Attica (1980)

I'll tell you why so serious

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Not knowing much more about the Attica Prison Riots than hearing about it through "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Saturday Night Fever", but familiar enough that it was a dark period of history, I chose to start my study of the riots by watching this film. Regardless of whether that method of research was the smartest, I watched "Attica" with an open mind and the realization that TV movies tend to overdramatize and take liberties with historical-based subjects. However, I found little of this in "Attica". The movie seems to take a bold, straight-forward look at the events without muddying it with personal relationships, unnecessary side stories or drawn-out dialogue. There is a sympathy, a compassion and an understanding of both sides of the story for both the prisoners and the negotiators. It swiftly moves from one important scene to the next, addressing the pivotal points that occurred throughout those four days, climaxing on the unavoidably prolonged massacre at the film's conclusion. As a whole, I thought this was a well made, well directed, and a well acted movie, and hope that it has been faithful to the facts.

I think Emma Goldman noted that every civil war is class war. In this instance, that really rings true. One of the characters in the film notes that 60% of the inmates in Attica were black and 0% of the guards were black. As for the higher-ups of Attica, well, I'll pick my guess at the quotas there.The Attica riot was spectacular: the inmates took over and stood their ground for 22 days until riot police massacred a bunch of inmates and, actually, 10 of the hostages.The film deals with the humane aspects of the take-over in a lot of ways. The legal people mainly think the inmates' demands are valid. The governor is slammed by demands from outsiders, seemingly mainly the people and the police unions. The dilemma is plain to see.I really liked the fact that there's very little soundtrack here. The film ended abruptly, but that's due to the real chain of events. Recommendable because of the humanity.

I am curious if they included the nude scene at the end where we were all stripped down and beaten by the guards as we were filed back into the building. It was pretty realistic. It was filmed at the Lima state hospital for the criminally insane which was open for business at the time and we would converse with the inmates. I remember wearing a short haired wig to not cut my long hair.as they did not allow long hair in Attica in the 60's/70's. I wanted to be in it as I had followed the injustice during that time and hitched from Columbus and back to make 5 bucks an hour for really hard work as an extra standing around in the heat with a bunch of other folks. There was actually almost a riot when the director of the institution came out and made remarks about people bringing in drugs,some pot smoking was happening and sharp instruments and that he would bring the highway patrol in to frisk and arrest all involved..hell there was hundreds of us and it was late in the afternoon with no lunch yet so the reply was quite radical towards the man...Q guy next to me quipped they are gonna start a real riot and film it. fortunately the main director got the mike and cooled us down and we in turn threw little things like safety pins and other harmless items into a box to act like we were complying and all was well and our extra work finished up that day and no one was accosted on the way out of the secure environment we had definitely mocked. Pat Adkins Aheville, NC

I found this movie floating around on True Movies one afternoon and thought the film sounded interesting i.e. criminals vs cops.The acting was average and nothing special came from anyone including Morgan Freedman. I had to admit I've never seen Freedman looking as young as he did in that movie.The soundtracks were passable to accompany the dangerous moments and the ending. Could of been better.The script could of done with some, "dramatization". It wouldn't of hurt the film to add some more speeches, some little action moments between the criminals and cops. I understand its a true movie and it is trying to reflect the moment of September the 9th 1971, but thats what I think anyway.I have to say I was surprised to see how the ending was. I could not believe the U.S would be as ruthless and dangerous as to line up the guards and start shooting anyone who is not on the floor with their hands behind their back.Good movie with a sad ending.