Spoiler ahead, right from the start. Don't read on, if you want the only mild surprise this movie has to offer.

Brubaker (Robert Redford) is the new Reform Warder of a corrupt State Farm prison in the States.

He decides to enter the prison as an inmate, to see just how badly the prison is malfunctioning. And although there's mayhem, beatings and buggery happening all around him, pretty-boy Redford manages to survive unscathed, right up till he decides to drop his cover and announce that he's the new Head Honcho.

The prison-farm is run basically by trustees, who run it as a public utility for themselves and for their favoured clients outside the prison. Those grateful clients use it as a source of cheap labour. The entire prison is a giant rort.

Redford decides to go all-out for reform. And of course, he runs headfirst into the entrenched system, including the members of the Prison Board, who see reform as a sign of weakness.

The ingredients -- the whole basic idea -- sounds promising, but this is an irritatingly mediocre movie, which starts off well, but degenerates into pretty maudlin drama. There's no suspense, and no real surprise at the ending, which is just about the only realistic part of the entire exercise. It's inept drama, of interest only to the most dedicated Robert Redford fans.

The widescreen anamorphic transfer gives us good, if not exceptional, clarity, with solid tonal values for both the brightest outdoor scenes and the indoor prison sets. Sound, although mono, is clear and bright, with no problems with dialogue.

There are no extras of any kind, not even the usual obligatory theatrical trailer.