Bare Behind Bars Review

Distributor: Blue Underground Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Foreign, Women in Prison Also known as: A Prisão Run Time: 95 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1980 Director: Oswaldo de Oliveira (as Osvaldo de Oliveira), Larry Dolgin (English dialogs) Written by: Oswaldo de Oliveira (as Osvaldo de Oliveira) Cast: Maria Stella Splendore, Neide Ribeiro, Marcia Fraga, Danielle Ferrite, Marta Anderson (as Marth Anderson), Serafim Gonzalez (as Serafim Gonzoiez), Meiry Uleira, Sonia Regina, Marliane Gomes, Nadia Destro, Marli Palauro, Fatima Celebrini, Virginia Gil, Neide Carvalho, Sandra Carnezin, Yolanda Silva, Orlando Parolini, Felipe DiNardo, Maria da Paixão, Fábio Pinto, Osmar Alves, Alair Norton, Abel Constancio, Romano Leão, Deolinda Pinto, Waldemar Laurentino, Sidney, Edson Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Widescreen, 1.66:1 (anamorphic) Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 1 (North America) Number of discs: 1

Bare Behind Bars is a vile ugly film that sadly has no redeeming qualities. Bare Behind Bars is a Portuguese women in prison film, which serves to just show naked flesh and women being humiliated. The true oddity was in making this film a hardcore film.

As far as the action goes, there are numerous sex scenes within the film but all of them except one fall short of being hardcore. Some come incredibly close but then stop just before hitting that point. There were numerous opportunities for hardcore scenes, any of the softcore ones could have easily been made into one. The one hardcore scene that is thrown in doesn't seem to really fit well with the film at all. I'm not sure if it was originally shot to be part of the film or was shot as an insert as an afterthought to change the marketplace for the film. Either way, anyone looking for hardcore action will be sorely disappointed.

The film doesn't shy away from the humiliation and beating of the prisoners though. None of this is erotic at all but the film does manage to show all of that. However, what makes this even worse is that there is a lack of any real semblance of plot contained within the film. For the most part the film rushes from set up to set up without any real reason for anything. There are attempts at sub-plots all over the place, but none of them actually go anywhere and are abandoned by the end of this mess. The plot, or what little is present, is a group of female prisoners decide to escape from the cruel warden Sylvia (Maria Stella Splenore) after being subjected to various humiliations in a South American prison.

What else can be said about this film atrocity, the plot is useless, the film is bad, the acting is horrible. There is no reason to seek this one out.

Blue Underground has done a great job with the transfer but heavily skimped on the extras for Bare Behind Bars. Bare Behind Bars is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.66:1. The transfer boasts beautiful colors and a nice looking image with grain and artifacts present. Honestly this film doesn't deserve to look this good on home video.

Bare Behind Bars is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track, which is acceptable for the material being presented. The film was quickly and cheaply made and sounds like it was. Dialog is usually clear and able to made out. The film was a Portuguese film and only an English language track is presented on this disc. The original Portuguese language track has not been included nor are there any subtitles included on this release.

The only extra that Blue Underground has included on the release is the theatrical trailer.

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