Synopsis
Against the Wall (1994) is John Frankenheimer's prison drama, available to watch online on iFILM. A rookie corrections officer reports for his first shift at Attica during the same September days in 1971 when the cell blocks erupt and guards end up held at knifepoint.
The story works both sides of the bars. Green guard Michael (Kyle MacLachlan) is taken by the inmates, and his fate falls to Jamaal — the protest's leader, played by Samuel L. Jackson with a banked, dangerous calm. As the men inside push for livable conditions and amnesty, the state stalls the talks, and the yard tightens around one question: will the order to storm the place come down. Harry Dean Stanton, Anne Heche and Danny Trejo fill out the edges.
Made for HBO and built from the recollections of people who lived through those four days, the film refuses to turn a massacre into an action set piece. What it cares about is how fear corrodes everyone on both sides. A heavy, rewarding watch for anyone drawn to docudrama about the cost of dignity. Stream Against the Wall (1994) online on iFILM.
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