Looper's 45 Best Prison Movies of All Time Ranked

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BY BARRY LEVITT / MARCH 24, 2022 12:59 AM EST

There's something compelling about a look behind bars –- for many movie fans, prison films are their only experience with the world of incarceration. Prison movies take audiences to places unknown, often bringing us face to face with hardened criminals. Many great prison movies take us deeper, showing us things we didn't expect, whether it's a criminal with surprising kindness, or the brutal conditions faced by inmates the world over. Films about prison can transport us to unique and fascinating worlds, and many successfully hold a mirror up to society, exposing our bizarre desires to see people suffer.

Great prison movies go deeper than this, of course, exposing the remarkable humanity that can exist in prisoner-of-war camps, jails, and chain gangs. They provide insight into this unknown society, and while there are certainly heavy connotations to the prison movie, many subvert them with wicked, often clever humor. Exploring the genre of prison movies yields rich results, especially in a surprisingly diverse slate of films that cover every facet of a life behind bars. In honor of this fascinating, frightening, thrilling, challenging, and sometimes heartwarming genre, here are the 45 best prison movies of all time ranked.