Against the Wall (1994 film)

Plot

Set against the backdrop of the 1971 Attica Correctional Facility uprising, this docudrama blends fact with fiction to recount the four-day riot, which began when inmates seized control of much of the prison to protest brutal conditions. The story centers on rookie corrections officer Michael Smith, played by Kyle MacLachlan, and inmate Jamaal X, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson, who form a cautious bond. The narrative unfolds largely from Smith’s perspective, drawing on his own testimony after he was shot four times.

Jamaal X is a composite of several real prisoners, including the one Smith credits with saving his life. The film starts with a montage of late-1960s and early-1970s news clips, such as Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Kent State shootings, and the Watts riots. It then shifts to the quiet streets of Attica, New York, where a 22-year-old Smith, an expectant father taking the job for its salary, gets his long hair cut before reporting for duty.

On his first day, he arrives at the prison alongside black militant Jamaal X. The movie cuts between their parallel introductions, revealing the appalling conditions inside: guards subject inmates to violent treatment and unnecessary strip searches, while basic amenities like working toilets are neglected. The influence of Vietnam War protests stirs prisoners to demand human rights. Smith hears escalating complaints about these degrading conditions from increasingly politicized inmates, especially Jamaal X, a Muslim leader advocating for prisoner rights.

He is depicted as the sole officer who treats prisoners decently, and his occasional empathy makes his colleagues suspicious. In the end, his connection with Jamaal X proves crucial to his survival.

Production

Filming took place over 31 days in the spring of 1993, with a budget of $5.8 million. Locations included the Tennessee State Penitentiary near Nashville and Clarksville, Tennessee. Private investigators helped locate Michael Smith, a former inmate who never again worked in a prison; he was initially hired as a consultant for a few days but ended up staying through the entire shoot.

Extras included actual former inmates who had been at the riot. To prepare for his role, Kyle MacLachlan spent many hours talking with Smith. Samuel L. Jackson drew on his own 1960s activism at Morehouse College, along with books and the documentary series Eyes on the Prize, to play Jamaal X. For the role of Chaka, Williams studied documentary footage of the riot.

Historical accuracy

The 1994 film "Against the Wall" dramatizes the 1971 Attica prison uprising, which began not as a planned revolt but from a series of mistakes. On September 8, 1971, a prisoner was accused of striking an officer. The following morning, after additional rule violations and a breakdown in communication among guards, a group of inmates was confined to a tunnel connecting sections of the prison. Fearing the officers would retaliate by beating them, the prisoners attacked the guards in the tunnel, with some also turning on each other.

Elsewhere in the facility, inmates realized something was happening and started grabbing makeshift weapons like two-by-fours and chair legs. When the tunnel prisoners broke out, the rest of the population was already taking control of the prison. The inmates established a self-governing society, making decisions by consensus and choosing leaders. Outside observers—radical lawyer William M. Kunstler, New York Times columnist Tom Wicker, and Black Panther Party chairman Bobby Seale—were brought in to see the conditions and oversee talks.

They acted as go-betweens, passing along demands that included immunity from retaliation and basic human rights. The standoff ended on September 13, 1971, when a force of 1,000 state troopers, sheriff's deputies, correction officers, and National Guard members stormed the prison under Governor Nelson Rockefeller's order to shoot without restraint. The raid left 29 inmates and 10 hostage officers dead. Rockefeller, who had presidential ambitions, refused the inmates' and negotiators' requests to come to the prison and seek a peaceful end.

Though many demands seemed close to being met, the assault was greenlit after talks on amnesty hit a dead end and fears grew for the hostages' safety. Early in the uprising, some prisoners attacked officers they disliked; one guard, William Quinn, died from a head injury and was then trampled. After that, the hostages were treated decently. Following a helicopter's tear gas drop, troopers fired roughly 2,000 rounds indiscriminately.

Once the shooting ceased, many inmates were beaten and tortured, hundreds were badly wounded and initially refused medical care, and the shooter of inmate Michael Smith remains unknown. The mistreatment of prisoners persisted well after the prison was retaken.