Movies have the power to take us anywhere. But sometimes they’re best served when there are constraints placed on their narrative potential, where writers and directors have to work within the limitations of a certain setting — a jail, for example.
The repressive aspects of prison give cinematic incarcerated characters a coiled energy, a yearning to be free (sometimes by any means necessary), and a sense of rebellion that is endlessly fascinating to watch play out on screen.
Whether they’re victims of the modern-day mass incarceration crisis or prisoners of war attempting to escape their jailers, the challenges they face are uniquely cinematic. Here are some of the best prison movies that are available to stream today.
'The Great Escape'
"The Great Escape" has an incredibly strong ensemble cast, but let’s not kid ourselves — Steve McQueen is a whole vibe here. He stars as Virgil Hilts, an impossibly cool American soldier with a history of attempting to escape from every prisoner-of-war camp he’s ever been sent to. Desperate to break free from the German officers who guard the camp, he spearheads a complex plan for him and his fellow POWs to tunnel their way to freedom.
It doesn’t come easy, and the whole thing falls apart (figuratively and sometimes literally) half a dozen times over the course of the movie. But we’re rewarded by the captivating escape sequence, which has audiences on the edge of their seats even 60 years later. In the years since its release, "The Great Escape" has become an icon of the genre and is one of the most thrilling World War II movies ever made — even though it doesn’t show a second of actual combat.
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'O.G.'
Jeffrey Wright is one of the most reliable actors working in Hollywood today, but he outdoes himself with an understated performance in "O.G." Wright plays a mild-mannered man who has spent the majority of his adult life behind bars for a murder he committed in his early 20s. At this point in his life, he knows the prison system better than the outside world and has found his place in it. But he has a problem that few would recognize as a problem: He’s just weeks away from being released.
In his last days in jail, he forms an attachment to a new inmate who has just been sentenced to 23 years for murder, and — perhaps seeing himself in this angry young man — attempts to guide him away from the prison gangs that will keep him entrenched in violence. Wright’s turn in the film defies expectations and makes "O.G." one of the more intimate and personal prison movies viewers are likely to see.
Watch on Max
'Hunger'
Starring Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, "Hunger" is a disturbing look into the state of Northern Irish prisons run by the British during the Troubles, particularly in terms of their treatment of Irish Republican Army prisons. Sands, along with a number of his compatriots, participate in a hunger strike as part of a coordinated bid to have themselves and others like them recognized as political prisoners.
"Hunger" is an uncompromising film, and it’s especially shocking to see Fassbender in the lead role as he physically transforms himself into a man who is literally starving to death. As a cinematic representation of a devastating moment in modern Irish history, "Hunger" is unrelentingly dedicated to its purpose.
Watch on AMC Plus (via Prime Video)
'The Shawshank Redemption'
In a lot of prison movies, there’s a focus on those who have been sent to prison under false pretenses. It is, after all, a little bit easier to root for a character who hasn’t committed the kind of crimes to earn them a serious sentence in a maximum security prison. But nowhere is that the case more than in "The Shawshank Redemption," adapted from a Stephen King novella and widely considered one of the best prison movies of all time.
It stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a mild-manner accountant who finds himself sent to jail for the murder of his wife and her lover — a crime he claims to be innocent of. Everyone says that, of course, but it might actually be true in Andy's case. Making friends with Red (Morgan Freeman), one of Shawshank’s most well-connected inmates, he carves out a place for himself in the jail community. But unlike many of his fellow convicts, who have been in prison so long they no longer know how to function in the outside world, Andy never stops dreaming of his eventual escape from Shawshank.
'Papillon'
Released a handful of years after "The Great Escape" made Steve McQueen a star, "Papillon" sees the actor sent back to jail once again. This time, he plays a convicted murderer (wrongly convicted, mind you) who is sent to a penal colony work camp to serve out his life sentence. While there, he befriends a talented forger (Dustin Hoffman), and the two begin to hatch a plot to escape. After all, what do they have to lose? The jungle work camp is hardly the sort of environment they want to spend their retirement years in.
"Papillon" is based on the autobiography of Henri Charrière, a Frenchman who detailed his experiences both in prison and after his escape — albeit with some embellishments. It was remade in 2017 starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek, but for most fans, Steve McQueen’s 1973 film remains the definitive version.
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'The Mustang'
Most American prisons seem designed to punish their inhabitants, dehumanizing them to the point where they often struggle to function once they’re released back into society. But once in a while, there’s a program that actually does a good job of rehabilitating inmates and reconnecting them to their humanity — that’s what "The Mustang" is about.
Matthias Schoenaerts stars as a prisoner who reluctantly joins a program where inmates help train wild mustangs. Over the course of the film, he bonds with the horse he has been assigned and finds that the training program offers him a sense of purpose, channeling his intense emotions into something productive. There’s a kinship between him and his horse Marquis, parallels that run deep, which Schoenaerts brings to life in his magnetic lead performance.
Watch on Netflix
'American History X'
OK, so "American History X" doesn’t exclusively take place in prison. But the main character’s major narrative arc takes place within the four walls of a correctional facility, so we think it counts. Edward Norton stars as a vicious neo-Nazi who, after going to jail for killing two Black men trying to steal his truck, begins to realize how damaging and deeply misguided his racist beliefs are.
When he’s released from prison a handful of years later, he’s almost a completely different person. But can he manage to keep his younger brother (Edward Furlong) from following in his footsteps and making the same mistakes he did? "American History X" may have an overly simplistic view of race relations — his years of searing hatred towards Black people is cured by just spending some time with a Black inmate — but it also features one of Norton’s most powerful performances to date.
Watch on Paramount Plus
