Disregard the upbeat-sounding title. This is a grim and harrowing docu-drama, slowly steered along by its director, about the horrendous treatment of inmates at an institution for the criminally insane. Oldman is just fine (as is his - localised - American accent) as Emmett, a Korean War veteran who is sent to Chattahoochee after going berserk and shooting up the neighbourhood. Gradually coming to his senses inside, he befriends another 'patient' (Hopper) and begins a furtive campaign of letters to his sister (Reed) to try for publicity of the weekly beatings and torture to which the inmates have to submit at the hands of sadistic guards. It's horrifying to realise that something out of medieval times could still exist as recently as 1955 (Emmett didn't get out until 1959). But the film perhaps over-emphasises these conditions, making the catalogue of filth and ill-treatment too much for the eye.

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