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Animal Factory - directed by Steve Buscemi - is a
movie that falls in between the two camps and, like a loner
inside prison, struggles to make an impact.
The cast is excellent - headed by Willem Dafoe and Edward
Furlong - and is the story of a young fellow Ron Decker (Furlong)
who has been caught with a fairly large drug distribution
network going and he gets 10 years in the slammer.
There he finds himself an easy target for all the "Daddies"
in prison who would like to make him their "Punk"
but befriends a lifer in Earl Copen (Dafoe) who looks after
him like a big brother. The price of his mateship - and there
usually is one in prison - you pick up on later, but without
the backing of Copen and his gang then the youngster would
be having a considerably more painful time than he does.
Animal Factory has an almost continuous threat of
violence that has you biting your nails, but never explodes
into a movie you can say "wow" about afterwards.
It sorts of dawdles along and really fails to hit a spark.
Some of the acting is terrific - watch for Mickey Rourke
as a transexual prisoner - and Tom Arnold as a hillbilly hick.
The transfer is superb, bordering on almost perfect, and
while the sound is occasionally muddy it nevertheless is pretty
good.
Animal Factory is worth watching, but don't expect
another Shawshank.
Conclusion: Movie 80%, Extras 25%
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