The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.0/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.60/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Metacritic: 54
TMDB: 7.1/10
Director
Stuart Rosenberg
Production
20th Century Fox
Cast
Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Alexander, Murray Hamilton, David Keith, Morgan Freeman, Matt Clark, Tim McIntire, Richard Ward, Jon Van Ness, M. Emmet Walsh, Albert Salmi, Linda Haynes, Everett McGill, Val Avery, Ron Frazier, David Harris, Joe Spinell, James Keane, Konrad Sheehan
Curator Review
Verdict
A sturdy, old-school prison-corruption drama with a strong moral spine, gritty atmosphere, and a standout Robert Redford performance. It’s less a twisty thriller than a principled institutional takedown, but the supporting cast and lived-in detail make it compelling.
Best for
fans of 1970s/early-1980s social-issue dramas
viewers who like prison films with reformist politics
people who enjoy star-driven, morally upright lead performances
audiences interested in corruption, bureaucracy, and institutional decay
Skip if
you want a fast-paced prison escape movie
you prefer highly stylized or modern crime filmmaking
you need a deeply ambiguous or subversive ending
you’re looking for a film with nonstop action or suspense
Overview
Brubaker is one of those movies that feels slightly out of time in a good way: released in 1980, but cut from the tougher, more procedural moralism of the 1970s. It follows a new prison warden who enters the system undercover and discovers just how thoroughly corruption has infected it. The setup is simple, but the film’s strength is in the accumulation of abuses, compromises, and small acts of resistance.
Worth noting
Robert Redford gives the movie its center of gravity, playing Brubaker as calm, stubborn, and almost impossibly principled. The role suits his screen persona perfectly, and the film leans into that charisma without entirely losing sight of the ugliness around him. Yaphet Kotto and the rest of the ensemble add texture, and the prison setting has a grim, tactile quality that makes the corruption feel systemic rather than merely personal.
Bottom line
It’s not as sharp or iconic as the great prison dramas it inevitably invites comparison to, and some of its reformist optimism can feel a little neat. But as a serious, well-acted institutional drama with real atmosphere, it holds up well. If you like movies where competence and conscience are tested against a rotten machine, this is an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
eely (3.5★) · 283 likes
things that are equally sexy to me:
1. robert redford calmly explaining to a room full of white republican men how he’s going to reform the prison they’ve corrupted with their own greed.
2. robert redford putting an entire head of uncooked cauliflower in his mouth and pressing a can of cold beer to his forehead to alleviate the headache he got from having to deal with corrupt white republican men.
Christopher McQuarrie · 185 likes
“I’m gettin’ ready to tell you something.”
This prison film based loosely on a true story, directed by Cool Hand Luke’s Stuart Rosenberg and written by Bucakroo Bonzai’s W.D. Richter, is in an oddly unique artifact. Released in 1980, but very much a stylistic holdout of the early 70s, it was a critical and commercial success, yet now it’s largely forgotten. Worth watching for the supporting cast alone, including the always awesome Yaphet Kotto and a fleeting Morgan Freeman at a… more
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4★) · 149 likes
Starring: My Name is Morgan Freeman
Had they had Robert Redford’s Henry Brubaker as the warden, maybe Attica or the prison system would have been better and no massacre and stuff would’ve happened. Then again, there’s a reason why they call this a “fantasy” and him an “idealist.”
Right away, this movie plays like a happier version of Attica despite some people being hanged on posters. Funny enough, Morgan Freeman plays a more pissed inmate, making a good impression on… more
madison (3.5★) · 91 likes
i love watching the sexiest man ever try to reform a corrupt system (this and serpico) having to juggle being really sexy and fighting to improve the lives of many must be so hard
eely (4★) · 86 likes
I said “he is so sexy” about thirty times throughout the course of this film for random reasons: robert redford put on a jacket, got in a truck, wore corduroy pants, got wet in the rain, wore rain boots, played polo on a horse, etc. my sister only said he was sexy once and it was during the scene where he was talking on the phone in his house and got out his gun to shoot a giant rat.
A smart political drama about ideals colliding with the realities of power and compromise.
Topics
prison drama, 1970s-style realism, institutional corruption, social issue film, moral crusade, ensemble cast, gritty atmosphere, political drama, procedural, American drama