Short Eyes (1977)

Memorable, crazy movie

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Short Eyes is to prison pictures what the atom bomb is to weaponry— powerful and frightening from one end to the other. In fact, I'm surprised the movie got made at all since it's got all the commercial appeal of live surgery. But once you start watching, you can't stop. The characters are real and riveting, the setting an actual prison (The Tombs), and the violence sudden and brutal. It's almost like being in prison, except thankfully you're not.The story is about one floor of the lockup where the packed-in racial groups appear poised for combat like Europe in 1914. There's a tense truce as long as Whites, Blacks, and Browns observe the unwritten rules and don't invade the wrong space. Too bad they're not making music all the time because that's the only time they seem in harmony. Then into this tense mix comes a guy everyone can despise, a child-molester (Davison). Worse, he's a white guy who even looks like "the man". So he's got as much chance of surviving as a minnow has among sharks-- that is, if the authorities don't pull him out first. And, kind of surprisingly, we wish they would since after listening to his "story", he seems more pathetic than wicked.Two things to note. Catch how difficult it is for any kind of humanity to survive amid racially charged, oppressive conditions that the authorities (guards, supervisors) only make worse. Juan (Perez) wants to cling to some vestige, but he's got to do it within the unwritten rules. And, in this testosterone-soaked atmosphere, the problem isn't just ethnic, it's other guys in general. However, the most nightmarish part is the threat of emasculation, men being denied their identity and turned into substitute women. That scene in the shower between Cupcakes and Paco may be more unsettling than even the knifing in Psycho (1960). I expect this loss of sexual identity may be the most unnerving part of a genuinely frightening movie, by which Hollywood's prison films pale in comparison.

When something feels so real, true to its life in all respects, you get let in and buried beneath its weight. "Short Eyes" is a film that takes straight reality, fills it with characters and words of full realization, and takes you down the corridor of a 1 hour, 39 minute hell. Miguel Pinero wrote a script from a world he knew well, words and people from the dark side of America. No one but a former prisoner could have reflected things so pure and so ugly. Robert M. Young as director sets the scene and understands what the story needs. He lets it happen with the freedom begged for.I could say a lot more, I suppose, but every event hinges on those surrounding it, so to say much is perhaps having to say all. It's a flat painful experience, leaving you with the title character, played by Bruce Davison. Regardless of who you are or what your sin may be, this character is meant to be you. Watch him, feel his hurt, live his guilt, and he might just reflect a little bit of you back. This is not an easy thing.

Clark Davis, a shy, soft-spoken, wholesome-looking middle class white male, is sent to prison for the heinous, unspeakable crime of child molestation. Clark's very presence causes the assorted racial conflicts, barely suppressed homosexual longings, and painfully nagging doubts about one's self-worth amongst the inmates to come to an explosive full boil on a heretofore calm multi-ethnic cellblock. The inmates band together to enforce their own vicious, complicated moral code upon the much pushed around Davis.Tough, gritty and frightfully plausible, "Short Eyes" rates highly as one of the best, most accurate and brutally realistic prison films ever made. Bruce Davison gives an astonishing, almost excruciatingly delicate, unexpectedly sympathetic and even moving performance as the pathetic, guilt-ridden pedophile; the scene where Clark confesses to having molested several little girls since he was fifteen years old is quite chilling and haunting; it's perhaps the most blistering and gut-wrenching moment in a generally searing and hard-hitting film. The outstanding ensemble cast all turn in exceptional work: Jose Perez as the compassionate Juan, who makes a valiant, humane attempt at protecting and understanding Clark; Joe Carburry as the volatile, irascible Longshoe, who initially befriends Clark and becomes his chief tormentor after discovering he's a "short eyes" (prison slang for child molester); former real-life convict Tito Goya as Cupcakes, a cute Hispanic inmate who secretly likes all the sexual advances he receives from most guys on his block; Mark Margolis as a hostile guard, Don Blakely as El Raheem, an overbearing, overzealous advocate of black pride and Islamic religion; and Shawn Elliot as Paco, a crude, hulking gay felon who only knows how to show affection through aggression (the scene where Paco tries to seduce Cupcakes in the shower is very touching). Keep your eyes peeled for Luis Guzman in his film debut as an extra inmate in a few crowd scenes.Richard Young's sharp, tautly wound direction, working from Miguel Pinero's unsparingly rough, profane, keenly observant and wholly credible script (Pinero, a onetime criminal who did five years in Sing Sing for armed robbery, based said script on his acclaimed Broadway play and acts in the film as GoGo, a coarse, hectoring homosexual inmate who frequently taunts Cupcakes), draws the grungy, desolate, claustrophobic and uncomfortable behind bars milieu in scarily lucid terms, smartly depicting the gloomy penitentiary as the filthy, festering, often ignored rusty bottom of America's melting pot culture (the film was shot on location in a notorious Manhatten Men's House of Detention called the Tombs). Country and western singer (and erstwhile jailbird) Freddy Fender has a remarkable bit as Johnny, a venerable felon who sings "Break It Down," a poignant song about the harshness and constricting nature of prison life; it's a wondrous, show-stopping moment. Pungent, shuddery score by Curtis Mayfield, who cameos as a disgusted elderly felon. By no means an easy film to watch (and at times a tad flat and stagy), "Short Eyes" nonetheless still qualifies as a truly startling and unnerving powerhouse of a movie.

