“Penitentiary is a churning, tough-minded expose of lives dehumanized behind prison walls, written, directed and even partially financed (through his family) by a brilliant young black graduate of UCLA, Jamaa Fanaka.
“On paper, Fanaka's scenario reads all-too-much like so many cinematic romanticizations. A young black man, railroaded into prison on a murder rap, turns to boxing to maintain his identity and a proffered ‘conjugal' reward if he wins. But Penitentiary is anything but romantic, painting a social and political portrait of prison realities which few films have dared convey to date.
“Fanaka has done his homework well, basing his screenplay upon scores of interviews he conducted within Los Angeles County penal institutions. The result is graphic, brutal and honest cinema, replete with fight scenes so intense that San Francisco Chronicle critic Peter Starck called them ‘both beautifully awesome and painful to watch.'
“Technically, the film is impressive. The superb camerawork of Marty Ollstein makes the viewer feel the claustrophobia of confinement and the oppressive paranoia of prison. Frankie Gaye has composed a dynamic rock score perfectly attuned to Penitentiary's pulsating action.
“The film is not without its flaws. Critic Arthur Knight found its sex scenes ‘ugly, intrusive and appallingly male chauvinist.' (Hollywood Reporter) But the same critic goes on to praise Penitentiary for marking ‘the emergence of an important young talent with a mind of his own.'”