Brute Force (1947) - film review

The inmates of Westgate Prison, a United States penitentiary, are growing increasingly fractious as the prison authorities gradually erode their privileges and make life more unbearable.   The prisoners are treated worse than animals, systematically abused by the guards and burdened with demeaning chores instead of being taught useful skills.  Only the prison doctor has the insight to see where this will end, but he fails to convince the warden to put rehabilitation before discipline.   The unrest is fuelled by Munsey, a sadistic guard captain, so that he can discredit the warden and take his position.  Incensed by the way he and his friends are treated, prisoner Joe Collins decides to mount an escape.  He knows that men could die in the attempt but he considers this a risk worth taking.  A plan is devised, weapons and equipment are acquired and a date set.  What Collins does not realise is that he is playing straight into Munsey’s hands...

This is where Jules Dassin’s career began proper.  After five years with MGM, making such totally forgettable fare as Reunion in France (1942) and Young Ideas (1943), Dassin had the good fortune to be hired by producer Mark Hellinger to direct what would be the first in a series of superlative film noir thriller-dramas.  The contrast with Dassin’s previous film, a muddled comedy thriller entitled Two Smart People (1946), could not be greater.  An uncompromising prison drama with stunning production values and a stellar cast, Brute Force is the film that established Dassin as one of the most respected filmmakers in Hollywood, whilst helping to usher in a new era of hard-edged realism in American cinema.

Brute Force was also an important milestone in the career of its star, Burt Lancaster.  The 33 year-old-actor had appeared in just one film prior to this, Robert Siodmak’s film noir classic The Killers (1946) (another Mark Hellinger production) and already looked set to become a major presence in Hollywood.   Blessed with a physique and personality that combined the old cowboy machismo with a subtle romantic charm, Lancaster was perfectly suited for his early film noir roles.  Brute Force was virtually a dry run for the actor’s subsequent film Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), in which he played another taciturn prison detainee bent on rebellion, albeit one who applies his refractory nature to more positive ends.

Dassin followed Brute Force with two equally damning studies of contemporary American society – The Naked City (1948) and Thieves’ Highway (1949).   Together, these three films provide a sobering portrait of a country that is far from being at ease with itself in the aftermath of WWII.  Fascism overseas had been defeated, but meanwhile trouble had sprung up closer to home.  New fears were emerging, in response to the threat posed by an emerging Communist superpower.  Dassin himself fell foul of the mounting anti-Red paranoia and would become an exile in Europe when fellow filmmaker Edward Dmytryk denounced him as a Communist sympathiser.  These were troubled times for America, and Dassin conveys this growing political and social turmoil with extraordinary lucidity in his films.

Brute Force and the two following Dassin films represent an important step in the evolution of film noir drama, from the stylised films that were made before and during WWII to a far more realistic kind of film in the post-war era.  Often as not, these films had an important underlying message that underpinned the drama.  Brute Force provides a forceful case for reform of the prison system, arguing that if such reforms are not forthcoming society will pay the price.  The status quo benefited only a handful of fascistic thugs who ran the prisons, allowing them to sate their sadistic urges and fulfil the odd Napoleon complex. (A cynic might argue that prisons exist not to reform criminals but to provide an alternative career path for Wagner-loving sociopaths who might otherwise end up running the country.)   Birdman of Alcatraz would tread the same ground fifteen years later, when prison reform had finally started to become a reality.  There’s some truth in the old adage that brute force never solves anything.

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