Product Description

A first time felon is sentenced to two years in prison and is taken under the wing of a veteran inmate.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-DEC-2004
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14834 in DVD
• Brand: DAFOE,WILLEM
• Released on: 2001-01-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
Steve Buscemi subtly refines the prison drama in his second film, a rich character piece set in a ramshackle state penitentiary. Edward Furlong is a glum, drug-dealing, middle-class bad boy suddenly drop-kicked into a world in which his sneering defiance just makes him more attractive prey to hardened convicts. Willem Dafoe, a career felon who runs the prison's contraband network, takes the kid under his wing and his protection. He's obviously attracted to the pretty boy and that sexual tension buzzes throughout the film, but their friendship, which is much more complicated, becomes the center of the film.

Buscemi allows the story to trickle along, downplaying the usual prison clichés to delve into the often murky relationships between prisoners, the predatory pecking order, and the undercurrent of racial divisions. He suggests everything in glances, threats, and tensions that only rarely erupt into violence. The film lacks a strong narrative line, but Buscemi's sensitivity to his characters and his sharp ensemble direction provide generous compensation. Dafoe is brilliant as the smiling smooth operator, his shaved head and jagged-toothed grin suggesting both a threatening confidence, and Furlong ably registers the fear of his sheer defenselessness in this dangerous world. Tom Arnold shines as a terrifying bully and Mickey Rourke is almost unrecognizable as Furlong's cross-dressing cellmate with a honeyed Southern lilt and makeup that would make Tammy Faye Bakker proud. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Human Wreckage
In 1996 I was convicted of armed robbery and sent to prison in Washington state for eight years(of which I did seven)and I'm here to tell you that ANIMAL FACTORY is the real deal; I was a lot like the character played by Edward Furlong and I was lucky enough to meet men like the character played by Wilem Dafoe, guys who didn't want to rape me, guys who didn't want to kill me, guys who acted decently amidst all of the indecency.

Since my release from prison in 2003 I am invariably asked the two big questions when it comes to incarceration in this country: A) did I get raped? And B) is prison really like you see on OZ?

I've never seen OZ but anyone who wants to see what prison is like should get a gander at ANIMAL FACTORY. The entire film drips with authenticity. Within 2 minutes I felt that old queasy feeling in my stomach--exactly as if I were back there myself, all over again.

For those of you out there who might think there is still a bit of rebellious glamour left in going to prison, watch ANIMAL FACTORY and take it from me: being locked up is not cool and its not fun and it is not something that anyone should aspire to.

Fine, underrated Buscemi film.
Animal Factory (Steve Buscemi, 2000)

Steve Buscemi is best known as an actor, thanks in no small part to him being a staple in Quentin Tarantino films, but you know the old line-- everyone in Hollywood wants to direct. Buscemi has actually done his share of it, but the movies that result tend to be minor affairs that get little distribution outside the arthouse scene. That's kind of depressing, especially when it comes to a movie like Animal Factory, with a wealth of acting talent and a script to back it up.

Ron Decker (American History X's Edward Furlong) gets busted for selling dope, and under the strict new laws, is sent to prison for five years on a felony rap. Once in the joint, Decker gets to know Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), a lifer who is, as Morgan Freeman's character calls himself in The Shawshank Redemption, "the guy who knows how to get things." Decker and Copen form an odd, complex relationship that's viewed by those outside the prison walls with some alarm.

Furlong, Dafoe, and Danny Trejo, who plays Dafoe's best friend, are only the tip of the acting iceberg in this movie; a host of other fine actors have parts ranging from supporting to bit, including Buscemi himself, Mickey Rourke, John Heard, Tom Arnold, Larry Fessenden, Seymour Cassel, and a host of others; were there not so much focus on Furlong and Dafoe, this would have easily been billable as an ensemble-cast movie, and to an extent it plays like that anyway; there's too much of a main story here for a straight ensemble film, though. (Rourke, especially, is notable here, in his best performance since Angel Heart.) Either way you look at it, this is a strong movie chock full of good performances; the subject matter, and the rather jaundiced way of looking at it, may make some squeamish, but the caliber of the performances here should be enough to overcome that. Animal Factory is a good'un. You want to see it. ****

PRISON BUDDY FLICK WITH AN ORIGINAL TWIST
This is an intellgent film with a lot of good acting. It does not capitalize on abuse and violence, as a lot of prison films do and gives it a realistic treatment. The only comparable prison pixcture would be ON THE YARD out of the 70's, but this one is more positive in that it offers hope, and that in itself makes Animal Factory more realistic.
Willem Dafoe is a living great, and whenever he makes a film he brings in great theatrical elements to his roles. His portrayal of feigning insanity in the hole is a Dafoe original. This film brings in other artists and allows them perform as well. The classic shot pans the yard as you hear the soundtrack and then you actually see a con singing the blues and you realize that it's not just the background music, the guy is actually performing live. Like other prison flicks, this one has its share of the inevitable rape and shankings you would find in a prison film, but this one does not give them the center stage. It doesn't shy away from the difficult issues that other films avoid, but at the same time you can make a claim that it does hold back on repression, abuse and violence you are bond to find in a real prison. It strives and does a good job breaking stereotypes. Tom Arnold is barely recognizable in a cameo that breaks his mold and I did not recognize Mickey Rourke in the aging drag queen he was playing. You can not fault this film for being unrealistic because films are works of arts and this one actually redeems itself.