested in his cricket team and keeping up appearances than the unrest amongst the inmates and even his officers for that matter.
Overall I’d rate Stir a good 8/10 and fully recommend it to anyone who likes stuff like McVicar, Sense of Freedom etc. too.
‘China’ Jackson (Bryan Brown) is an ex con who has whistle-blown to the media about the brutality and treatment of prisoners within NSW in the 1970’s whilst serving a sentence at the fictitious Gantunga Goal – loosely based upon the infamous Bathurst Goal. He’s created a storm within the NSW prison service and resentment amongst the officers he’s alleged against. When convicted on what seems to be a trumped up shoplifting charge Jackson is sent back to Gantunga to serve his 6 month sentence. Instantly he’s met with resentment, brutality and violence from the officers and the realisation that things haven’t changed and in fact have got worse in Gantunga. Jackson’s fellow cons look to him to take on the establishment and improve the conditions in the jail. However Jackson simply wants to serve his sentence and get out as fast as possible. When a chain of events including prisoner brutality, trumped up charges, night time transfers of prisoners to the even worse Grafton Goal and draconian rules and loss of privileges initiated by an out of touch and disinterested Governor push the prisoners too far a riot and stand off results in Gatunga being burnt to the ground, prisoners and officers being severely injured and a broken system which eventually was reformed in NSW from the 1980’s onwards.
On the whole Stir is well acted and the story flows well beyond the usual prison brutality/riot tale. In some respects it has similarities to the Jimmy Boyle tale Sense of Freedom and was written by an ex-con Bob Jewson who I believe served time in Bathurst. Bryan Brown is very good in the lead role of Jackson however he is well supported by a wealth of Aussie acting talent like Max Phipps, Dennis Miller, Gary Waddell, Paul Sonkkila and Phil Motherwell. Also of note is Robert ‘Tex’ Morton’s performance as the Governor too more interested in his cricket team and keeping up appearances than the unrest amongst the inmates and even his officers for that matter.
Overall I’d rate Stir a good 8/10 and fully recommend it to anyone who likes stuff like McVicar, Sense of Freedom etc. too.