An Innocent Man

"Listen. Somebody's got to give you the game or you're fucked. It's simple in here. It's an insane place with insane rules...so it ends up being logical." - Virgil

release year: 1989
genre: drama
viewing setting: home DVD, 4/78/18

synopsis: An airline mechanic and regular guy is framed by a couple of crooked cops who screw up and bust the wrong house, and must adapt to jail life or suffer.

impressions: I'd seen this decades ago, and found it to be a fairly entertaining drama focusing both on challenges outside and inside the jail environment. It's a pretty good account of how the system can go wrong (and also how the law and its officers can get away with things.)

acting: Tom Selleck does a pretty good job as a regular guy who gets screwed over by the system and must deal with it. Laila Robbins is his wife who's determined to help him. F. Murray Abraham is an inmate who helps him. David Rasche and Richard Young are the crooked cops who framed him. Badja Djola is an internal affairs agent who kind of figures out what's going on. M.C. Gainey (from Con Air, Lost, and others) and Tobin Bell (from the Saw movies) have early appearances as inmates.

final word: Good prison/justice drama

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