"Director: Jamaa Fanaka"

• Penitentiary | DVD | (13/02/2012) from £5.38   |  Saving you £4.61 (46.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Penitentiary is the first of many in a series depicting the harrowing prison existence of a convict who uses his wits and fists to survive. Leon Isaac Kennedy's character is thrown deep into the bowels of the prison system, where the only consistent truth is kill or be killed. To show his strength and gain respect from the other inmates, Kennedy must distinguish himself as a boxer, taking on all comers to save his own skin and regain his pride as a human being. Surprisingly effective in its harsh detailing of violent prison life, the film addresses the dehumanization of prisoners without excusing their crimes. Thought of as an exploitation picture, Penitentiary rises above its roots to provide a blunt and passionate look at one man's struggle on the inside. --Robert Lane

• Penitentiary | DVD | (09/03/2009) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-5.24 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Jamaa Fanaka's raw and violent indictment of prison life is a masterpiece of Urban Cinema and was the most successful independent film of 1980. A potent combination of 'blaxpoitation prison film and social commentary Penitentiary busted genres and galvanised audiences from the art houses to the inner city becoming the cornerstone of urban independent film for generations to come Martel Gordone ( Leon Isaac Kennedy) is a Hitchhiker who gets into a fight with a pair of bikers over a prostitute. One of the biker dies and Martel finds himself in prison with the moniker ' too sweet' because of his love of candy bars. Soon he is a hardened but pragmatic inmate who joins the prison boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole. Standing in his path however is 'Half Dead Johnson' a member of the prison's most violent gang.