Animal Factory (2000)

Cast/Avec Willem Dafoe (Earl Copen), Edward Furlong (Ron Decker), Seymour Cassel (Lt. Seeman), Mickey Rourke (Jan l'actrice), Steve Buscemi (A.R. Hosspack), Tom Arnold (Buck Rowan), John Heard (James Decker), Danny Trejo (Vito), Chris Bauer (Bad Eye)

For his second film as a director, actor Steve Buscemi (TREES LOUNGE) brings ex-convict Edward Bunker's poignant jail drama to the screen. Trapped with a long-term prison sentence in a Pennsylvania… For his second film as a director, actor Steve Buscemi (TREES LOUNGE) brings ex-convict Edward Bunker's poignant jail drama to the screen. Trapped with a long-term prison sentence in a Pennsylvania state penitentiary, 21-year-old Ron Decker (Edward Furlong) feels like a terrified fish-out-of-water. His cellmate, Jan the Actress (an impressively unrecognizable Mickey Rourke), is a cross-dresser who won't stop talking. Enter Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), an aging convict who has been in prison so long that he runs the show. Earl takes Ron under his wing, and a strange and intense relationship develops between them. However, the relationship offers Ron the protection he needs and gives Earl the feeling that he is a father figure. After Ron's appeal is denied, ensuring his place in the penitentiary for five more years, Earl thinks up a dangerous plan of escape that will either set them free or cost them their lives in the process. Buscemi's drama successfully balances the brutality of prison life with the touching, intimate relationship between Ron and Earl, providing ANIMAL FACTORY with a sensitivity that most prison films rarely contain. The movie features an atmospheric score by actor-musician John Lurie.

Jeune homme de bonne famille, Ron Deccker est arrêté pour un petit trafic de drogue et condamné, pour l'exemple, à une lourde peine de prison. Il est incarcéré à San Quentin, une des prison les plus dures des Etats-Unis. Dans cet univers violent et très codé, où il faut savoir s'affirmer, Ron fait la connaissance de Earl Coppen. Détenu depuis très longtemps, il est l'âme de San Quentin. Rompu à toutes les règles du milieu, il est à la tête d'un puissant réseau d'influences. Il prend Ron sous son aile…