Let's Go to Prison
| Let's Go to Prison | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Bob Odenkirk |
| Written by | Ben Garant Thomas Lennon Michael Patrick Jann |
| Produced by | Marc Abraham Matt Berenson Paul Young |
| Starring | Dax Shepard Will Arnett Chi McBride David Koechner |
| Cinematography | Ramsey Nickell |
| Edited by | Eric L. Beason Denis Thorlaksen |
| Music by | Alan Elliott |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
Release dates | November 17, 2006 |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4 mil. |
Let's Go to Prison is an American dark comedy that was released in theatres November 17, 2006, starring Dax Shepard, Will Arnett and Chi McBride, and directed by Bob Odenkirk.
The movie was loosely based on the non-fiction book, You Are Going to Prison by Jim Hogshire.
Filming took place at the defunct Joliet Prison in Joliet, Illinois. The same prison is featured in the beginning of The Blues Brothers and the first season of the Fox show Prison Break.
Plot
The movie takes the perspective of John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) who has spent most of his life in prison, serving three different sentences (starting when he was eight,when he stole the Publisher's Clearing House van). In each of his three trials, he was presided by Judge Nelson Biederman III, who seemed to show no remorse passing down indiscriminantly harsh sentences. After being released from his third sentence, John decides to take revenge on Biederman, blaming him for his incarcerations in the past. After trying to determine when Biederman would be presiding over his next case, he discovers (much to his dissatisfaction) that he had died three days prior to his release.
He turns his attention to Nelson Biederman III’s arrogant son, Nelson Biederman IV (Will Arnett). At a dedication ceremony for Nelson III, John sneaks into Nelson's BMW, where he steals his change, spits in his coffee, and exhausts his emergency inhaler. After the ceremony, Nelson IV yells at his attorney (who has the speakerphone on in the fully occupied board room) clearly upset about having to go through such an ordeal, demanding that they leave him be and have a Fresca ready for him upon his arrival. He drives down the road and, finding his inhaler empty, immediately panics and hyperventilates. He stops at a pharmacy and scrambles through the shelves, desperately seeking some kind of replacement for the inhaler he lost. The pharmacy owners think he's another junkie, seeking some kind of fix. After finding and using an inhaler, he hides behind a counter and holds up the inhaler. The storeowner, however, mistakes the inhaler as a tiny pistol which leads the owners to call the police. Nelson ends up arrested and, after turning down the idea of stepping down and serving his time, demands that the Biederman foundation call the governor to have him released. The board contemplates for a moment, considering asking the governor to get Nelson out. However, they soon realize that this is there opportunity to get rid of him, so they conspire to get him a poor defense in trial, since they are sick and tired of his obnoxious attitude. With this severely inadequate legal representation, Nelson is found guilty and sentenced three to five years Rossmore State Penitentiary. John is not satisfied with Nelson just going to prison, however, so John decides to join him in prison by selling marijuana to undercover police officers. At his sentencing he pleads guilty to the same judge Nelson IV had, and asks for the same sentence (3-5) at the same prison. After negotiating with the judge and bribing a few guards, he ends up as Nelson’s cellmate, and here he pretends to be his friend, all in an attempt to give him the wrong advice on surviving life in prison.
While he is in jail, John consistently gives him bad advice and informs him about the people within the prison, including Lynrd, the excessively violent leader of The White Kingdom, a white-supremacy ring within the penitentiary.
Somehow, Nelson gets himself out of a numerous array of jams, like deciding to become gay upon meeting and falling for gang leader Barry (Chi McBride) after he threatens to remove his testicles and put them in a shoe box , a hulking, burly gay man with the heart of a dashing romantic hero beating within his massive, hairy torso, as is evident by his liking for smooth jazz (Chuck Mangione is a favorite of his), plying potential romantic partners with his finest toilet-made Merlot, and transforming his prison cell into a candle-lit, rose-bedecked passion parlor.
Nelson reaches his one year parole hearing relatively unscathed, and actually the "top dog" in the prison. However, John won't allow his target to escape prison so easily: he drugs Nelson and writes "WHITE POWER" on his forehead and a swastika on each side of his neck. This leads to the parole board deciding that Nelson "needs" more time to be rehabilitated. Infuriated, Nelson brings John up on the act; John then confesses to putting Nelson in jail and the two get embroiled in a fight. It's here that John regrets bunking with Nelson when he realizes Nelson has nothing to lose but his will to murder, and John is the target. After an ensuing brawl, the guards set up a death match between the two.
However, John and Nelson secretly conspire and inject each other with a coma-inducing drug. The guards and prisoners believe that they are dead and bury the pair outside in the graveyard. Nelson's lover Barry, who has been let out on parole, digs the two up and they are free, and Nelson and Barry become life partners. One year later, the two male sweethearts set up a winery where a critic is about to fail their wine when John shows up and forces the critic to give them a good review. Nelson, Barry and John take a drive listening to "Move This" by Technotronic.
Themes
Throughout the movie, John Lyshitski narrates, and constantly cites information regarding life in prison and the flaws within the prison sytem. The information is presented alongside various events with the story, except in the beginning, in which is a tangent from the story illustrating the various facts about prison (i.e. how many people are born in prison, how many people are sexually assaulted in prison, etc.).
Cast
- Dax Shepard as John Lyshitski
- Will Arnett as Nelson Perth Biederman IV
- Chi McBride as Barry Johnson
- David Koechner as Shanahan
- Dylan Baker as Warden
- Michael Shannon as Lynard
- David Darlow as Judge Nelson Biederman III
- Bob Odenkirk as Duane Rosenberg
DVD
The movie was released on DVD March 6, 2007 [1], with deleted scenes and an alternate ending.