Walls (1984 film)

Walls
Directed by Tom Shandel
Produced by Tom Shandel
Christian Bruyère
Written by Christian Bruyère
Starring Winston Rekert
Andrée Pelletier
Music by J. Douglas Dodd
Michael Oczko
Cinematography Doug McKay
Edited by Barbara Evans
Production
company
Jerico Films
Release date
 September 9, 1984 (TIFF)
Running time
 100 minutes
Country Canada
Language English

Walls is a Canadian drama film, directed by Tom Shandel and released in 1984.[1] Based on the theatrical play by Christian Bruyère, the film is a dramatization of the British Columbia Penitentiary hostage incident of 1975.[1]

The film stars Winston Rekert as Danny Baker, the fictionalized version of prisoner Andy Bruce, and Andrée Pelletier as Joan Tremblay, the fictionalized version of social worker and hostage Mary Steinhauser.[2] The cast also included Elizabeth Leigh-Milne, Lloyd Berry, Anthony Holland, Perry Long, John Lord, Tony Morelli, Alan Scarfe, Howard Storey, Dale Wilson and John Wright.

The film premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival.[3] It was criticized by real prison guards and prisoners, with the guards claiming that it was too sympathetic to prisoners, while prisoners and prison reform advocates stated that it was too sympathetic to the guards and insufficiently graphic about real prison conditions.[4]

The film received four Genie Award nominations at the 6th Genie Awards in 1985, for Best Actor (Rekert), Best Actress (Pelletier), Best Supporting Actress (Leigh-Milne) and Best Original Score (J. Douglas Dodd and Michael Oczko).[5]

References

  1. 1 2 "Canadian prison drama unconvincing". Ottawa Citizen, April 11, 1986.
  2. ↑ "Looking at crime through the eyes of the criminals". The Globe and Mail, February 1, 1985.
  3. ↑ Jay Scott, "Mon Oncle Antoine No. 1 with critics". The Globe and Mail, August 2, 1984.
  4. ↑ "Officials, prisoners pan penitentiary movie Walls". The Globe and Mail, November 30, 1984.
  5. ↑ "Bay Boy reels in 11 Genie nominations". The Globe and Mail, February 15, 1985.


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