DVD Review: Jamaa Fanaka's PENITENTIARY (UK)

As a tribute to the passing of the late Jamaa Fanaka, I've decided to put this pending review of Penitentiary from Arrowdrome on the fast track.  Fanaka was a rebel who made his films his way, and perhaps no film better exemplifies that adventurous spirit and search for truth quite like the first Penitentiary film. Made while Fanaka was still a film student, Penitentiary may be his most personal film, the one with the most to say about the state of African American men in the late '70s, and as such, it has a ring of truth and a power that evades most run of the mill blaxploitation films from the '70s.

While Penitentiary often gets lumped into the blaxploitation genre, there is enough to differentiate this film from the majority of that genre to make the argument that it was a backlash against the movement. Whereas many of the blaxploitation features are works of wish fulfillment, showing powerful black figures in oppressed communities, Penitentiary turns that idea on it's head and has its protagonist lose his power very early on. Leon Isaac Kennedy as Too Sweet is no Truck Turner, John Shaft, Black Caesar, or even Dolemite, he is a regular African American man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though America was coming out of the civil rights era in the late '70s, there was still a lot of unease about the place of the black man in greater society. Resentment lingered, and while the blaxploitation films of the early part of the '70s were created to give African American audiences heroes to worship, Penitentiary was made as if to ask, have we really come that far?

Too Sweet is a strange character, in that he, as an itinerant Vietnam veteran was a common feature in '70s films, though usually the character was white and a vigilante of some kind. Instead, he gets caught in the act of being black on a Tuesday and framed for a murder he didn't commit, which sends him to the pen to serve some hard time. Once inside, Too Sweet realizes that the power structure within the prison is based on the axiom that might makes right, and sees first hand the methods by which the top dogs keep their positions.

Prison rape is a common feature when we talk about prison bound features, but rarely  is it explored so effectively as a form of emasculation and a way to consolidate power by the men who wish to attain and keep that power. When Too Sweet meets a fellow inmate who has been the victim of this brutal form of intimidation, he sticks up for him, making himself a target. When prison enforcer and cellmate, Half Dead, is given the order to take Too Sweet down a peg, the ensuing fight sees Too Sweet turning the tables, and hence turning himself into a target. The only way to make it out of this hell hole is via a boxing tournament, the winner of which will have a decent chance of early parole, thanks to the warden's connections to a promoter. This is yet another way in which Fanaka is able to hone his message of exploitation by the powers that be.

At first, Too Sweet wants nothing to do with the fights, but when it becomes clear that this is his way out, he begins to change his mind. The boxing ring is little more than a gladiatorial ring in which black prisoners fight for the entertainment of the white men with money. Often they are fooled into buying the hype that they are the heroes, but this is no different that watching the two slaves in Drum, played by Ken Norton and Yaphet Kotto, fight for the pure amusement of their masters. Too Sweet and Fanaka understand this dynamic, and manage to find a way to empower Too Sweet to turn the tables. Using boxing as a metaphor for the gentrification or the inner cities, in which the government takes small steps to help African-American communities destroy themselves, is a brave and cunning move on the part of Fanaka, who would, to some degree, abandon this motif in his later iterations of the story of Too Sweet.

Penitentiary is not an inspirational film. Too Sweet doesn't get his life back, he doesn't become a better person, he becomes who has has to become to stay alive. If Penitentiary bears a resemblance to any previous blaxploitation features, they would be either Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song or Fanaka's own Welcome Home, Brother Charles (Soul Vengeance). Both are films in which white characters hunt down black characters who are not conventional hero types. Sweetback may be a sexual powerhouse and something of a fighter, but he's no here, and Brother Charles is a victim of prison scientific experiments. Both take vengeance on their oppressors in one way or another, and that is the basic crux of Penitentiary. Even some 10 years after the heyday of the civil rights movement, African Americans were still trying to find out what their place was in this new America, and often not having much luck.

Thirty-four years after its initial release, Penitentiary still packs a punch. While it may be lacking on the technical side of things, it still delivers the goods and makes a bold statement that holds true today. The acting isn't great, the photography is lacking, and the lack of budget shows through very clearly, but the heart of the film is strong, and pumps passion through every frame. At a lean 90 minutes, Penitentiary is a film that is paced well and doesn't waste its time with unnecessary exposition without forgetting to close up plot threads, and giving each character a brief moment to prove their mettle. A powerful film, this, and one that will hopefully get a bit more attention now that Fanaka's name is back in headlines, though for sadder reasons than I'd ideally want. Recommended.

The Disc:

I've got good news and bad news about Arrowdrome's Penitentiary DVD. First, the bad news: it's ugly. Arrow have used the non-anamorphic interlaced master from Xenon's OOP US DVD. The film lacks clarity, detail, strong color, and looks decidedly unclean in motion. The audio is similarly handicapped, which led me to have to watch the film at an absurd level on my system to make out the dialogue. Sadly, there are no subtitles, which would have alleviated this issue to a small degree. The film's sequel, Penitentiary 2, shares a similar fate with a non-anamorphic presentation that is even softer than the title film's, and muddier audio. A bummer, but not really any worse than Xenon's OOP disc, sadly.

In terms of extras, there are only a couple but one is a real keeper. Arrowdrome have ported over the US director commentary on the first film, which is spotty but informative, and worth listening to at least once. The more interesting extra is the full length Penitentiary 2, shot some years later and replacing some of the main cast. We get the return of Leon Isaac Kennedy, but we get Ernie Hudson playing the homicidal Half Dead, and Mr. T playing himself as a boxing trainer. The result is more typical of '80s action/exploitation films than the first film was. The plot and setting are pretty conventional and crib a lot from various Rocky films. One thing that is entertaining, however, is the over the top nature of much of the action, particularly coming from future Ghostbuster, Ernie Hudson, who rapes Too Sweet's lady friend to death in a shower. The tone is incredibly inconsistent and the film weaves back and forth from incredibly exploitative to blatantly inspirational, to comedic (thanks to an early role from black dwarf du jour, Tony Cox (Bad Santa)), and it just never really finds its feet. While the film is, admittedly, rabidly entertaining, I can't help wondering what the hell they were going for, because it is so tonally imbalanced that I can't figure out when to laugh and when to cry. However, it's inclusion on this incredibly inexpensive region free disc, is a welcome one, and sure beats trying to buy the two films on OOP DVD in the states.

Penitentiary is the film that will always come to mind when remembering the late Jamaa Fanaka. I'll be honest, you could to worse. The film is filled to the brim with an independent spirit and passion that we don't see much these days. The presentation certainly leaves something to be desired, but the film remains a monument to a talent and vision the likes of which we may not see for a while. We'll miss you Jamaa.