1971-1980 Action Australia Drama Stephen Wallace

Stephen Wallace – Stir (1980)

adminAugust 29, 2020

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Based on the Bathurst prison riots of 1974, Stir is a convincing account of a brutal jail system and almost unbelievable degree of sadism that infected the warders in their treatment of the prisoners there. Written by Bob Jewson, who was a minimum security inmate at the time, the script presents the prisoner’s point of view without bias but with a great sense of humanity creating well-drawn characters and situations that never fall into the hackneyed or melodramatic. If empathetic realism is the core of the film’s strength it is well-realized by excellent casting with Bryan Brown in fine form as, “China” Jackson, a natural-born leader to whom both sides turn in their own ways, Max Phipps as a warder divided against himself, Dennis Miller as a career criminal and sexual pragmatist and an excellent cast of character actors including Robert “Tex” Morton, Gary Waddell, Paul Sonkkila and Edward Robshaw.