Book Review
By DWIGHT HOBBES
Rule of thumb goes, the book’s better than the movie. Edward Bunker’s The Animal Factory (St. Martin’s Minotaur) and Franchise Pictures is a tossup. Both are brilliant. The novel’s narrative is fluid, with compelling immediacy. Co-screenwriter John Steppling teams with Bunker for an ingenious adaptation.
Bunker (Education of a Felon: A Memoir /St. Martin’s Griffin,) made his way from the wrong side of the law to a career as screenwriter-actor (Animal Factory, Straight Time). He was “Mr. Blue” in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
The Animal Factory protagonist, 20-something, privileged Ron Decker is slapped in prison so the judge can stand hard on white offenders, not just criminals of color. Never mind that Decker, no angel for sure, dealt weed and coke, but this is his first bust. He’s a politically correct scapegoat. Street spawned, veteran of incarceration Earl Boen takes him under his wing, shows him the ropes. In a hellish environment, they become unlikely allies, then fast friends – in an environment where young, pretty Decker can use someone influential having his back. Circumstance irreversibly changes their lives. Some brute thinks he can rape Ron. Earl’s crew convince him otherwise, ganging up to stab the guy, severing his spinal cord. They’d’ve sliced his throat, but, guards were on the way. When a real mess hits the fan behind this and they could wind up serving longer sentences, possibly life, Earl and Ron hatch an escape plan.
While adaptation necessitates alterations to accommodate the medium, brought to screen life Bunker’s story loses none of its impact. Indeed, putting faces to the names in a stark picture of their purgatory hits all the harder. Deftly directed by Steve Buscemi (The Sopranos, Homicide: Life on the Street), who’s done more than his share of acting (Boardwalk Empire), the cast lists an indies’ who’s who in Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Danny Trejo (co-producer), Bunker, Tom Arnold and Mickey Rourke in an uncharacteristic, veritable tour de force as flaming queen Jan the Actress, expanded from about a page in the novel.
The Animal Factory is no formulaic, gratuitously blood-letting moral tale of nobly heroic convicts versus evilly corrupt officials. It is a saga of man ensnared by a system that breeds inhumanity, hence the title. It is also a candid look at a reality with which no one wants to come face to face.
