As hard-hitting as its title, Brute Force was the first of Jules Dassin’s forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins’s dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey’s chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows the lengths men will go to when fighting for their freedom.

SPECIAL FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration by TLEFilms FIlm Restoration & Preservation Services, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary from 2007 featuring film-noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
Interview from 2007 with Paul Mason, editor of Captured by the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture
Program from 2017 on Brute Force’s array of acting styles featuring film scholar David Bordwell (Blu-ray only)
Trailer
Stills gallery
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, a 1947 profile of producer Mark Hellinger, and rare correspondence between Hellinger and Production Code administrator Joseph Breen over the film’s content
Cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang

RUN TIME: 98 minutes
COLOR: Black & White
ASPECT RATIO: 1.37:1
LANGUAGE: English
GENRE: Crime; Drama; Film-Noir