Attica

• Director: Marvin J. Chomsky
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Movie Type: Docudrama, Prison Film
• Themes: Prison Life, Fighting the System
• Main Cast: George Grizzard
• Release Year: 1980
• Country: US
• Run Time: 97 minutes

Plot

Attica is a probing, no-nonsense TV-movie re-creation of the tragic events which followed the Attica (New York) Correctional Facility rebellion of September 9, 1971. Inmates demanding better food and living conditions used jerry-built weapons to take 38 guards as hostage. Negotiations begin immediately, only to continually break down thanks to uncompromising stubbornness on both sides. Four days into the crisis, the rebellion ends in a bloodbath, with state troopers firing on the prisoners-- killing several of the guards in the process. Based on the eyewitness reporting of the New York Times' Tom Wicker (here played by George Grizzard), who was one of the civilian negotiators during the stalemate, Attica was first telecast on March 3, 1980. (Perhaps significantly, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whom many hold responsible for the climactic carnage at the prison, is never seen in either factual or fictional form during the film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

Henry Darrow - Herman Badillo; Andrew Duncan - Lt. Driscoll; Charles Durning - Russell Oswald; Joel Fabiani - Senator Gordon Conners; William Flatley - Dudley; Ron Foster - Leon Clay; George Grizzard - Tom Wicker; Noble Lee Lester - Bobby Seale; Paul Lieber - Art Silver; Roger E. Mosley - Frank Green; Earl Rowe - Captain Cowan; Arlen Dean Snyder - Vince Mancusi; Glynn E. Turman - Raymond Franklin; Maurice Woods - Lumumba; Anthony Zerbe - William Kunstler; Morgan Freeman - Hap Richards; David Harris - T. J.

Credit

Marvin J. Chomsky - Director, Paul LaMastra - Editor, Gil Melle - Composer (Music Score), Don Birnkrant - Cinematographer, Loring Mandel - Screenwriter, James Henerson - Screenwriter, Tom Wicker - Book Author

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