OSCARS 2022: Attica (2021)

History has a way of amplifying some important events while burying others. 2021 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Attica prison riots, the most infamous prisoner uprising in the history of the United States. Yet, unless you've specifically sought out information on this particular historical event, you probably don't know much about it. It's not the kind of thing that gets taught in American text books. I probably only know about the rebellion because of the famous way it was referenced in “Dog Day Afternoon.” To commemorate the anniversary, and likely inform those who don't know much about what happened, Showtime rolled out a documentary on the subject. “Attica” must've played in theaters too, or else it wouldn't be nominated for an Oscar right now.

On September 8th, 1971, a pair of prisoners at Attica State Prison in upstate New York got into a scuffle. A prison guard went to break-up the fight and was struck. This ignited an uprising, with the prisoners eventually taking about forty-two guards hostage, congregating in the prison's courtyard. The prisoners soon formed a highly organized grouping, assuring the authorities that no one would be harmed and issuing a list of demands, centered on prison reform. The media was contacted, reporting on the event. Ultimately, the authorities – the Commissioner of Corrections Russell Oswalt and governor Nelson Rockefellar – refused to grant the prisoners amnesty. After five tense days, a violent retaking of the prison began. 39 people, prisoners and hostages alike, were killed by law enforcement.

“Attica” reconstructs the events that happened via archive footage and interviews with the people who were there. The film immediately leaps into describing the beginning of the riot, with little set-up. This, of course, mirrors the sudden way the rebellion began. It's a statement of purpose for the film, which marches through almost everything that happened at Attica in chronological order. Minor details, like the digging of a lateen or prisoners covering their faces to protect their identities, are mentioned. Specific names and faces emerge as prominent characters during the riot. I doubt “Attica” is a perfect one-to-one recreation of everything that happened but the filmmakers get as close to that as possible, I think. It's obvious from the interviews that the people who lived through this still remember everything that happened. More than once, the interviewees break down in tears when talking about the incident. It's astonishing, in a grim way, that everyone recalls everything so clearly. “Attica” gives us a precise idea of what happened as it happened.

As much as “Attica” is focused on detailing the specific events that played out, it still makes sure to give us plenty of context. History doesn't happen in a vacuum and the events at Attica were the result of many of the same social injustices that still plague our country today. The murder of prison reform activist George Jackson by guards happened only a few weeks before the uprising began. It was on many of the prisoners’ minds that day. The racial make-up of the prison — predominantly African-American — was unquestionably a factor in how law enforcement reacted. The massacre that followed was a mass act of racial violence. People who were there recall the repeated use of racial slurs, the white guards whipped into such a bloodthirsty frenzy that they nearly attacked a black reporter on the scene. Archive recordings of a cop shouting “white power!” At the scene or a phone conversation between Rockefellar and Richard Nixon, in which the President outright says black uprisings must be repressed, makes it know exactly why this happened. 

If you’re watching “Attica,” you probably know what happened at the prison in 1971. That doesn’t make the slow way the film recounts what happened any less sickening. A tense undercurrent forms in the film as the date of the massacre grows closer. When the mass killing begins, archive photos and recording make it completely clear what a butchering this was. How the prison guards and police officers were so hungry for blood that they killed prisoners and hostages alike. A National Guard soldier who was there that day even mentions an attempt to cover up the crimes. The physical and psychological torture of the survivors that followed is similarly depicted, through vivid photographs and interviews with those that endured it. You want to think “how can such obvious corruption and brutal violence like this happen?” But we already know the answer. Misinformation ran rampant leading up to the massacre, further justifying the violence in the minds of the killers. As it is now, those in law enforcement become completely obsessed with their own sense of power and are trained to see prisoners — and anyone non-white — as less-than-human. 

“Attica” doesn’t focus much on the fallout of the uprising and the slaughter. The lawsuits are detailed some but it’s very apparent, from the interviews with the survivors and the family members of those killed, the results were half-assed as can be. It’s sad to say that not nearly as much as you’d think has changed since 1971. Prison reform is still desperately needed in this country, those in power still run amok, and the system still revels in denying the humanity of those deemed a threat to society. Powerful filmmaking like “Attica,” if nothing else, strives to insure that the injustices that happened then, and happen still today, aren’t forgotten. [9/10]