Women in Prison Cinema

Women in Prison Cinema

by Robert Meeks

Firehoses, handcuffs, chains; the ingredients needed by an emergency response team?

No; just a few of the ingredients possible in any good Women In Prison ( WIP ) Flick. To that, we can add shower scenes, lashings, baton beatings, sweat, nudity...oh, and let's not forget the all important lesbian scenes.

WIP flicks have a certain charm to them; they are frankly our fantasies of the taboo molestation and imprisonment of women brought to the screen for our enjoyment. Let's face it, we enjoy the fantasy of being able to imprison a woman ( too many men practice this today in what we call bad marriages ), tie her up, strip her nude, wash her down, watch her squirm in mud, and see her and another woman fulfill each other's sexual desires.

In many parts of the world, supposedly, this type of treatment is against the law ( apparently abusive marriages are not, though ). Enter the third world nation.

Oppressive regimes and banana republics have been fodder ( and well deserved ) for the plots of many WIP flicks. This has a multifold reason: 1) tropical, if not hot and sweaty, locales are ideal for working women in the nude; 2) as the republics often represented are small, not on any map, nations, the filmmakers can take complete liberty with the story, even having a dictatorship overthrown; 3) being that it is an oppressive regime, the heroine of the film could very well be in prison on false charges, which would, supposedly, make her fight more sympathetic; 4) as it is a third world country, being participants of a relatively cushy lifestyle in comparison, who gives a damn about them? ( that part is sad )

Despite the popularity of plots involving third world countries in WIP flicks, they have not completely cornered the market, as many WIP flicks have been based in the United States, or other prominent countries as well. Regardless of the setting for the WIP flick, there are elements which most, if not all have in common among their diversity of plots ( okay, I damn near laughed myself to death too when I said diversity ).

If we look at the plots of several different WIP flicks, though we may well see different paddings to the plots, we can discover almost generic plot elements shared among many of them.

The Heroine: The main character in the WIP flick is the primary focus of the story. Though she may or may not be imprisoned under false pretenses, regarless of the reason for her incarceration, her's is a righteous cause. We are brought to sympathize with her character for one of several possible reasons:

1) She is an innocent (whether she is guilty of a crime or not) being initiated into a cruel system.

2) She is a veteran of the system, yet, it has not gotten to her as it has the others and she uses her experience to either fight the system or to protect others in the system.

3) She is a plant either by the government, revolutionaries, or independent contractors looking for corruption in the system or overthrow a government.

The System: The most universal plot element among WIP flicks is that the system is always corrupt. Regardless of any political message or not (and, frankly, try real hard to find one), the system is always worse than any of the inmates which builds sympathy for the characters despite how bad they may be.

The Antagonists: I think that we can safely and universally use the word BITCH here. Although the antagonists in a WIP flick may primarily be a warden or guards, there is almost always a female character who is either out to get the heroine, or is in cahoots with an authority figure. There is a degree of poetic justice which comes in a WIP flick as, regardless how much of a bitch the antagonist is, she will always get what's coming to her in the end (uh...not literally).

The Mentor: Important to any prison film, whether it is women in prison or not, is the inmate who has been around, often a lifer, yet has not been corrupted by the system. Often they have a desire to see someone give it to the system, or perhaps have a score to settle with a warden. Regardless what drives them, they are willing to makes sacrifices to help the heroine in her cause; and they will have the satisfaction of knowing what they did, or even dying with the knowledge of having given the system the finger.

The Innocent: Despite the characters which are portrayed to inhabit a women's prison, a universal plot device is to have one prisoner who is almost childlike and needs the protection of someone else. This element serves not only to impact a certain degree of sympathy for the cause of the uh...good side, but it also further defines just how bad the baddies can be as they will almost assuredly violate the innocent.

The Sympathizer: Regardless of how bad everybody else in an authority position is, there has to be one who understands the plight of the prisoners. The sympathizer is a character who either works at the prison or has a reason to be at the prison and is in a position to help the heroine. Frequently, the sympathizer is a doctor. For some reason, the scriptwriters for WIP flicks think that doctors are good people; they obviously have not spent much time around a hospital.

The Cause: Central to all movies, and WIP flicks are no exception, is a reason as to why the plot has to be. Perhaps WIP flicks make blatant use of this element more unashamedly than other genres of film. In a WIP flick, there is an underlying cause as to why the heroine, and her supporters, must do what they have to do; whether it be punishing an unjust warden and guards or overthrowing a corrupt third world dictator.

The Final Conflict: WIP flicks, like any movie, must have a climax (now kindly remove your mind from the gutter). There must be some kind of showdown, prison escape, or overthrowing of an authority figure. This satifies the viewer's desire that there was a purpose to the cause at hand. The more antagonists that are killed, or imprisoned themselves, the more gratifying the conclusion.

Yes, WIP flicks do share several elements among themselves, but they are really no different in basic plot than any other movie. In any film, we have protagonists, antagonists, ancillary support characters, a cause, and a climax. Where WIP flicks up the ante is in the addition of wanton nudity and lesbianism which, even without the afforementioned ingredients, is more than enough to satisfy many viewers alone.

Bob


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