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Hear me out on this because there are many positive lessons for prisoners.
Among them:
There are much worse prisons than yours.
One scene is just a mass of grunting bodies raping a little guy in semi-darkness.
Drugs make you weak.
Even with his size and his muscles, Billy is vulnerable.
In part its his skin color cadaverous blue-white with splotches of pink.
But its the heroin that makes him beg pule, really.
When the prison pusher orders him to beat up two Muslims, he reluctantly does and gets carried away.
The violence he inflicts on men he doesnt even know makes him so miserable that he finally kicks.
Thats when he decides to start boxing again.
Fighting well = self-mastery.
Boxing is a metaphor, of course.
Its really a path to wholeness.
Yes, theyre murderers, some of them.
But theyre really nice guys compared to the ones he used to live with!
Unruly anger gets in the way of lives and narrative momentum.
Frustrating for him, frustrating for the audience.
When he gets out he goes up to the guy he hit and says, Ahm sorry.
Without preaching, the movie makes it clear that one should never fook up in that way.
Sublimate your sexual urges.
A Prayer Before Dawnis homoerotic as hell and in good, healthy ways.
Theres a movie in your story, maybe.There was certainly one for Billy Moore.
Its a good one, too.
The final crawl says that Billy has turned his life around.
He has gotten off drugs and now teaches people how not to end up in a Thai prison.
So there you have it.A Prayer Before Dawn: Fine entertainment.
