Reading Bronson from deep on the inside: An exploration of prisoners watching prison films

Abstract

Much research and analysis of representations of prisons has focused on the response of a public untouched by the realities of crime and punishment. This chapter, in contrast, draws upon audience research of prisoners viewing prison films. Adopting Moores’ (1996) framework for an audience ethnography, our research involved screening five contemporary British prison films to ten long-term male prisoners in England. This chapter focuses exclusively on the responses to one of these films. Bronson (2008) is a stylized biopic of a long-serving prisoner whose violent behaviour inside and media profile outside have led him to be considered Britain’s most famous prisoner. The chapter explores how the prisoner audience received and made sense of this film in the context of their own current and deep imprisonment. Through dialogue, both during and after the screening this film, themes of violence, resistance and hard and soft power emerged. This chapter departs significantly from the text-audience dichotomy, instead offering new insights into the between and in-between text-audience relationship with an informed audience. We argue that the reception of Bronson by prisoners is distinctive. The intersection between text and audience is a curious one, and context i.e. the prison and its experience adjusts their reception.