Finally got around to watching American History X<\/i> on video last night (It was on telly a couple of weeks back). Thought it was pretty good and compared favourably with other “nazi-skinheads come good” efforts like Romper Stomper<\/i>, and, uh… Made In Britain<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Good soundtrack by Anne Dudley as well (you’ve got to have a soft spot for Anne Dudley ’round our house because she used to be in the Art of Noise and did a pretty good collaboration with Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke).<\/p>\n
Anyway, I won’t bore you with the plot but I thought it was very good at the unfolding of fanatical thought and a realisation that there might be holes in an all-consuming extremist political worldview. (For example the all to common spectre of young dispossessed people being used by older more astute politicos to do their dirty work)<\/p>\n
But… it was a bit fuzzy on what the main character replaced this with. So you ended up with a bit of a liberal almost-pacifist vagueness which is almost <\/i>a complete absence <\/i>of conviction or thought. Obviously that’s preferable to stiff right arm shouty fascism, but I think it ignores a crucial fact that prison is a site of political awakening and activity.<\/p>\n
So whilst the prison scenes in the film are very good at interpersonal relationships, the actual activities <\/i>of prisoners are shown only as work \/ recreation \/ eating, etc. The conflict in the prison is depicted as being purely between prisoners (on a variety of levels) but hardly ever between the prisoners and the prison authorities.<\/p>\n
There is no suggestion that prisoners engage in any form of active learning or resistance or that prison is anything other than a neutral site in which people (some good some bad) exist for the duration of their sentences.<\/p>\n
And there can be no doubt that the majority of time spent in prison is mind-numbingly tedious and mundane, and not to be romanticised as some sort of “university for revolutionaries”. But I was struck by the lack of coverage of any <\/i>form of self-education or resistance\u00a0– something which seems to be very important, crucially important, in writings by (ex) prisoners I have read.<\/p>\n
So on that note, I can wholeheartedly recommend BAD – The Autobiography of James Carr<\/i> (Pelegian Press, 1995). You can read the excellent afterword to the book here.<\/a><\/p>\n Other stuff:<\/p>\n Campaign Against Prison Slavery<\/a> – campaign against forced labour in British prisons (plus lots of related news).<\/p>\n Review<\/a> of Bending The Bars<\/i> by John Barker (Christie Books, 2003) by Mark Barnsley and the foreword to the book.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Finally got around to watching American History X on video last night (It was on telly a couple of weeks back). Thought it was pretty good and compared favourably with other “nazi-skinheads come good” efforts like Romper Stomper, and, uh… Made In Britain. Good soundtrack by Anne Dudley as well (you’ve got to have a …<\/p>\n