Product Details

• Actors: Tom Arnold, Chris Bauer, Mark Boone Junior, Edward Bunker, Michael Buscemi
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: July 31, 2001
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000053VCW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,762 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Steve Buscemi subtly refines the prison drama in his second film, a rich character piece set in a ramshackle state penitentiary. Edward Furlong is a glum, drug-dealing, middle-class bad boy suddenly drop-kicked into a world in which his sneering defiance just makes him more attractive prey to hardened convicts. Willem Dafoe, a career felon who runs the prison's contraband network, takes the kid under his wing and his protection. He's obviously attracted to the pretty boy and that sexual tension buzzes throughout the film, but their friendship, which is much more complicated, becomes the center of the film.

Buscemi allows the story to trickle along, downplaying the usual prison clichés to delve into the often murky relationships between prisoners, the predatory pecking order, and the undercurrent of racial divisions. He suggests everything in glances, threats, and tensions that only rarely erupt into violence. The film lacks a strong narrative line, but Buscemi's sensitivity to his characters and his sharp ensemble direction provide generous compensation. Dafoe is brilliant as the smiling smooth operator, his shaved head and jagged-toothed grin suggesting both a threatening confidence, and Furlong ably registers the fear of his sheer defenselessness in this dangerous world. Tom Arnold shines as a terrifying bully and Mickey Rourke is almost unrecognizable as Furlong's cross-dressing cellmate with a honeyed Southern lilt and makeup that would make Tammy Faye Bakker proud. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Human Wreckage, March 9, 2007

By 

Raegan Butcher (Rain City, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Animal Factory [DVD] (DVD)

In 1996 I was convicted of armed robbery and sent to prison in Washington state for eight years(of which I did seven)and I'm here to tell you that ANIMAL FACTORY is the real deal; I was a lot like the character played by Edward Furlong and I was lucky enough to meet men like the character played by Wilem Dafoe, guys who didn't want to rape me, guys who didn't want to kill me, guys who acted decently amidst all of the indecency.

Since my release from prison in 2003 I am invariably asked the two big questions when it comes to incarceration in this country: A) did I get raped? And B) is prison really like you see on OZ?

Luckily, I didn't get raped and I've never seen OZ but anyone who wants to see what prison is like should get a gander at ANIMAL FACTORY. The entire film drips with authenticity. Within 2 minutes I felt that old queasy feeling in my stomach--exactly as if I were back there myself, all over again.

For those of you out there who might think there is still a bit of rebellious glamour left in going to prison, watch ANIMAL FACTORY and take it from me: being locked up is not cool and its not fun and it is not something that anyone should aspire to.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whois is this LadyLestat reviewer, September 6, 2004

By 

kazgaroth (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animal Factory [DVD] (DVD)

This was a very good flick. What are you looking for out of a movie? The meaning of life perhaps. Heck all I want is 90-120 minutes of good entertainment.

Being an ex-convict myself I thought it was fairly well written. Prison is rarely what you see on film my friend. Yes it can be brutal and that was displayed in this film fairly realistically however for a long time convict doing time IS MOST DEFINATELY A GAME.

A game of survival of the mind and body. William Dafoe's little gang was pretty well depicted. The mockery made here of other prison films is simply because unlike this one, most are a joke.

As for amazons editorial stating that the convict is obviously attracted to the youngster and that "sexual tension" runs throughout the movie, that writer clearly didn't pay any attention to the movie and I'd bet a dollar perhaps didn't watch it at all.

My bottom line,

Film was pretty damn realistic, very well written and acted. The characters were good to know and unlike most ridiculous prison movies which focus only on the violent side, this one actually shows people for who they were.

Well worth the time to watch. Enjoy

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine, underrated Buscemi film., July 18, 2007

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Animal Factory [DVD] (DVD)

Animal Factory (Steve Buscemi, 2000)

Steve Buscemi is best known as an actor, thanks in no small part to him being a staple in Quentin Tarantino films, but you know the old line-- everyone in Hollywood wants to direct. Buscemi has actually done his share of it, but the movies that result tend to be minor affairs that get little distribution outside the arthouse scene. That's kind of depressing, especially when it comes to a movie like Animal Factory, with a wealth of acting talent and a script to back it up.

Ron Decker (American History X's Edward Furlong) gets busted for selling dope, and under the strict new laws, is sent to prison for five years on a felony rap. Once in the joint, Decker gets to know Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), a lifer who is, as Morgan Freeman's character calls himself in The Shawshank Redemption, "the guy who knows how to get things." Decker and Copen form an odd, complex relationship that's viewed by those outside the prison walls with some alarm.

Furlong, Dafoe, and Danny Trejo, who plays Dafoe's best friend, are only the tip of the acting iceberg in this movie; a host of other fine actors have parts ranging from supporting to bit, including Buscemi himself, Mickey Rourke, John Heard, Tom Arnold, Larry Fessenden, Seymour Cassel, and a host of others; were there not so much focus on Furlong and Dafoe, this would have easily been billable as an ensemble-cast movie, and to an extent it plays like that anyway; there's too much of a main story here for a straight ensemble film, though. (Rourke, especially, is notable here, in his best performance since Angel Heart.) Either way you look at it, this is a strong movie chock full of good performances; the subject matter, and the rather jaundiced way of looking at it, may make some squeamish, but the caliber of the performances here should be enough to overcome that. Animal Factory is a good'un. You want to see it. ****