gavin6942 A young man (Edward Furlong) goes to prison and a tough, older convict (Willem Dafoe) takes him under his wing as a mentor.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Eddie Bunker, who plays the part of Buzzard in the film. The novel was written intentionally for the purpose of becoming a film, and anyone who has read the book will notice a large part of the dialogue is used word-for-word. Though Bunker has been involved with many films, he may be best remembered today for playing Mr. Blue in "Reservoir Dogs", not coincidentally co-starring with "Animal Factory" director Steve Buscemi.Bunker, for those who do not know, is not only an accomplished crime writer, but very much the type of hardened criminal he liked to write about. He had been involved in bank robbery, drug dealing, extortion and more, so he knew what he was doing.The book was adapted to film by Bunker and his friend and co-producer Danny Trejo. They had both worked with Steve Buscemi before (Trejo was in "Con Air") and Bunker liked Buscemi's film "Trees Lounge" (1996), so he was actually their first choice. He, of course, agreed. Bunker had also hand-picked Edward Furlong for the lead, in part for his "androgynous" look."Animal Factory" was filmed at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Filming was completed in 30 days, two days longer than originally scheduled. Buscemi employed hundreds of prisoners from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the prison that replaced Holmesburg Prison in 1995.This is a great standout performance for Danny Trejo; interestingly, Trejo is the godfather of Bunker's son, and the two first met at San Quentin State Prison; the duo has been working on movies together since "Runaway Train" (1985). On the flip side of the coin, Tom Arnold is so awful in his line delivery and his moments ruin an otherwise excellent film.The Arrow Video Blu-ray includes a 20-minute conversation with Barry Forshaw, author of "American Noir", talking about who Eddie Bunker was. In Forshaw's opinion, Bunker was the all-time greatest American prison writer, and he relishes in speaking about the author. Interestingly, he sees "Factory" as a version of the British series "Porridge" (1974-77), which is obviously coincidental. An audio commentary with Bunker and Trejo is ported over fro man earlier release. Beginning to end, this disc is a celebration of Edward Bunker, a it should be.

Raegan Butcher Pay no attention to these other reviews; the people who wrote them don't know what they're talking about: 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? Well, 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.

writerasfilmcritic I wouldn't bother commenting on this movie were the other remarks not off the mark, in general. "Animal Factory" is not a film for the discriminating movie fan, this despite the fact that it at first seemed to break new ground. The story is simply too implausible. First off, the kid busted for drugs and sent to prison looks and behaves like a prepubescent subteen, not just a boyish young man, and this is not much of an exaggeration. That this girlish kid wouldn't be passed around the cell block and used by half the prison population is a stretch in itself, but for him to be taken under the wing of a hardened con, who has absolutely no ulterior motives, simply makes no sense at all, particularly because the script focuses almost exclusively on drugs, violence, and homosexuality as the entire concern of everyone in the film. Sorry, I just couldn't get past how absurd it is for a kid like that to be thrown in prison with a bunch of sick criminals, and please don't tell me it's a routine occurrence, because I don't believe it anymore than I believe this twirp would have been out there on the street moving $200,000 worth of marijuana without getting shot dead. His dad is a joke, by the way, but that's another issue. What positively sickened me about the DVD was the optional features after the credits rolled. The director, Steve Buscemi, seemed a bit nervous at having to be interviewed, but he's an intelligent man and I would have expected a bit more from him than this movie considering his acting performances elsewhere (such as in "Fargo"). Willem Dafoe made some interesting observations that were better than his likable but rather sugary performance in this flick. Mickey O'Rourke's laid back transvestite character was just one more of the film's oddities, representing a prison population where, rather strangely, the cons were allowed to look and act almost any way they pleased. But his appearance and remarks in the interview after the movie were gross. He was sitting there in his long fingernails, minus his front teeth, sort of waving his hand around effeminately while talking about transvestites and behaving as if he weren't really sure if he were still in the movie and supposed to be in character or not. When is Hollywood going to get past this fad of featuring gays and other deviant characters in practically every flick they put out these days? Is it ever tiresome. You really can go about your life without running into and interacting with such people every ten minutes, but Hollywood wants to populate the world with them coming out from under every rock. Ever since his performance in "8 1/2 Weeks," where he sexually brutalized and humiliated Kim Basinger, I've thought O'Rourke was a tasteless sleaze. Yeah, he can act, but there's more to life than that. The guy is just plain weird and he gets away with it again and again because nobody dares say so, I guess because they are afraid of him.Tom Arnold played a real scuz in this movie. Surprisingly, he was one of the more effective characters, the only one who treated the kid the way he really would be treated were he thrown in the slam for real. Once again, however, it was implausible that he was so easily dispatched. He was kicking Dafoe's butt when the kid came up from behind and nailed him with a shiv. By the way, this theme of the prison pussy finally standing up like a man and sticking a shiv in somebody has been overdone. For that matter, so has the prison flick. In a nation of 300,000,000 people, one would think that a few million of us aren't such unimaginative conformists that we could think up something new, but to do that, we might shake the status quo to its very timbers. Best we stick to the standard five themes -- romance, crime, sports, adventure, and mindless yoks.

Cristi_Ciopron Animal Factory (2000) is a good ,dynamic,frank movie about the prison life.The ferocious,keen and efficient Willem Dafoe plays an influential convict. Rourke gives a spectacular performance as a potty,saucy guttersnipe. His deftness is commanding.Willem Dafoe is much sober,and acts temperately as usual;he exploits all the role's valences.Rourke's role is useless and tasteless,extravagant and decorative.It's shameful they waste this man on such pointless parts.Some disgusting ignorants believe this to be one of Rourke's best roles!How crass an ignorance!They know nothing at all,absolutely nothing about Rourke's career in the '80s!This shows only one thing:it betrays their huge ignorance of Rourke's great '80s roles (in Diner (1982),Year of the Dragon (1985),Nine 1/2 Weeks ,A Prayer for the Dying ,Barfly ,Desperate Hours ).His part in Animal Factory (2000) is nothing compared with his performances in A Prayer for the Dying (1987),Francesco (1989) and Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)!With an intelligent B-movie script,two first-hand actors (Rourke and Dafoe), Furlong at least honorable as a kind of a soft,sullen Delon , Animal Factory (2000) is much better than The Shawshank Redemption (1994) .