Riot In Cell Block 11 (1954) - Don Siegel

​Don Siegel's Riot in Cell Block 11 is a raw and unfiltered portrait of the carceral state which is salient and unfortunately prescient in its depiction which still feels extremely relevant even today. Focusing largely on the ground-up, action-reaction dichotomy between prisoners and prison guards, Riot in Cell Block 11details through a largely neo-realist framework the dehumanization intrinsic to prison-industrial-complex which firmly elevates punitive notions of justice over rehabilitative measures. An affront to the carceral state and the conditions of these institutions which operate in the shadows outside of public scrutiny, Riot in Cell Block 11 exhibits the coercive effect which media also can play - at best being complicit itself in such barbarism wielded by the state apparatus and at its worst being far more insidious, obfuscating public perception of convicts through its portrayal which posits them as nothing more than subhuman brutes. While it offers no easy answers, what Riot in Cell Block 11 does illustrate is the institutional power of the state and its cohorts - whether that be in governance, media, or carceral - illustrating through its story the importance of individual actors from within who can push these larger institutions towards effective and meaningful change. Tears to shreds naive notions about the government being nothing but its people - the state and the people are incongruous.