This is produced by the documentary of Home Box Office (HBO) and by sheer coincidence the last documentary I watched was also by HBO , a documentary called THOUGHT CRIMES . I do wonder if HBO might be American television's premier documentary makers . It's a station that shot to my attention in 1997 when Channel 4 started broadcasting the no holds barred drama OZ set in a maximum security prison . In fact even today every time the HBO logo flashes up I always expect the theme tune to OZ start playing . How very appropriate then this documentary features life and death in an American maximum security penitentiary in Iowa
All the other commentators on this page have stated how moving this documentary is . It's difficult not to be moved since Edgar Barens pulls out all the stops and clichés in order to elicit sympathy for its subject . I don't mean empathy I mean out and out sympathy where the manipulation is splashed on with a trowel . Take for example the title THE LAST DAYS OF PRIVATE JACK HALL . Private Hall spent 1942-45 fighting in the European theatre of the Second World War which involved being taken prisoner by the Nazis . This had absolutely nothing to do with what he was convicted of . What happened was Hall's son became a junkie and hanged himself so Hall murdered a drugs dealer . Are we supposed to be on Jack's side ? Perhaps if Jack was a better father his son might not have become a junkie ? But let's not be too judgemental . It's not like this is an objective documentary . A caption tells us "20% of America's prisoners are elderly . Over the next decade 100,000 inmates many serving life sentences will die alone in their cells" . Mind if I ask what they're serving life sentences for ? Murder perhaps ? Serial child sex abuse ? Difficult to feel sorry for certain people but Barens does his utmost by having an intrusive muzak soundtrack of a piano and a string instrument constantly playing , Let me state here there's a gulf of difference between being moved and being manipulated and I was left with the deep seated conviction that I was constantly being manipulated by events in this documentary