Short Eyes is yet another 70's flick lost until recently in the world of obscure VHS,various licensing and grey market bootlegs. However, it is one of the best dramas of the decade and deserved the DVD re-release.The story centers about the denizens of "The Tombs", the Men's House of Detention in Manhattan, where it was filmed. Like many other prison-centered scripts, it fleshes out the microcosmic aspect of a isolated society and provides the alternate racial existence on "the inside" (where white is the minority). The story establishes the environment inside, outlining the groups and nearly making the life seem manageable. Then a white middle-class inmate arrives and is quickly exposed by a guard as a accused child molester, or short eyes. The group at large quickly responds as we see what this society really deems offensive.Along the way we experience religious presence, soulful expression, prison hierarchy, sexual intimidation, mental coercion, utter rage, blinding fear, confiding, alienation and displacement. In other words, the range of emotions from several characters displays to the viewer the depth and severity of how living in a world where entropy is the only constant. There is a passage in the movie where the complete ambivalence of every person becomes evident; there are no longer any allies or any semblance of trust when it is exposed that everyone will take what they want when possible. The guards are an important part of the population but there is no real opposition there- no protagonists to speak of, only a film of corruption over the cruel survivalist scene. Stirring, impassioned material.While there are no big stars in this, an independent adaptation of Miguel Pinero's early 70's play, it still has some amazing performances. Jose Perez does a stellar job as the one prisoner who can tolerate speaking with the 'short eyes'. Prolific character actor Bruce Davison is outstanding as the conflicted and confused molester, who cannot weather this change of environment. Nathan George, a great character actor who remained busy in the 70's, is in fine form here. Joseph Carberry is the central white inmate and wears his hate and mistrust as a badge of identity. And of course, there is no forgetting the cameos by the late Curtis Mayfield and Freddy Fender. In one group scene, Fender engages in a song ("Break The Dawn") captivating the entire population, an amazing slow soulful track that is matched by the following Mayfield song, "Do Do Wap is Strong In Here". Two smoky, slow-burn tracks sung by two legends that literally soothes the savagery here. A rewindable, unforgettable classic scene.In an extra note, superb modern Latino actor Luis Guzman appears as an extra here in his first film appearance. Look for him in the above Mayfield/Fender song sequence and in a few other scenes, sporting a blowout afro.There is ample reason why this is often referred to as a 'prison/horror film' but its really a stark, tense drama. Coupled with the Benjamin Bratt-lead Pinero, this is one of the best ways to get a taste of the lost genius of Miguel Pinero. The DVD issue of Short Eyes features a commentary track by the director along with Leon Ichaso, director of Pinero. Although there is much left open about this masterpiece, the commentary truly adds a lot of miscellaneous info that fans like myself would appreciate. Not to be missed.