Lock Up (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lock Up | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | John Flynn |
| Produced by | Michael Glick, Charles Gordon, Lawrence Gordon |
| Written by | Richard Smith Jeb Stuart Henry Rosenbaum |
| Starring | Sylvester Stallone Donald Sutherland John Amos Darlanne Fluegel Frank McRae Sonny Landham |
| Music by | Bill Conti |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 4, 1989 |
| Running time | 115 min. |
| Language | English |
Lock Up is a film detailing the last six months of inmate Frank Leone's (played by Sylvester Stallone) prison term. The movie largely involves the conflict between him and Warden Drumgoole (Sutherland). The film was nominated for three Razzie Awards: Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone), Worst Picture (Lawrence Gordon), and Worst Supporting Actor (Donald Sutherland), but didn't win any. While being a relatively unknown Stallone film compared to some of his others, the film has seen a recent resurgence and many fans feel the movie was unfairly criticized.
[edit] Plot Synopsis
The movie begins in what is presumably Frank Leone's auto shop. He is wiping the dust off old pictures; the expression on his face reveals nostalgia and happiness. After this opening image, a girl comes into the shop, asking for "a good mechanic." The two embrace warmly, they clearly have some sort of loving relationship. After this, the couple walks around town, Stallone involves himself in a game of tackle football with some local sixth-graders. Leone and Melissa (Darlanne Fluegel) go their separate ways. Leone returns to a prison; this is confusing, and the movie never explains why an inmate would be granted a weekend's leave.
There is a sudden interruption that night; a number of guards enter and drag Leone off to another less genteel prison called Rahway State Prison. Here he meets Warden Drumgoole, who explains to him that he will make Leone serve hard time, seeing as he made a fool of the Warden by escaping from his control at another prison. The audience is given an introductory view at the Warden's sadistic habits when he subjects Leone to the delousing chamber until he is forced to breathe in the powerful toxic elements.
Leone meets Dallas, Eclipse, and First Base, in that order, and befriends the three of them. With the encouragement and help of Dallas and First, Leone and Eclipse completely refurbish a red Ford Mustang. After completing work on the Mustang, Leone and First are talking while the exhausted Dallas and Eclipse rest. First tells Leone that he has never driven before and Leone pushes the Mustang around the shop. First isn't satisfied, and he tells Leone that the experience wouldn't be complete unless he could turn the engine over. Frank reluctantly agrees and First ends up driving the Mustang out of the garage. As punishment, the Warden has Leone and the rest watch as two other inmates (including Chink Weber, one of the more brutal inmates in the prison) destroy the car. Frank is thrown into the hole for six weeks. At the end of the period, Leone is about to get roughed up by a few of the prison guards when Captain Meissner stops them.
After this period Leone gets reacquainted with his friends, and receives a bundle of letters from his girlfriend. The warden, in an attempt to get Leone to do more time, allows for Chink and a few other inmates to savagely beat First. They end up killing him. When Leone hears about this, his response is to go after Chink. He beats him to a pulp and is about to drop a laden barbell onto Chink (a crowd of inmates cheering him on) when he restrains himself. Immediately following this, an anonymous inmate stabs a shank into Leone's back. He falls down, and the screen fades.
Leone is transferred to a cell in the infirmary. One night a stranger informs him that the Warden made a deal with him; The Warden will reduce his jail time, and in exchange, this stranger will rape Melissa. Leone goes berserk and tries to escape with the help of Dallas. Dallas betrays him by leading him into the Warden's hands. The Warden then leaves the guards to subdue him; Leone knocks out most of them, and then Dallas kills the last guard by electrocuting a pool of the water he and the guard are in. Leone captures the Warden in his office, and straps him up to an electric chair. He gets the Warden to admit his plot to increase Leone's jail time to Captain Meissner and a team of guards. Meissner makes a judicial inquiry into the matter, and Leone does only the jail time first required of him. He leaves the jail and gets back to Melissa.
