Badja Djola, Chuck Mitchell, Chuck Pollard, Gloria Delaney, Hazel Spears ...( see more  see more... ) , Leon Isaac Kennedy , Thommy Pollard , Wilbur 'Hi-Fi' White

This gritty indie film depicts the brutality of prison life through drifter Martel Gordone (Leon Isaac Kennedy), nicknamed "Too Sweet." After getting knocked out in a fight, Too Sweet is sent to priso...( read more  read more... )n for murder, where he's surrounded by prostitutes, drug dealers and rapists who have their sights set on his newbie flesh. He joins an inside boxing club rumored to lead to early parole, but can he defend himself out of the ring?

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51% liked it

1,118 ratings

R

Directed by: Jamaa Fanaka

Release Date: April 4, 1980

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DVD Release Date: June 20, 2000

Stats: 36 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (36)


  • July 21, 2009
    Man is this film homoerotic (@ least the first 3rd anyways). It kinda subsides once the boxing starts (you get a couple of scenes of hetrosexual action in the bathrooms). I liked the sequel more; it had Mr T w/ a genie lamp in it for crying out loud
  • September 6, 2008
    As a second wave of blaxploitation flicks that emerge out of the 1970's,the movie Penitentiary is still bedeviled by the uncomfortable contradictions of its macho forebearers,which made it a huge boxoffice hit when it was released in 1979. It's basically the servicable yarn of a ...( read more)young stranger on a bum rap,sentenced to an institutional hell-hole,and eventually bucking the terror regime with two righteous fists. And daubed onto the screen with the vitality of all around excess,teetering craziliy between heavy amounts of gore,rough language and all outright farce. But its assumptions for the better of its sake,either worked beyond the comprehendsion of some of its scenes which were very honest and sometimes brutal. This was a grand film that looked into the life of a penal institional system as seen through the eyes of his character,played by Leon Issac Kennedy.
    Another example of black cimema that was still standing at the end of the decade with some of the most replusive stereotyping ever imagine while the audience cheers on the victor who must fight in a system to stay alive at all costs. Done on a low budget,it was consciousness. A sequel followed in 1982 with Leon Issac Kennedy reprising the role.
  • March 22, 2008
    This movie was just on the Sci-Fi channel. It is alright...
  • November 29, 2006
    I'd like to see this movie!

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