Product Description

A look at the life in the tombs manhattans infamous detention center where tensions erupt when a white prisoner accused of child molestation joins their ranks. Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 06/19/2007 Run time: 100 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55013 in DVD
• Brand: Genius
• Released on: 2003-08-12
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
Though time and HBO's Oz have eclipsed its ground-breaking impact, Short Eyes remains a milestone of American independent film, and a vital entry in the prison-film genre. Adapted by Miguel Piñero from his acclaimed play, this gritty drama was filmed in Manhattan's infamous Men's House of Detention (better known as "the Tombs"), giving a rough, authentic edge to Piñero's unflinching portrait of men trapped in legal-system limbo. Inmate tensions intensify when an alleged pedophile ("Short Eyes" in prison slang, played by Bruce Davison) is dropped into detention, and instantly ostracized by white, Latino, and black inmates alike. Under the documentary-like direction of Robert M. Young, this claustrophobic, emotionally raw study of hopelessness was a real eye-opener for its time (1977), revealing depths of anguish, danger, and cruelty that had never before been dramatized on film. Paving the way for harsher prison dramas that followed, Short Eyes features Piñero in a supporting role, and look closely for Traffic's Luis Guzmán in his screen debut. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Reinvented the prison genre
I was introduced to Short Eyes purely by chance while flipping through Leonard Maltin's movie guide which gives the film ***1/2 stars. After tracking down an out-of-print VHS tape of it, I finally saw this powerful 70's prison drama based on the play by the newly appreciated latino playwrite Miguel Pinero. Pinero's vision is so pure because it's clearly the work of a man who'd been behind bars often himself. The dialogue is amazingly real (and very profane for its time) and the overall feeling of the film is dark, gritty and stark, very much like an episode of Oz, only twenty years before that TV show aired. Shot on location at an abandoned men's prison in New York it's stage origins are only really apparant during one brief dialogue scene between Pinero (acting in his own work) and Davis (the incarerated child molestor who inflames the hatred of the other inmates).

For me the comparison that really makes me appreciate this film is with The Shawshank Redemption. That is a good film but it's also clearly the work of a man (Stephen King) who had never been behind bars for any length of time. While in that film there are two or three stereotyped baddies in the entire prison who force the hero into sex, in Short Eyes it's made very clear how long, long periods behind bars with no access to women begins to grind on many of the inmates and their desires, even men who wouldn't consider themselves to be "gay". The scene where the youngest, "prettiest" inmate Cupcake is harrased in the showers by an older guy who all but forces him into sex feels completely real, like it's the way something like that would really happen. The fact that Pinero himself (who wrote the original play) was bisexual certainly accounts for the films (virtually unique) honesty in this area.

Benjamin Bratt played Pinero in a pretty good film of the writers life the other year. That's definitely work a look but it's Short Eyes that will make you realize why he was the talk of New York at the time.

Short eyes has true vision
Miguel Pinero is the most underated playwright of modern American theater. His play short eyes shows us the ugly underbelly of American society through the eyes of convicts. It is a play filled with ethnic anomosity racial rivalaries and a rigid moral code which allows no devation. Truly this film version of the stage play is worth looking at. Bruce Davidson performace is complelling and the rest of the cast never miss a beat. It is not for the faint hearted.
Most unfortunate is that Mr. Pinero is no longer with us but some might remember the Miami Vice episodes he penned

Tough little film
"Short Eyes" was released in 1977 and stars a multi-ethnic cast playing inmates in a Sing-Sing style prison. The prisoners belong to tight groups, divided primarily along racial lines, and co-exist with relatively little violence. They even have a "council," comprised of the leaders of the various groups, that establishes acceptable actions for the prisoners. Into this composition comes Bruce Davison, an alleged child molester, who the prisoners dub "freak" and "short eyes." The story is told rather loosely and episodically, as it moves toward its inevitable but gritty conclusion.

In 1977, "Short Eyes" must have seemed shatteringly realistic and harrowing. Today, the film feels a bit stagy; not surprisingly, the screenplay was based on a play - by noted Puerto Rican playwright, Miguel Pinero (he also has a small part as Go Go). Despite this flaw, the characterizations are solid and the acting is often quite good; Freddy Fender and Curtis Mayfield even show up to sing some songs! In addition, the film explores prison race relations in a startlingly frank and credible manner. Overall, the film is one of the better prison dramas and likely to appeal to fans of 70s cinema.

The DVD extras include an interesting commentary track with the film's director Robert Young as well as director Leon Ichaso, who made "Pinero" based on the life of the playwright. Unfortunately, the film is not subtitled, which would be helpful with the considerable jargon and the rapid-fire delivery of the inmates.