There have been lots of great prison movies uh? ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, LOCK UP and MURDER IN THE FIRST quickly come to mind and they are all great. CHAINDANCE intrigued me for quite some time and when I saw it last August it even surpassed my expectations considering the not too high score.
J T Blake (Michael Ironside) is a dangerous criminal that in the beginning is seen smashing a car's window and taking it only to be caught by the police, and this wasn't certainly the first time for him. The prison board of directors has then an idea: for some sort of experiment proposed by the government they tie Blake to the wheelchair of feeble-minded Johnny (Brad Dourif) for making sure that Blake becomes a more caring person whenever he'll be released and in fact, most of the movie then consists of Blake and Johnny adapting to life in prison until they are released and once they are released they still remain chained because the government wants to make sure that Blake doesn't do criminal things again and this would cause also some funny vignettes including one with a w***e.
The main reason for seeing this is the acting: Dourif probably gives his best performance ever tho he is mostly remembered for playing feeble-minded individuals and Ironside here shows that he can also play caring or softened characters given the script. The direction by Allan A. Goldstein is nice, much better than when he directed the dreadful 2001 A SPACE TRAVESTY.
If you want to try it I have a warning tho for sensible viewers: it's not an easy movie to watch because the scenes of life in prison are a bit tough to watch (as usual with prison movies), the language is rough and the tone of the movie is a bit depressing until it grows on you.
But overlooking this it's still a wortwhile prison movie that is available on YouTube if you want to give it a try.
J T Blake (Michael Ironside) is a dangerous criminal that in the beginning is seen smashing a car's window and taking it only to be caught by the police, and this wasn't certainly the first time for him. The prison board of directors has then an idea: for some sort of experiment proposed by the government they tie Blake to the wheelchair of feeble-minded Johnny (Brad Dourif) for making sure that Blake becomes a more caring person whenever he'll be released and in fact, most of the movie then consists of Blake and Johnny adapting to life in prison until they are released and once they are released they still remain chained because the government wants to make sure that Blake doesn't do criminal things again and this would cause also some funny vignettes including one with a w***e.
The main reason for seeing this is the acting: Dourif probably gives his best performance ever tho he is mostly remembered for playing feeble-minded individuals and Ironside here shows that he can also play caring or softened characters given the script. The direction by Allan A. Goldstein is nice, much better than when he directed the dreadful 2001 A SPACE TRAVESTY.
If you want to try it I have a warning tho for sensible viewers: it's not an easy movie to watch because the scenes of life in prison are a bit tough to watch (as usual with prison movies), the language is rough and the tone of the movie is a bit depressing until it grows on you.
But overlooking this it's still a wortwhile prison movie that is available on YouTube if you want to give it a try.