Condition Red (1995)

It is a performances centric movie

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A Masterpiece!

Blistering performances.

This is supposedly based on a true story.Danny Cappelli (James Russo) is a former boxer working as a prison guard. He is an old neighborhood Philadelphia blue collar type guy who has some stress issue which he brings out with some early first person narration. His inability to get along with male inmates without going into the berserker mode lands him a job at the less stressful "G-Block" guarding women.Gidell Ryan (Cynda Williams) is a prisoner. She is an up and coming night club singer and part owner, along with her boyfriend Angel (Paul Calderon) of an adult entertainment establishment. He is the reason she is in prison. Our main two characters discover they both like closet sex and plan their escape.Gidell's character was not well developed. It could have used a few clever minutes showing us her crime. Russo played a fairly decent blue collar guard, being chased by an Adrian clone from "Rocky."Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, brief nudity (Cynda Williams, some strippers with pasties)

**SPOILERS** With problems at home and on the job Philadelphia correction officer Dan Cappelli, James Russo, just want's to get away from it all and start a new life where he can get his head back together.Being locked up with hardened criminals for as much as 12 hours a day has brutalized Dan to the point where he's on the verge of becoming one himself. It's after beating unconscious a crazed inmate who attacked his fellow correction officer and almost sawed his arm off that Dan was transfered to the womens section of the prison. It's at the womens section of the prison that Dan became involved with inmate Gidell Ryan, Cynda Williams, whom he started to have a secret relationship with. That spelled the end of Dan's career as a correction officer as well as him becoming a fugitive from the law that he was sworn to uphold.Powerful prison drama with Office Carpelli getting in a bit, to say the least, over his head with his prison girlfriend Gidell who's past, despite him checking up on her, was soon to become his future. Gidell being involved with her boyfriend nightclub owner and coke sniffing Angel Delgardo, Paul Calderon, had taken the rap for him in a money laundering scheme. This lead all the way up to Angel's boss Victor Kline,Victor Argo, a prominent Philadelphia politician with his eye on City Hall in him getting elected mayor.***SPOILER ALERT*** Thinking that Gidell was really in love with him Dan went so far, after being suspended for attacking Angel, as sneaking her out of prison and then planing to go together with her down to Mexico. Dan was soon to find out that his not so well thought out plan was dead in the water just as his prison fugitive Gidell's love was for him.Dan's life was going down the drain as soon as we first saw him with him turning to both abusing prison inmates and drinking booze as the only outlet he had in keeping from completely cracking up. Dan's mother Ethel Mea, Anna Minot, was also draining his emotions in her being in a hospice for terminal patients knowing that she has no hope of recovering from her illness. About the only person who really loved Dan his next door neighbor Rose, Dierdre Lewis, was ignored by him and eventually dropped Dan when she found out, by accident, that he was having an affair with Gidell.It was either by accident or by fate that Dan's involvement with Gidell, as well as his mom passing away, turned out to free him from the pressures that he found himself in and were slowly driving him to over the edge. And in the end with him for the first time in the movie being free Dan can finally get his both act and life together.

It is a low-budget movie, but expertly directed: for instance , with few actors and means the atmosphere in the prisons is effectively rendered. The movie in fact consists of three roles only ( the late Victor Argo being seen for very few minutes), but they are all well played. Paul Calderon is quite believable as a slimy gangster. I confess that I did not know Cinda Williams before, and found her very attractive in a sultry way, but also quite convincing. The best however is James Russo, who is really outstanding, using only his gimlet eyes and clenched jaws. *** Spoilers: while you expect Russo to be broken by the death of the loved one, the unexpected but appropriate end helps greatly to make a success of Condition Red

Dan Capelli (James Russo) is a prison guard with a major attitude problem. After repeatedly getting too violent with inmates, he is temporarily transferred to duty in a women's prison. There, he meets Gidell (Cynda Williams), a stressed out inmate who initially just tries to make small talk with him. Dan tries to maintain detached from Gidell despite how he may really feel, but when Gidell's boyfriend Angel (James Calderon) comes into the picture, things seem to change.This is a strange movie. Independent films have this strange effect on me - even if they aren't too good, if they're character driven little plots, I get sucked in no matter what. From a technical sense, this film isn't that great. It's a character driven story with underdeveloped characters, and a movie with no plot that still manages to have plot holes. But, I couldn't help it. There was something about it's low budget-ness that I liked. Maybe it was knowing that this was such a small film that I was seeing something perhaps only a handful of other people had ever seen.James Calderon really changed for this role. I'm pretty sure he's Puerto Rican, but he looked African-American in this film. Strange what makeup can do. He and Victor Argo are too good actors who were underused in this movie. Cynda Williams is also good when she has stuff to work with, but like Kris Kristofferson, she's a performer who has had her fair share of characters that you just can't go anywhere with. But, James Russo's monologue at the end of this film makes up for all of that. Strange, how a good monologue can greatly improve a movie's quality.This one is good to watch on the movie channels if you're up after midnight and no one else is home.