''Weeds'' is a 1987 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

John D. Hancock John D. Hancock (born February 12, 1939) is an American stage and film director, producer and writer. He is perhaps best known for his work on ''Bang the Drum Slowly''. Hancock's theatrical work includes direction of both classic and contempor ...

, and starring

Nick Nolte Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film ''The Prince of Tides''. He received ...

Ernie Hudson Earnest Lee Hudson (born December 17, 1945) is an American actor. His roles include Winston Zeddemore in the ''Ghostbusters'' film series, Sergeant Darryl Albrecht in ''The Crow'' (1994), and Warden Leo Glynn on HBO's '' Oz'' (1997–2003). Hu ...

Lane Smith Walter Lane Smith III (April 29, 1936 – June 13, 2005) was an American actor. His well-known roles included newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'', Walter Warner in '' Son in Law'', co ...

and

Rita Taggart Rita Jean Taggart (born December 19, 1949) is an American film and television actress. She is known for playing Carla Bouvier on ''Night Court''. Biography Taggart was born in Salinas, California. She studied special education at San Francisco ...

. The screenplay concerns a prison inmate who writes a play that catches the attention of a visiting reporter.

Plot

Lee Umstetter (

) is incarcerated in

San Quentin San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the o ...

for armed robbery, serving "life without possibility" (with no chance of

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

). After two

suicide attempt A suicide attempt is an attempt to die by suicide that results in survival. It may be referred to as a "failed" or "unsuccessful" suicide attempt, though these terms are discouraged by mental health professionals for implying that a suicide res ...

s, Lee begins to read books from the prison library. He attends a performance of '' Waiting for Godot'' given for the prisoners and is deeply moved. He begins to write plays about imprisonment and then stages them, too. One is a social-protest musical extravaganza about life in the penitentiary. It attracts visitors and earns Lee the regard of a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

theatre reviewer (

) who persuades the governor to release him. Lee organises an acting troupe made up of former convicts: a

shoplifter Shoplifting is the theft of goods from an open retail establishment, typically by concealing a store item on one's person, in pockets, under clothes or in a bag, and leaving the store without paying. With clothing, shoplifters may put on items ...

( William Forsythe), a murderer (

), an embezzler (

), a

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

(John Toles-Bey), a flasher (

Mark Rolston Mark Rolston (born December 7, 1956) is an American character actor, known for his supporting roles in popular films such as ''Aliens'', ''Lethal Weapon 2'', ''The Shawshank Redemption'', ''The Departed'' and the ''Saw'' film series, as well as G ...

), and others. Lee's work doesn't make the same impact outside the prison as it did inside. Touring in a camper with no money, the men are torn by impulses to revert to their former criminal behavior.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. Film critic

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' observed, "The film is about their efforts to become professional men of the theatre. It's about the ways in which working together changes them and the ways in which it doesn't." The film had a strong opening weekend, but failed to recoup its costs. The film did well on VHS.

References

External links

* * * * 1987 films 1987 drama films American prison drama films Films about theatre Films about writers Films directed by John D. Hancock Films set in San Quentin State Prison Films shot in North Carolina 1980s prison films Films scored by Angelo Badalamenti De Laurentiis Entertainment Group films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{1980s-drama-film-stub