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About This Quiz
If you listened to the podcast on prisons, then you know we love us some prison movies. Let's see how well you know and love movies about the Big House.
In which prison movie did actor Paul Newman have a "failure to communicate"?
"Thunderbolt and Lightfoot"
"Brubaker"
"Cool Hand Luke"
Who can forget the classic scene in which the evil chain gang boss tells Cool Hand Luke, "What we got here is failure to communicate."
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How many yards of "poop" smelling foulness did Andy Dufresne crawl through to gain his freedom in "The Shawshank Redemption"?
300
500
As Red tells you, it was 500 yards, or the length of five football fields.
200
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True or False: In the movie "Brubaker," the warden played by Robert Redford does something very unconventional: He puts the entire prison population in solitary confinement.
True
False
Robert Redford's character does something unconventional alright: He goes undercover as a prisoner to see how they're mistreated.
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In "American History X," what did Edward Norton's character gruesomely use to knock out the teeth of his rivals?
claw hammer
sidewalk curb
In one of the nastiest scenes in movie history, Edward Norton has his rivals "bite the curb" and then kicks the back of their head.
brick
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In the juvenile prison movie "Bad Boys," what did Sean Penn's character fill a pillowcase with to use as a weapon?
canned sodas
Sean Penn was a bad boy for sure. He used a pillowcase full of canned sodas to take care of business.
pieces of his bunk
hand weights
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In "Escape from Alcatraz," when his art supplies are taken away by the guards, what does "Doc" do to retaliate?
cuts off the fingers of the guard
cuts off his own fingers
Poor Doc. All he had in Alcatraz was his painting. When they were taken away, he cut off his own fingers to get back at the evil guard.
gouges out his own eyes
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True or False: In "The Longest Yard," Burt Reynolds plays a prisoner who challenges the guards to a game of rugby.
True
False
Burt played football in college, so he liked to work the sport into his movies whenever he could. In this case, he mounted a prisoner team to play the guards.
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In "The Great Escape," Charles Bronson's character was really good at what?
long-range rifle shooting
digging tunnels
Quentin Tarantino referenced Charles Bronson's character's tunnel digging skills in a crude scene from his own movie "Reservoir Dogs."
impersonating voices
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What did Steve McQueen's character do to pass the time in solitary confinement in "The Great Escape"?
bounce a baseball off the wall
A true American, McQueen used a baseball and mitt to pass the time while in the "hole."
have imagined conversations with his wife and daughter
write poetry about killing Nazis
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The 1973 movie "Papillon" starred Dustin Hoffman and who else?
Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen must have liked prison movies. He was Hoffman's co-star in "Papillon" after his turn in "The Great Escape."
Rod Steiger
Clint Eastwood
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Who plays the evil warden in the 1996 Kevin Bacon prison movie "Murder in the First"?
Gary Coleman
Gary Busey
Gary Oldman
Busey would be a good choice for a crazy warden, but if you want to order up some evil, look no further than Gary Oldman.
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In "Midnight Express," Billy Hayes is sent to a Turkish prison after trying to smuggle what?
heroin
hashish
Billy makes the grave mistake of taping about two kilos of hashish to his body. And when we say grave mistake, we mean it.
marijuana
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The 1980 prison comedy "Stir Crazy" was directed by what actor?
Richard Pryor
Sidney Poitier
"Stir Crazy" starred Wilder and Pryor, but it was directed by film legend Sidney Poitier.
Gene Wilder
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In the SYSK podcast on prison, what did Chuck say was the most realistic prison movie he's ever seen?
"Midnight Express"
"Murder in the First"
"Animal Factory"
On the show, Chuck cites Steve Buscemi's "Animal Factory" as the most realistic prison movie he's seen.
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What was the name of the prisoner football team in the Burt Reynolds prison movie "The Longest Yard"?
Mean Mothers
Rough Housers
Mean Machine
Burt and company were known not as the Mean Mothers, but the Mean Machine.
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What Rita Hayworth movie do the prisoners watch in "The Shawshank Redemption"?
"The Happy Thieves"
"Gilda"
Tough one, huh? The movie the inmates watch in "Shawshank" is the 1946 Rita Hayworth film "Gilda."
"Tonight and Every Night"
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What 1965 prison movie starring Sean Connery was shot in black-and-white by famed director Sidney Lumet?
"The Hill"
Winning two Bafta awards for cinematography and screenplay, "The Hill" depicted British soldiers held in a Libyan prison.
"Scum"
"The Escape"
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"The Green Mile" was based on a serial novel by what author?
Ken Kesey
Stephen King
Along with "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile" was a story originally conceived of by author Stephen King.
John Grisham
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"Caged Heat" is one example of what kind of exploitation movie?
prisoner escape movie
blaxploitation movie
women in prison movie
If you've seen "Caged Heat" then you know it's one of the best examples of the many "women in prison" exploitation movies.
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True or False: The Clint Eastwood movie "Escape from Alcatraz" is based on a true story.
True
Very true -- there was only one escape in the history of the prison island, and Eastwood brought the story to the silver screen.
False
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Besides "The Shawshank Redemption," what other prison movie did actor Tim Robbins have a hand in?
"Dead Man Walking"
Robbins directed Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon in his death row downer "Dead Man Walking."
"Animal Factory"
"Murder in the First"
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In what movie did Denzel Washington play jailed boxer Rubin Carter?
"Hoodlum"
"American Gangster"
"The Hurricane"
Based on a true story, Washington portrayed Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in the movie of the same name. That's the truth, Ruth.
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What famous prisoner of war movie featured a noteworthy whistling scene?
"The Bridge on the River Kwai"
The song, also whistled in "The Breakfast Club," was the "Colonel Bogey March." The movie was "The Bridge on the River Kwai."
"Uncommon Valor"
"The Great Escape"
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What P.O.W. movie was based on the true story of German-American Dieter Dengler?
"Dieter's Plan"
"Little Dieter Needs to Fly"
"Rescue Dawn"
Director Werner Herzog directed a documentary called "Little Dieter Needs to Fly." He later remade the true story as the feature film "Rescue Dawn."
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In prison, and therefore in prison movies, what are new inmates called by the rest of the population?
fish
In almost every prison movie, you'll hear the new inmates referred to as "fish" or "new fish."
cubs
raw meat
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"Brubaker" was based on the real-life story of a warden who tried to reform prisons in what state?
Alabama
Arkansas
Real-life warden Thomas O. Murton did his best to reform two prisons in Arkansas. But he was no Robert Redford.
Texas
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What 1962 movie told the story of Alcatraz inmate Robert Stroud?
"The Island of Lost Souls"
"Mothman of Alcatraz"
"Birdman of Alcatraz"
Stroud, famous for his love of birds, was played by actor Burt Lancaster in "Birdman of Alcatraz."
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In what movie did William Hurt play a homosexual inmate in a Brazilian prison?
"First Date"
"El Preso de Mujer"
"Kiss of the Spider Woman"
Along with the late Raul Julia, William Hurt starred as a gay inmate in the Brazilian prison movie "Kiss of the Spider Woman."
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The true-story prison movie "In the Name of the Father" starred Daniel Day Lewis as one of what?
"The Manchester Five"
"The London Three"
"The Guildford Four"
Day Lewis portrayed Gerry Conlon, a man unjustly convicted for a pub bombing as part of "The Guildford Four."
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What brand of beer do the prisoners drink on the rooftop in "The Shawshank Redemption"?
Stroh's
You have to pay attention, but Andy's fellow inmates down Stroh's in the famous rooftop scene.
Budweiser
Corona
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You Got:
/30
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