Against the Wall (1994)

Filmmaking legend John Frankenheimer nabbed a Director’s Guild nomination for Against the Wall (1994), his made-for-TV docudrama about the infamous Attica prison uprising of 1971. Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan stars as Michael Smith, a prison service recruit who’s unaware of the tensions on the block that are about to explode into physical violence. When angry inmates storm through the facility, taking officers and civilians hostage, Smith realizes that misconduct by prison authorities has laid the groundwork for an event that will prove to be the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War. Frankenheimer’s subject isn’t the world’s sexiest, but he does get some mileage out of costar Anne Heche, who does her best to calm hubby Smith down with her flesh treasures in the moonlit after-hours.