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After participating as an actor in the Coen brothers' films "Fargo" and "The Big Lebowski," Steve Buscemi thought it wise to get behind the camera. Thus, Animal Factory was born, based on the 1977 novel of the same name written by Edward Bunker. The actor/filmmaker enlists the presence of Edward Furlong, made famous by the success of a film like American History X, and Willem Dafoe.
Animal Factory tells the story of Ron (Edward Furlong), who in San Quentin Prison, California, forms a friendship with the influential Earl (Willem Dafoe). Their objective, a typical cliché of films describing this kind of reality, is escape. They want nothing more than to escape from that place of oppression. A gray area in which men can transform into animals to satisfy their desires. An example of this is the attempted rape of Ron by another prisoner, unable to "conceal" his sexual urges. Another demonstration of how individuals confined in a place for an extended time can react is Ron's dazzling decision to act out for the slight of the attempted rape.
In the film, more properly inside the prison, the figure of Earl, a veteran of the place and friend of several prison officials, takes on great importance. When he notices the young new arrival Ron's difficulties, he decides to take him under his wing, aware of the psychological turmoil a new prisoner faces.
In describing the difficulties, moods, and violence within the prison structure, Buscemi does his job diligently, also delineating his characters psychologically with a certain narrative coherence. However, Animal Factory lacks something fundamental. Buscemi wanted to faithfully retrace Bunker's book and the result is a representation of the atmosphere and events of the work the film is based on. The emotions are missing; the emotional events that could heighten the viewer's level of attention are missing. Indeed, the entire story takes on almost documentary-like connotations of what it's like to live inside a prison. But the conditions are shown to us every day by the mass media, everyone knows the problems inmates are forced to face.
Even the father/son relationship that develops between Ron and Earl does not elevate the film to any particular level, but the representation Buscemi provides is, though devoid of emotions, consistent and faithful to Bunker's pages. A pleasant film in which Willem Dafoe's performance stands out, authoritarian yet at the same time a man of common sense, "softened" by the place in which he is forced to live.
A film that has its own reflection in the ending. Something goes well, something does not...
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