• Trending
    • Certified Fresh & Verified Hot
    • TV Premier dates
    • New horror Movies
    • Best Movies of All Time
  • Movies
    • Movies In Theaters
    • Movies at Home
  • TV Shows
    • New TV
    • Most Popular TV
  • News
    • What to Watch
    • Guides
    • RT News
    • Awards
  • Games
    • Find Your Next Horror Watch
  • Video
  • Showtimes
  • Fanstore
  • About Rotten Tomatoes
  • Critics
  • Download the App Now
  • Logout
Rotten Tomatoes
Suggestions will appear as you start typing. Submit search Movies Tv shows RT App New News Showtimes

Penitentiary

Play trailer Poster for Penitentiary R,  1979,  1h 39m,  Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist - - 1 Reviews Tomatometer 37% 1,000+ Ratings Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 1 Reviews 37% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Hitchhiker Martel "Too Sweet" Gordone gets a lift from prostitute Linda in her van and travels with her to meet her clients. After a fight breaks out with the men, Gordone is knocked unconscious and awakens to find he has been wrongly charged with murder. As a way to protect himself in prison, Gordone starts fighting other inmates. This leads him to discover an underground boxing tournament, with the top prize being a prison release.

Critics Reviews

View More
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Jul 28, 2005
2/5
Read all reviews
Penitentiary

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING

Cast & Crew

View All

Jamaa Fanaka

Director

Leon Isaac Kennedy

Martel `'Too Sweet'` Gordone

Thommy Pollard

Eugene T. Lawson

Hazel Spears

Linda

Badja Djola

`'Half Dead'` Johnson

Gloria Delaney

Peaches

More Like This

View All
Poor Pretty Eddie 37% Poor Pretty Eddie Watchlist The Escapist 48% The Escapist Watchlist Green Street Hooligans 2 31% Green Street Hooligans 2 Watchlist The Wild Party 40% 15% The Wild Party Watchlist Time Lapse 17% Time Lapse Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More
View All

Penitentiary

Penitentiary (1979) Penitentiary (1979) Penitentiary (1979) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Hitchhiker Martel "Too Sweet" Gordone gets a lift from prostitute Linda in her van and travels with her to meet her clients. After a fight breaks out with the men, Gordone is knocked unconscious and awakens to find he has been wrongly charged with murder. As a way to protect himself in prison, Gordone starts fighting other inmates. This leads him to discover an underground boxing tournament, with the top prize being a prison release.
Director
Jamaa Fanaka
Producer
Jamaa Fanaka
Screenwriter
Jamaa Fanaka
Production Co
Jamaa Fanaka Production
Rating
R
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 21, 1979, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 22, 2018
Runtime
1h 39m
Join The Newsletter Join The Newsletter Cookie Settings