Product Details

• Actors: Val Kilmer, Kyra Sedgwick, Billy Bob Thornton, Sonia Braga, James Keach
• Directors: Daniel Mann
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1.0
• Studio: Lorimar Home Video
• Run Time: 113 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E177RY
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #375 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

There is no prison strong enough to hold the human spirit... He was an innocent man sentenced to a Georgia chain gang... His two escapes astounded the nation... His story is true... Val Kilmer ("Top Gun", "Real Genius") stars as Robert Burns in this gritty and chilling drama about a man who falls in with a vicious pack of thieves during a robbery and is thrown into a Georgia chain gang. Unable to endure the brutality he escapes and attempts to bury the past. Burns befriends two women. One, Emily (Sonia Braga, Kiss of the Spider Woman), a wealthy woman, helps him turn a failing magazine into a success, and the other, Lillian (Kyra Sedgwick) arouses his deepest desires. With memories of guard beatings, tortures and torment, Burns vows to make public the truth about chain gangs -- abolishing them forever. THE MAN WHO BROKE 1,000 CHAINS is a chilling and sensational drama -- a story that foretells the shocking real-life events that became front page news in 1987 when convicted felon, Vincent Pelliccia, was nabbed by police 41 years after his escape to freedom from a Virginia prison chain gang.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not on DVD?, August 2, 2007

By	Inkwell "OGReadmore" (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews

I first viewed this movie when I was a young child during the 80's on HBO and what I saw has stuck with me to this day. It was such an outstanding performance that I have modeled my own acting style on Val Kilmer. I have tried to find this movie in video stores on and off for years, but with no success. It's funny to find it here on Amazon but on VHS which is a completely dead medium. The fact is, Val Kilmer delivers here, along with the rest of the cast, the performance of a lifetime.

The Man Who Broke 1000 Chains is a true story about a war veteran who, desparate for money is coereced to commit robbery. Our hero tries to back out, but then is forced to help carry out the nefarious deed. The robbery goes wrong and our hero is imprisoned and forced to work on a chain gang. We see through the eyes of Robert Elliot Burns the inhumane conditions found in the chain gang system. The prisoners are treated with much less respect given to slaves. Beaten often and worked beyond fatigue. Luckily Robert manages to escape.

He flees to Chicago and becomes a successful business man, but always is aware of his escapee status. Of course, with a high profile, he is found and returned to the penal system. He then fights and escapes again and effects changes in the penal system which rippled through the country.

5.0 out of 5 stars Justice was a long time coming, September 10, 2009

By	Denise J. Murray - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was an excellent film and got to the heart of the injustice of the prison system and the brutality of the chain gangs and those who ran them, without resorting to in your face gore. It is hard to see a man who had fought for this country treated like a second class citizen. It was an interesting character study of what he went through just to survive at first and because of lousy luck and timing he paid for a crime he really never intended to commit and actually tried to prevent. It was obvious that all he wanted to do was work and make something of himself but he was imprisoned for someone else's crime. Its a true story set back during and after WW 1 and around the time of the depression. He was a medic and the horrors of having soldiers torn apart in front of him were devestating. Sadly, after his first prison break and getting his life back together, he was sold out and sent back to the same prison, where he was, of course, treated even more brutally.
Val Kilmer is the main character and is excellent. His brother, the priest, shows his concern and care for him in a believable way throughout the film. The other characters are fairly well fleshed out and identifiable. Its a difficult film to see but worth it.