I watched this for Glenn Ford, whom I am really learning to appreciate the more I watch from him. He was truly one of the great actors. Otherwise, I didn't expect much but boy this movie is excellent from beginning to end! The acting and direction are so incredibly beautiful - take for instance a courtroom case early on in the film. Instead of showing the courtroom scene as you would expect from most other films of the time, the focus is on the preparation of the case and then the film cuts to the verdict. The preparation is haunting in of itself, the man we side with has accidentally killed another man, and his lawyer and prosecutor are discussing the case. The prosecutor believes in the man's innocence but thinks that he has to do his job. The lawyer is a really bad one with little experience and rejects all advice from the prosecutor. The cut to the guilty verdict lays out how pointlessly hopeless this case is and thus gains our sympathy for the man. That is really economic storytelling.
Throughout most of the film, the filmmakers portray excellent control of the camera - sharp cinematography, clear camera movement, and amazing montages. I can't put in words how much awe I was during a montage showing the prisoners walking back to their cells, focusing on the movement of their feet and cutting forward in time, always matching the movement. Equally, a quick montage showing the protagonist serving several years of his sentence is just as horrifying as its content would suggest. Finally - and this was the moment this film's genius truly struck me - the scene where Joe meets his former prosecutor again (who is now the new warden) honestly put me in tears. Everything is so believable and Ford is so unbelievably phenomenal in this role. We really want him to be more enthusiastic about his future, but he just isn't, which convincingly communicates the film's message. Even more depressing is a similar scene later on in the film where the warden asks him who murdered one of the convicts - and Joe won't tell, not only because of the fear of being the next target of the criminal mob in prison but also because the folks in prison are the only people he is befriended with. The movie is a true nightmare at times, and I mean that in the best way possible (cinematically).
Throughout most of the film, the filmmakers portray excellent control of the camera - sharp cinematography, clear camera movement, and amazing montages. I can't put in words how much awe I was during a montage showing the prisoners walking back to their cells, focusing on the movement of their feet and cutting forward in time, always matching the movement. Equally, a quick montage showing the protagonist serving several years of his sentence is just as horrifying as its content would suggest. Finally - and this was the moment this film's genius truly struck me - the scene where Joe meets his former prosecutor again (who is now the new warden) honestly put me in tears. Everything is so believable and Ford is so unbelievably phenomenal in this role. We really want him to be more enthusiastic about his future, but he just isn't, which convincingly communicates the film's message. Even more depressing is a similar scene later on in the film where the warden asks him who murdered one of the convicts - and Joe won't tell, not only because of the fear of being the next target of the criminal mob in prison but also because the folks in prison are the only people he is befriended with. The movie is a true nightmare at times, and I mean that in the best way possible (cinematically).