Best movies like Doing Life
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Doing Life Starring Tony Danza, Jon DeVries, J. Winston Carroll, Alvin Epstein, and more. If you liked Doing Life then you may also like: Unchained, Rosewater, Jailhouse Rock, Just Mercy, Attica and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Tony Danza stars in this prison drama about Jerome "Jerry" Rosenburg, a self-professed "jailhouse lawyer" who defends himself against the homicide charge that has put him on death row. This tense movie, made in Canada, has the feel of a biographical documentary.
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Rosewater
In 2009, Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was covering Iran's volatile elections for Newsweek. One of the few reporters living in the country with access to US media, he made an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in a taped interview with comedian Jason Jones. The interview was intended as satire, but if the Tehran authorities got the joke they didn't like it - and it would quickly came back to haunt Bahari when he was rousted from his family home and thrown into prison.
Jailhouse Rock
After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.
Just Mercy
The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.
Birdman of Alcatraz
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
The Chamber
Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall takes on the death row clemency case of his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall, a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met.
Clemency
Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.
Escape from Alcatraz
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.
The Last Castle
A court-martialed general rallies together 1200 inmates to rise against the system that put him away.
Lock Up
Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration was publicly humiliated by Leone, and has now arrived on the scene to ensure that Leone never sees the light of day.
Escape from Sobibor
The true story of WWII's notorious Sobibor Nazi death camp, where a courageous inmate orchestrates and leads the escape of over 300 prisoners.
The Escapist
Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to make peace with her before it's too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists - misfits with a mutual dislike for one other but united by their desire to escape their hell hole of an existence.
The Executioner's Song
In this fact-based made-for TV film, Gary Gilmore, an Indiana man who just finished serving a lengthy stay in prison, tries to start anew by moving to Utah. Before long, Gary begins an ill-advised romance with the troubled Nicole Baker, a teenage single mother. As their relationship quickly deteriorates, Gary goes on a murderous rampage, leaving two dead. During his trial, he demands capital punishment; a media circus ensues and outsiders look to profit from his story.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.
The Incident
Small town lawyer, Harmon Cobb, defends a Nazi prisoner of war against murder charges. Set during World War II, Cobb has to contend with the difficulties of defending the devil when the town's only doctor (Barnard Hughes) dies while at "Camp Bremen" in the fictitious town of Bremen, Colorado.
The Phantom
Carlos DeLuna was arrested in 1993 aged 21 for the murder of Wanda Lopez, and protested his innocence until his execution, declaring that it was another Carlos who committed the crime.
Return to Sender
While fighting for a woman who sits on death row, a lawyer happens upon new information which brings into question the motives of a man associated with her client
Born Again
Having been imprisoned for his part in the Watergate scandal, Charles Colson undergoes a religious conversion.
Crossed Over
After her son dies in a hit-and-run accident, a woman forms an unusual friendship with a convicted killer awaiting execution.
Better Off Dead.
A lawyer fights a losing battle against the courts to overturn the death sentence for a convicted female robber/murderer despite demands from the woman that her death sentence be carried out.
House of Women
An innocent, pregnant prison inmate (Shirley Knight) becomes the bad warden's (Andrew Duggan) personal favorite.
Convicts 4
After his death sentence is commuted to life in prison, John Resko is transferred from Sing-Sing to Dannemora where, with the help of a humane prison guard, he becomes a rehabilitated man and a successful painter.
Hardcase and Fist
When Bud McCall is framed for a drugs charge he ends up in prison and he must prove his innocence by testifying against his former police partner to put him and his gang behind bars for good.
Cell 2455 Death Row
A Death Row inmate uses his prison law studies to fight for his life. Based on a true story.
Black Site
A group of officers based in a labyrinthine top-secret prison must fight for their lives against Hatchet, a brilliant and infamous high-value detainee. When he escapes, his mysterious and deadly agenda has far reaching and dire consequences.
The Execution of Private Slovik
The story of Eddie Slovik, who was executed by the Army in 1945, the only American soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War.
Lady in the Death House
As a woman walks the "last mile" to her execution she remembers back to the incidents that got her framed for murder.
The Sun Sets at Dawn
A reporter investigates the story of a young man who may have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to be executed.
6,149 Days
Greg Taylor was convicted in 1993 for the murder of Jacquetta Thomas, who was beaten to death in 1992. Contributing factors to Taylor’s wrongful conviction included a rushed police investigation, evidence that was withheld from defense attorneys and misleading testimony that was presented to the jury. In 2010, after Taylor spent 16 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission dismissed the murder charge against him and he walked out of prison a free and innocent man.
Tony Danza stars in this prison drama about Jerome "Jerry" Rosenburg, a self-professed "jailhouse lawyer" who defends himself against the homicide charge that has put him on death row. This tense movie, made in Canada, has the feel of a biographical documentary.
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Doing Life Starring Tony Danza, Jon DeVries, J. Winston Carroll, Alvin Epstein, and more. If you liked Doing Life then you may also like: Unchained, Rosewater, Jailhouse Rock, Just Mercy, Attica and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Unchained
This fact-based prison drama tells the tale of a band of prisoners living in the innovative 2,600-acre prison at Chino, California. The place takes a humanistic approach to reform and there are no armed guards, no lockups and no uniforms. The underlying philosophy is that if these things are not there, the prisoners will not want to escape, and will instead accept their punishment. A new inmate arrives and soon accustoms himself to the new idea. The story includes the Oscar nominated song Unchained Melody.