RIP to John Heard, this guy i always remembered from Home Alone 1&2 as i grew up watching those on video, also John was great in the fun 80's cult horror favourite C. H. U. D
Here John plays a weirdo prisoner who wants to be alone constantly & is in for murdering his wife. It's hard to feel anything for John's character because he's so shut away emotionally & comes accross very weird & arrogant. His inmate character keeps to himself & doesn't abide by the prison codes. His character is annoying because everything that happens is his own fault, because he SMOKES!!!
IF he didn't smoke none of the films events with him wouldn't have happened, see Smoking is bad for your health...FACT.
Anyway John's weirdo inmate borrows a box of smokes & later can't pay his debt back to the head of a prison gang, the guy you go to when you want something, & it gets out of hand.
This go-to-guy is named Chilly & is played superbly by the underrated Thomas G. Waites (The Warriors, The Thing, McBain) this guy was excellent in those old school films & his best performance is right here as prison inmate go-to-guy. There's a small role for James Remar who would go on to be one of The Warriors with Waites in the 1979 Cult Classic.
Chilly is a fair dude, if you owe him he will collect & he does use violence, but if your cool with him & pay on time then he's a friendly dude actually & likeable.
Thomas Waites had an intensity in his eyes & should've been a much bigger a actor in my opinion. Waites would've made a great Serpico (yes Pacino was excellent but seeing Waites here with his long hair & beard he looks every bit Serpico) & should've been cast in much more dramas & thriller's.
On The Yard is a well made gritty prison drama with bunch of odd-ball characters who shuffle about in prison doing inmate stuff. There's a little side story of some of Chilly's pals who are building a big air balloon to escape but that part feels abit out of place to be honest.
I loved the gorgeous saxophone music score throughout the movie, it had a sad softness to it that contrasts the gritty harshness of the prison.
At the heart of On The Yard is how rules & codes are life in prison & this story is about two inmates butting heads over something so trivial as a carton of cigarettes. Small things mean so much in a prison environment & that is played out well here. The refreshing thing about this prison film is there's no horrific rape scenes, i was happy about that as the story didn't need that sort of vile stuff included.
All in all, On The Yard is very well acted gritty, sometimes violent story of inmate life in a 1970's prison. A reminder: Do Not Smoke.
Here John plays a weirdo prisoner who wants to be alone constantly & is in for murdering his wife. It's hard to feel anything for John's character because he's so shut away emotionally & comes accross very weird & arrogant. His inmate character keeps to himself & doesn't abide by the prison codes. His character is annoying because everything that happens is his own fault, because he SMOKES!!!
IF he didn't smoke none of the films events with him wouldn't have happened, see Smoking is bad for your health...FACT.
Anyway John's weirdo inmate borrows a box of smokes & later can't pay his debt back to the head of a prison gang, the guy you go to when you want something, & it gets out of hand.
This go-to-guy is named Chilly & is played superbly by the underrated Thomas G. Waites (The Warriors, The Thing, McBain) this guy was excellent in those old school films & his best performance is right here as prison inmate go-to-guy. There's a small role for James Remar who would go on to be one of The Warriors with Waites in the 1979 Cult Classic.
Chilly is a fair dude, if you owe him he will collect & he does use violence, but if your cool with him & pay on time then he's a friendly dude actually & likeable.
Thomas Waites had an intensity in his eyes & should've been a much bigger a actor in my opinion. Waites would've made a great Serpico (yes Pacino was excellent but seeing Waites here with his long hair & beard he looks every bit Serpico) & should've been cast in much more dramas & thriller's.
On The Yard is a well made gritty prison drama with bunch of odd-ball characters who shuffle about in prison doing inmate stuff. There's a little side story of some of Chilly's pals who are building a big air balloon to escape but that part feels abit out of place to be honest.
I loved the gorgeous saxophone music score throughout the movie, it had a sad softness to it that contrasts the gritty harshness of the prison.
At the heart of On The Yard is how rules & codes are life in prison & this story is about two inmates butting heads over something so trivial as a carton of cigarettes. Small things mean so much in a prison environment & that is played out well here. The refreshing thing about this prison film is there's no horrific rape scenes, i was happy about that as the story didn't need that sort of vile stuff included.
All in all, On The Yard is very well acted gritty, sometimes violent story of inmate life in a 1970's prison. A reminder: Do Not Smoke.