Hot off her breakthrough performance in "The Exorcist", child actress Linda Blair got promoted to star in this memorable TV movie basically dealing with the *loss* of innocence. Chris Parker (Blair) is a kid who repeatedly runs away from her dysfunctional, abusive home, having to deal with a jerk father (Richard Jaeckel) and weak mother (Kim Hunter). Her repeated attempts to run away result in her getting locked up in a detention center for girls. Unfortunately, it appears that there is no safe haven for this poor girl. At the center, she must deal with hostile fellow inmates, and a lack of truly understanding adult figures. Joanna Miles as counselor Barbara Clark is the only one who really reaches out to her.
The inevitable end result is that a lot of these girls have the potential to become very hardened individuals who come to rely on nobody else but themselves. And the deck is completely stacked against Chris. Even her brother Tom (Mitch Vogel) turns her away because he has his hands full starting a family. In general, this absorbing melodrama remains interesting enough to watch, with Blair succeeding at making Chris a sympathetic character. And she's surrounded by solid actors: Janit Baldwin and Nora Heflin as antagonists, Sandra Ego as the pregnant Janet, Allyn Ann McLerie as the all-business supervisor at the center, and Tina Andrews as the likeable Josie. Jaeckel certainly has you hating his character in record time.
The film is troubling at times, as it's clearly meant to be. What made it notorious back in its day was a key rape sequence, excised from subsequent TV airings, but viewable on the DVD. And the finale, involving a riot, is highly uncomfortable - although the viewer is aware that something like this was bound to happen at some point.
Even if hampered by some of the restrictions of prime time, network TV, this does have the general feel of an old-fashioned women-in-prison story.
Seven out of 10.
The inevitable end result is that a lot of these girls have the potential to become very hardened individuals who come to rely on nobody else but themselves. And the deck is completely stacked against Chris. Even her brother Tom (Mitch Vogel) turns her away because he has his hands full starting a family. In general, this absorbing melodrama remains interesting enough to watch, with Blair succeeding at making Chris a sympathetic character. And she's surrounded by solid actors: Janit Baldwin and Nora Heflin as antagonists, Sandra Ego as the pregnant Janet, Allyn Ann McLerie as the all-business supervisor at the center, and Tina Andrews as the likeable Josie. Jaeckel certainly has you hating his character in record time.
The film is troubling at times, as it's clearly meant to be. What made it notorious back in its day was a key rape sequence, excised from subsequent TV airings, but viewable on the DVD. And the finale, involving a riot, is highly uncomfortable - although the viewer is aware that something like this was bound to happen at some point.
Even if hampered by some of the restrictions of prime time, network TV, this does have the general feel of an old-fashioned women-in-prison story.
Seven out of 10.