Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971) dramatically alerted Americans to the ever-present danger of rape in prison. Some three decades later, the same issue is presented in this year’s Animal Factory, directed by Steve Buscemi, who plays a part in the film. Based on the novel of the same title by Edward Bunker (who also acts in the movie), the story centers around Ron Decker (played by Edward Furlong), an alienated but good-looking middle-class boy who was convicted of selling dope. Despite a favorable probation report as a first-time offender from a good family, the female judge reasoned that the wrong signal would be sent if he were given a suspended sentence, while poorer drug pushers were sent to jail. If the judge was out of touch with the reality of current prison conditions, filmviewers quickly learn that Decker will be forced, for his own protection, to seek protection from another prisoner in exchange for possible sexual favors. His cellmate is a transvestite named Jan (played by Mickey Rourke), so he is not forced to be a sex slave in his cell. The real hero is Earl Copen (played by Willem Dafoe), the favorite prisoner of the security guards, as he helps them to write reports while keeping the lid on potential violence. Copen, who has been in prison for eighteen years, immediately perceives that Decker not only needs protection from rape but also should be released as soon as possible, even though he is sexually attracted to Decker. Copen first saves Decker from a gang rape planned by Puerto Rican inmates. When Decker gets in trouble, Copen sanitizes an incident report. Copen arranges for Decker to be transferred to assignments that will win points with the parole board. But the parole board turns Decker down, despite a favorable evaluation by a psychologist, because his lawyer parrots the prosecutor’s report indicates that he is a “danger to the community.” Frustrated that he will be serving the full ten years of his sentence, Decker becomes sullen and is no longer the good looking sparrow for sex haws; he starts to turn into an animal within the zoo. Although Decker tries to avoid lustful glances from a Black inmate (whom we later see humiliated as the “bitch” of a more burly Black prisoner), he is cornered by a Caucasian who nearly forces him to have sex. Copen then assists Decker in stabbing the one who attacked him, though both end up in maximum security cells because they are suspected of having a role in the violence. While in solitary confinement, Copen hatches a plot to join Decker in a prison escape by hiding in a trash compactor truck, using a metal bar to stop the machine from chewing them up, a clever precaution than was not followed in an unsuccessful prison break two years earlier. The climax of the film, thus, resembles The Shawshank Redemption (1994), though we are led to believe that Decker is bound for Costa Rica with the help of his father, who finally realizes that he loves his son when he sees him turning into a punk. The film, thus, informs us that prisons are factories that turn out animals (rather than rehabilitated prisoners) who are unable to survive outside, so those who are released will inevitably return. We also view racial tensions, kept in check by Copen in the film but doubtless nowhere else, and outbreaks of violence as prisoners get even with one another for various slights. Animal Factory questions simplistic approaches to crime that have locked up some two million persons in prison today, nearly two-thirds for drug offenses, with more money now spent per person on prison inmates (whose food and lodging are substandard) than on America’s schoolchildren. Few California voters saw the film, when on cable or in cinemas, but they nonetheless accepted the premise of the film by passing Proposition 36, which provides that drug offenders will receive treatment for their addictions rather than incarceration. As for sex in the big house, consensual or otherwise, that is not of concern to the prison authorities at any time in the movie. MH