Best Prison movies of 1980s that are award winners or nominees

Actors : Peter O'Toole, John Lone, Ruocheng Ying, Joan Chen,
Directors : Bernardo Bertolucci,

The story of the final Emperor of China.

Actors : Nick Nolte, Frank McRae, Eddie Murphy, Annette O'Toole,
Directors : Walter Hill,

A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer.

Actors : J.E. Freeman, Willem Dafoe, Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage,
Directors : David Lynch,

Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.

Actors : Sonia Braga, Raul Julia, José Lewgoy, William Hurt,
Directors : Hector Babenco,

A gay man and a political prisoner are together in a prison. The gay man narrates the stories of two fake movies and his own life.

Actors : Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Alexander,
Directors : Stuart Rosenberg,

The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.

Actors : Steven Berkoff, Richard Crenna, Sylvester Stallone, Charles Napier,
Directors : George P. Cosmatos,

John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he'd want to return - the jungles of Vietnam.

Actors : Haviland Morris, Griffin Dunne, John McMartin, Madonna,
Directors : James Foley,

The life of an uptight tax lawyer turns chaotic when he is asked to escort a young woman newly released from prison, who persuades him to help prove her innocence.

Actors : Daniel Valdez, Charles Aidman, Tyne Daly, Edward James Olmos,
Directors : Luis Valdez,

A kind of musical accompanying the story of the early 1940's and the effect that the "zoot suit" (a man's suit of long jacket and pegged pants, always worn with a long keychain that looped ...

Actors : Mel Gibson, Matthew Modine, Edward Herrmann, Diane Keaton,
Directors : Gillian Armstrong,

Peter Soffel is the stuffy warden of a remote American prison around the turn of the century. His wife, Kate, finds herself attracted to prisoner Ed Biddle. She abandons her husband and ...

Actors : Nick Nolte, Rita Taggart, Ernie Hudson, Mark Rolston,
Directors : John D. Hancock,

A San Quentin inmate, sentenced to life without parole, writes a play that catches the interest of a reporter.