Brubaker
1980 · Movie · R · 125 min · ★ 7.1 · 65% critics
A new warden arrives at a small Arkansas prison farm and secretly enters as an inmate to see conditions firsthand. What he finds is a brutal, profit-driven system run through corruption and intimidation, and his push for reform quickly puts him on a collision course with powerful people inside and outside the walls.
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Details
- Years
- 1980
- Release date
- 1980-06-20
- Language
- English
- Rated
- R
- Runtime
- 125 min
- Critic score
- 65/100
- TMDB rating
- 7.1/10 (515 votes)
About
You’ll likely enjoy this if you want a tough, serious prison drama about reform and entrenched corruption, with a gritty tone and moral questions; Not for you if you need fast action or lighter entertainment like The Big Chill.
Pros: gripping corruption exposé; strong lead performance; tense moral stakes | Cons: slow stretches; thin character depth; lengthy runtime
Themes
- prison
- undercover
- liberation of prisoners
- arkansas
- prison warden
- based on true story
- prison brutality
- abuse
- 1960s
- prison farm
- prisoner abuse
Awards & recognition
- Academy Award — Best Writing, Original Screenplay · 1981 · nominated
Cast & crew
Robert Redford
as Brubaker
Yaphet Kotto
as Dickie Coombes
Jane Alexander
as Lillian
Murray Hamilton
as Deach
David Keith
as Larry Lee Bullen
Morgan Freeman
as Walter
Matt Clark
as Purcell
Tim McIntire
as Huey Rauch
Richard Ward
as Abraham
Jon Van Ness
as Zaranska
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg