The 12 Most Engaging Prison Films Ever Created

      These prison films are enthralling. Get it?

      Some of the finest movies focus on life outside prison, where incarceration symbolizes the mental constraints imposed by society or our own anxieties.

      Other prison films depict actual prisons, made for both the deserving and the innocent.

      **Caged (1950)**

      John Cromwell’s *Caged* is an early example of the women-behind-bars subgenre, featuring a 19-year-old married woman (Eleanor Parker) imprisoned after a failed bank robbery that led to her husband’s death. Hope Emerson portrays the cruel prison matron, Evelyn Harper, in a narrative that suggests prison can be the most corrupting force of all. The film received three Oscar nominations.

      **The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)**

      Does it qualify as a prison film or a war film? We’d argue it’s both — David Lean’s *The Bridge on the River Kwai* is full of surprises. Situated in a Japanese POW camp in Thailand, the film highlights the struggle between British P.O.W. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) and Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), who insists that Nicholson and his men construct a railway bridge over the River Kwai. This raises issues of ethics, honor, and retaining one’s humanity under duress. It was 1957’s highest-grossing film and won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, making it a classic from that era.

      **Escape From Alcatraz (1979)**

      This Clint Eastwood film, his fifth and final collaboration with director Don Siegel, stands as one of the greatest prison movies. It vividly reimagines the real-life 1962 escape from the supposedly inescapable Alcatraz Island. Eastwood portrays Frank Morris, a prisoner who disappeared after that infamous night; if he’s still living, he will turn 98 this year. The FBI continues to investigate the escape.

      **The Shawshank Redemption (1994)**

      You probably anticipated this entry, so we’re including it early in the list. Adapted from Stephen King’s collection *Different Seasons*, which also inspired *Stand by Me* and *Apt Pupil*, *The Shawshank Redemption* tells a tale of enduring hope. Tim Robbins stars as Andy Dufresne, a banker serving consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife and her lover. He befriends Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman) and devises a plan to escape, cleverly concealing a hole in his cell behind a Rita Hayworth poster. Widely regarded as one of the best films ever, it holds the top spot on IMDb’s list of the Top 250 Movies.

      **Cool Hand Luke (1967)**

      Paul Newman captivates as the eponymous character, a taciturn man (known for his love of hardboiled eggs) who refuses to yield to the brutality of his Florida prison camp. Strother Martin, portraying the camp captain, features in a memorable monologue that begins with, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” Fans of Guns N’ Roses will recall it from the intro of the band’s “Civil War.”

      **Penitentiary III (1987)**

      The third installment of a successful independent prison film series by Jamaa Fanaka, *Penitentiary III* is particularly notable for the Midnight Thud fight scene. Thud, the prison’s toughest fighter and a powerful little person (Raymond Kessler, aka WWE’s Haiti Kid), delivers an unforgettable showdown against the protagonist Too Sweet (Leon Isaac Kennedy). This film also marks the first of two appearances by the talented Danny Trejo in this list.

      **Con Air (1997)**

      Trejo is part of an ensemble cast in *Con Air*, a film set aboard a hijacked prison transport plane. Nicolas Cage plays Cameron Poe, who confronts dangerous criminals when Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom orchestrates the hijacking. If you revisit this movie, you may find yourself surprised by the number of stars involved, including John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, and Dave Chappelle. While some argue that it shouldn't be classified strictly as a prison movie due to its airborne setting, anyone who has endured a cramped flight knows that planes can feel like prisons.

      **The Great Escape (1963)**

      In this classic, Steve McQueen leads an impressive cast portraying POWs who bravely escape from a Nazi prison camp, based on the heavily dramatized tale of British POWs escaping from Stalag Luft III during WWII. Some artistic liberties were taken, including the addition of three American characters. Thankfully, McQueen’s Captain Virgil Hilts pulled off a spectacular motorcycle chase scene.

      **Hunger (2008)**

      This film comes from another Steve McQueen — the acclaimed British director whose *12 Years a Slave* won the Best Picture