Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.
Being an early favorite of when I first discovered the potential of Sean Penn.
Really gritty film centered around some youths that are ‘raging against the machine’ and learned to fend for themselves on the street.
It’s a good film if you can appreciate it in it’s own time and merit.
Sean Penn is "O'Brien" who is sent down for the accidental killing of an eight year old lad. His time in prison subjects him to the usual pressures and bullying but he allies with the shrewd electronics whizz "Horowitz" (Eric Gurry) and slowly but surely starts to learn the ropes, turn the tables and thrive. When he learns that the older brother of the dead boy has seriously assaulted his girlfriend "JC" (a few, sparing, contributions from Ally Sheedy) and is now incarcerated in the same institution, a deadly reckoning is on the cards with "Paco" (Esai Morales). Penn never did shy away from the grittier roles and here he carries off his part quite efficiently, though without much sparkle, but the rest of the cast - especially prison scumbag "Lofgren" (the always one-dimensional Clancy Brown) - really only make up the numbers as this predictable and rather plodding two hours of slowly building revenge drama heads to it's inevitable conclusion. It might have been more impactful at the time, but forty years on it is a wordy variation on a well travelled theme that is easy to watch and just as easy to forget.
Originally watched this on TV (WUTV Buffalo 29) and I vividly remembered the soda can scene - (although I thought he put them in a sock) plus the performances of Sean Penn and Esai Morales. I did not remember a young Ally Sheedy, Clancy Brown and Alan Ruck.