3 “The Spectacle of Punishment and the "Melodramatic Imagination” in the ‘Classical-Bra Prison Film 1 Ama Bugtive from a Chain Gang (192) and Brute Force (947) ‘KRISTEN WATE "begin this chapter by analyzing in deal scene rom Am a Fugitive fram a Chain Gang (Mervyn Leo, 1932)! which is emblematic of the (Clasical Hollywood pelson fais employment of what Peter Brooks ‘ills "the melodramatic imagination” Toward the end ofthe fl, Advocates forthe wrongly convicted protagonit Fm Ale, plead before ‘the board of corrections of an unnamed Southern sae fr Jini early _leate from a ten-year sentence of hard labor. Having escaped the chain {ging once after belng convicted of crime he didnot commit fim bas Feturned to serve out a rediced sentence sa trustee, Betrayed by the gover he is instead sent othe harshest labor camp to serve out he ‘ate sentence. Organized around the display of highly charged spec ‘ace of puslsbment chat is braced by opposing arguments made for and against fin pardon, tis cee is pragmatic ofthe prison ln’ ‘abiliation ofthe generic conventions of the melodrama to expose he ‘moral ground and ethical stakes of modera forms of punishment. The ‘couvits brother bepas by describing the prisoner ass human being, ‘aman of esenial nenest end integrity of character & man who was decorated for braveryin the Woeld War a man who commited crime, ‘butonly when forced to atthe point ofa gun—his rst and only offense, ‘man who showed his tru character by esing from less than noth- Ing to Become a prominent and honored ciizen Inthe midst of this sures the ln cus away from the hearlg tothe spectacular image of Jim working onthe chain gang (Figure 3). Presented ina mode of pure‘Plu aA Fut ro Chk Cane sgl, Jim tls lane in rocky landscape, swinging x sledgehammer ‘atthe rapd at mandated by (wasea)peson guards under the thet ‘of violence, crying ou the cain gang crel Slephean task of break- ing up rock to pepe the rural souther landscape for modernization. "Weeat back fom tis spectacle to the hearing, andthe sate makes ts ‘ase gaint prdonig im: Fin believe K's ty to anew the malicous and unwanted stack upon the cala-ang seem, whic we have hard bee thse ‘ooo, Cie mat be puted Th an win commit rime we bard ‘nen and thet pirens must be hard But the bray of which we ‘ai grou exaggeration bon ofthe icy af the misinformed. The I of aoc chain gag is ne of ard aber. The dip it ‘et bat tae eo broth parpone fro ot al pan Ua crime, bat to courage Ac thee lee crime in ts ten proportion ober popuatin than in fry oer tate inthis Union. nly a eden of te chan ug valu as aac blder Tha ‘to presen a ou th ery cae tat seen reeset ws ere today the cue fee Ale, who exter the als pagasa wordless ‘ramp and who kt to Baomeone of great ety mast worthy and repre tens. In this scene, camping penal discourses vi to define the specta- ‘de of punishment an duly. important, the audience does nt heat the case made agsnst the chai-gang system referred to by te state, {nstead, the shot offim provides a metonym image forthe boro of ‘the cain-gag ere thatthe ln has already represented in excruci ‘ting detail The sdience therefore knows thatthe image ofthe chain igang promoted bythe eae i erly fle. A take in the hearing is ‘far more than the sone ft: The manner in which competing ‘courses veto prove defiatve lntarpretation ofthe spectacle of pan- Ihment brands ths scene—and the film a a whole—as a "drama of ‘sigullcation” That, the various characters andthe polarized con- ‘eptions of punishment they represent compete over the very ably of ‘the chain gang to ugify «set of meanings concerlng modem pun- ‘shment power reibution, nd rehabiltation Only through a ply of ‘ecepive) sgn? can the punitive, historically repressive chaln gang resent uelfat maser, corrections, and rehabilitative. “This scene foregrounds a central concern of the Classical Holly- wood prison fl he location and revelation of antimodera practices ‘End policies tht eperte witha th penal system in the guise of the ‘moder and, moreimportant, the dramatization ofthe means by whlch they function all he more violently by virtue of what dhe genre imag- nes athe przonnttonl opacity and soverelgry. This revelatory Smperative (which, Dav Wikon and Sean O'Suliven argue ia central ‘ancton of the pon fl is bul into the spectacle of James Allis "Punishment, whlch scored by the brief reprise of «song sung ealer ‘in the fm by a pidominantly African American chain gang, thereby ‘aking the chain gung—aloog with the moderation project itcarred ‘outand the discoue on rehabilitation mobllzed nits defense’—to the ‘tell stem of slavery. nthe expressive syle typical ofthe melo- ‘drama, the tcore challenges thesate'decripion ofthe chala gang as a ‘modera fore of rebliation and interogates the public image ofthe cain gang promot at the hearing,| cra wee ‘This ey scene from I Am a Fugitive indicates the Classical Hally- ‘wood prison fl indebtedness to milodrama. Understanding the cmtralyof melodrama to this geve ls important As one ofthe dom ‘nt frm of commercialized leiare inthe twentieth cetiry, Clas ‘al Hollywood cinema particpted in popular culmres representation ‘ofthe criminal jostce sytem. The prison fis melodramatic imap- nitonbelped form and re-form popular understandings of excessive ‘and "Jus modes of moder punishment indend, Am a gv, nd ‘he memoir fom which we adapted re often credited with creating ‘enough social outcry about the cain gang te to provoke a vces cofrefoems throughout the gos andthe eventual abolishment ofthe sytem in 97) For Brooks, melodrama i firs and foremost, a trans- {generic mode ofsigaliication” that stlves to make the world marly legit, to uncover a “moral occult" hidden beneath the (potenialy