Riot In Cell Block 11

If films like Dirty Harry and Riot in Cell Block 11 are any indication, director Don Siegel has bit of an anti-establishment streak in him. That said, his negative, or nuanced views on how institutions are run is in no shape or form a gut reaction against politics or power players just for the sake of it. His films, however realistic or intended to entertain through action, lean heavily on the principle that things can be done better.

Under-appreciated throughout much of his career, with his early work made up of catch-as-catch-can projects, his credits meandering from Westerns (The Beguiled, 1971; The Shootist, 1976) to science fiction (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956), war stories (Hell Is for Heroes, 1962), period pieces (The Verdict, 1946), crime stories (Dirty Harry, 1971; Charley Varrick, 1973), …