Clark Davis, a shy, soft-spoken, wholesome-looking middle class white male, is sent to prison for the heinous, unspeakable crime of child molestation. Clark's very presence causes the assorted racial conflicts, barely suppressed homosexual longings, and painfully nagging doubts about one's self-worth amongst the inmates to come to an explosive full boil on a heretofore calm multi-ethnic cellblock. The inmates band together to enforce their own vicious, complicated moral code upon the much pushed around Davis.

Tough, gritty and frightfully plausible, "Short Eyes" rates highly as one of the best, most accurate and brutally realistic prison films ever made. Bruce Davison gives an astonishing, almost excruciatingly delicate, unexpectedly sympathetic and even moving performance as the pathetic, guilt-ridden pedophile; the scene where Clark confesses to having molested several little girls since he was fifteen years old is quite chilling and haunting; it's perhaps the most blistering and gut-wrenching moment in a generally searing and hard-hitting film. The outstanding ensemble cast all turn in exceptional work: Jose Perez as the compassionate Juan, who makes a valiant, humane attempt at protecting and understanding Clark; Joe Carburry as the volatile, irascible Longshoe, who initially befriends Clark and becomes his chief tormentor after discovering he's a "short eyes" (prison slang for child molester); former real-life convict Tito Goya as Cupcakes, a cute Hispanic inmate who secretly likes all the sexual advances he receives from most guys on his block; Mark Margolis as a hostile guard, Don Blakely as El Raheem, an overbearing, overzealous advocate of black pride and Islamic religion; and Shawn Elliot as Paco, a crude, hulking gay felon who only knows how to show affection through aggression (the scene where Paco tries to seduce Cupcakes in the shower is very touching). Keep your eyes peeled for Luis Guzman in his film debut as an extra inmate in a few crowd scenes.

Richard Young's sharp, tautly wound direction, working from Miguel Pinero's unsparingly rough, profane, keenly observant and wholly credible script (Pinero, a onetime criminal who did five years in Sing Sing for armed robbery, based said script on his acclaimed Broadway play and acts in the film as GoGo, a coarse, hectoring homosexual inmate who frequently taunts Cupcakes),draws the grungy, desolate, claustrophobic and uncomfortable behind bars milieu in scarily lucid terms, smartly depicting the gloomy penitentiary as the filthy, festering, often ignored rusty bottom of America's melting pot culture (the film was shot on location in a notorious Manhatten Men's House of Detention called the Tombs). Country and western singer (and erstwhile jailbird) Freddy Fender has a remarkable bit as Johnny, a venerable felon who sings "Break It Down," a poignant song about the harshness and constricting nature of prison life; it's a wondrous, show-stopping moment. Pungent, shuddery score by Curtis Mayfield, who cameos as a disgusted elderly felon. By no means an easy film to watch (and at times a tad flat and stagy),"Short Eyes" nonetheless still qualifies as a truly startling and unnerving powerhouse of a movie.

One of the best prison movies out there to see, "Short Eyes" comes to present us a bitter and cold welcoming of a new unwanted prisoner in the hall: a child molester or as inmates call, a 'Short Eye'. The man in question is Clark Davis (played by Bruce Davison),an educated man, and totally opposite background of the majority present in that prison, arrested for child abuse, stranded in a place where he has no possible chance of making 'friends', and not even the chief guard likes him, promising to make hell of his life in there. Frightened and constantly persecuted by the other prisoners, he only has the chance to share some of his thoughts with Juan (José Pérez),who tries his best to believe that the man is innocent, becoming a confident to his stories that doesn't seem to make the other an innocent person. Tension is built up when a group of prisoners decide to get rid of Clark, then....be ready for the suspense!

It's very surprising to see a theme like this being dealt in a film, presenting a tough reality in a very realistic way despite a few strange things here and there. But I gotta say that it was a little difficult to really enter in the mood of this film after seeing prisoners (one of them played by singer Curtis Mayfield, who makes the good soundtrack) doing musical numbers at the beginning, all of them happy to be there in jail; it was a little difficult to take it seriously during the first minutes. But then when Clark shows up, the movie starts to develop really well. And his character is actually more like a supporting character, the others are really the main characters and we're allowed to see their intrigues, their fight for things, for power, and their desire for Cupcakes (Tito Goya),the youngest of the prisoners. It's a well adapted play, dramatically involving, very thrilling and with lots of surprises. Must be noticed the memorable performances of the casting, with an outstanding acting coming from the always excellent Bruce Davison, who exclusively plays in other films the guy you'll always like and here, somehow you'll like him as well despite what the character represents. In real life we wouldn't feel any kind of sympathy for a man like his character.

I was unaware of this film until a little research (can't remember of what or who) that brought me to a poster with an appealing tag line, the famous 'Jesus help me, cause men won't do' (present in a dialog between Clark and Juan); after that I had to watch it and liked a lot. Might not be a "Shawshank Redemption" but it's a good film as well. One of the forgotten classics of the 1970's that deserves some appreciation. 9/10

Miguel Piñero adapted his own play (and co-stars as Go-Go) in this no-nonsense examination of life behind bars in a racially-heated men's jail. The prisoners segregate themselves by race, insulting each other with slurs which quickly lead to thrown punches, and yet this racial pride is really the most we learn about any of them. Bruce Davison stirs things up as the new inmate, one of only three white men in the cell-block, who admits to having a fixation on little girls; he can't remember if he molested a recent accuser or not, but quickly becomes the target of the other inmates' rage. Davison's monologues about a lifelong predilection for jailbait don't quite contain the honest ring of truth, yet are still terribly difficult to listen to, as is most of the dialogue. The scenario is commendably not exploitative--and is blessedly free of being sexually or violently explicit--though the threat of rape hangs in the air, possibly meant as a scare tactic for younger viewers. Still, Piñero's narrative is loftier than your average cautionary tale, and the film--although far from incisive--is a hard-hitting portrait of jailhouse life. ** from ****