Rating: NR
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 05/23/2005
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 99 min
Flags: Rape & Sexual Abuse
Distributor/Studio: Vci Video
Born Innocent, originally telecast September 9, 1974, concerns the plight of a teenaged reform-school inmate, played by
Linda Blair in her first important post-
Exorcist role. Committed for being a habitual runaway,
Blair is, for all her surface toughness, unworldly and naïve. All this changes in the reformatory, with
Blair rapidly becoming as hard, callous, and irredeemable as her fellow detentionees. Even upon her probationary release, she shows no sign of being "cured" by her incarceration. The film's most notorious scene --
Blair's rape by broom-handle -- was all the more horrifying because there was no pre-show warning issued by the network. So disturbing was the sequence that it was removed from all subsequent network telecasts of
Born Innocent.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This 1974 made-for-television exposé still packs quite a dramatic punch despite its age. The reason
Born Innocent remains effective is because it manages to criticize the juvenile reform system and the parents who send their children there without ever lapsing into preachiness or one-sided judgments. There are no villains in this film, just mistreated and misguided souls.
Born Innocent also has a superb cast of actors who give strong but naturalistic performances;
Linda Blair takes the top honors with her subtle, heartbreaking performance as a girl who transforms from a troubled innocent into a hardened troublemaker, but there are equally effective turns from
Joanna Miles as the one caring teacher and
Richard Jaeckel as the father who means well but is possessed of a terrible temper.
Gerald Di Pego's script gives these dimensional characters a solid but unobtrusive framework in which to interact, allowing tensions to simmer slowly but surely to a memorable finale. Director
Donald Wrye makes sure the horrific parts of the story pack a brutal punch -- like a terrifying confrontation between
Blair and her enemies in the shower room -- but he balances these moments with plenty of gentler character moments and creates a style that is surprisingly lyrical given the dark subject matter. In short,
Born Innocent is one of the more powerful made-for-television efforts of the 1970s.
~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
