Release Date: September 8, 2020
Prices and Links:
Criterion- $31.96
Amazon- $27.99
Director: Jules Dassin
Writers: Richard Brooks, Robert Patterson
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth
As hard-hitting as its title, Brute Forcewas the first of Jules Dassin’s forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins’s dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey’s chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows the lengths men will go to when fighting for their freedom.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Theatrical Trailer:
Prices and Links:
Criterion- $31.96
Amazon- $27.99
Director: Jules Dassin
Writers: Richard Brooks, Robert Patterson
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth
- United States
- 1947
- 98 minutes
- Black & White
- 1.37:1
- English
As hard-hitting as its title, Brute Forcewas the first of Jules Dassin’s forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins’s dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey’s chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows the lengths men will go to when fighting for their freedom.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- On the Blu-ray: New 4K digital restoration by TLEFilms FIlm Restoration & Preservation Services, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- On the DVD: New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary from 2007 featuring film-noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
- Interview from 2007 with Paul Mason, editor of Captured by the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture
- Program from 2017 on Brute Force’s array of acting styles featuring film scholar David Bordwell (Blu-ray only)
- Trailer
- Stills gallery
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, a 1947 profile of producer Mark Hellinger, and rare correspondence between Hellinger and Production Code administrator Joseph Breen over the film’s content
Theatrical Trailer:
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