Born Innocent

Born Innocent
by Donald Wrye

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DVD Reviews of Born Innocent

DVD Review: An Important and Powerful Film
Summary: 4 Stars

When this made for television film first aired on NBC in 1974, it produced a storm of controversy due to its graphic depiction of abuses in a State Home for Girls. Filmed on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the story chronicles the imprisonment and family life of 14 year old runaway Christine Parker, played by Linda Blair in an almost flawless performance. Intelligent and a good student, but confronted with an abusive father and alcoholic mother, she is a chronic runaway and is ultimately made a ward of the State at the behest of her parents. Christine is arrested by the local police and placed overnight in an adult jail, sharing a dormitory with adult inmates, an unfortunate practice that still continues to this day in some jurisdictions. From here she is transferred to a jail for juveniles, made a ward of the court and ulimately sent to a State Home for Girls, where she is subjected to numerous abuses, mainly by other residents at the Home, and culminating in her rape with the handle of a toilet scrubber brush by other female residents in her dormitory. The film manages to avoid predictable stereotypes in its portrayal of even the most predatory teenage residents. They are presented as multi-dimensional characters, disfunctional yet human.

Christine tries unsuccessfully to escape and is placed in the isolation unit. Here she confides to her teacher, played with exceptional ability by Joanna Miles, that she had been raped. The scene in which the teacher helps Christine to confide in her, talking to and holding Christine through the small opening in the isolation cell, is directed and performed with much sensitivity and skill, and is one of the most powerful scenes in the film.

Christine's teacher manages to obtain permission for Christine to be returned to her family on a trial basis, but her father becomes abusive again and Christine runs away to her brother who, preoccupied with his new wife and child, turns Christine over to the authorities. Returned to the State Home for Girls, Christine is disillusioned and almost without hope, but Christine's teacher has Christine paired off with another girl resident who is pregnant, and Christine's faith is briefly restored as she helps her friend with her pregnancy. This too ends tragically, as her friend hemorrhages while the two are in the isolation unit, after they are mistakenly believed to have started a fight in the messhall.

By the end of the film, there is little if anything for Christine to believe in, and seemingly no where to go. She becomes indistinguishable from the other residents in the institution, begins to manipulate staff, loses faith in her suppotive teacher and apparently with life as well.

It is to the film's credit that there are no typical villainous characters that can be conveniently blamed. The staff in the institution is portrayed without stereotype and as people who, for the most part, are well intentioned and supportive. Even the dormitory matron, played by Allyn Ann McLerie, who has Christine and her pregnant friend placed in isolation, is treated compassionately in the film as someone who is trying under very difficult conditions to maintain a semblance of order and to protect her charges. It is only clear that the circumstances of confinement and family life are at fault, but the film offers no easy or predictable answers.

Unfortunately, the packaging of the film on VHS and now on DVD does little to convey the quality and seriousness of the film. While its release on DVD is overdue, the film and actress deserve better than the DVD jacket with the drawing (which is not based on any scene in the movie) of Linda Blair as Christine posing seductively with her fly half open. Nonetheless, this is an outstanding and important film that is committed to uncompromising realism and honesty, and is not afraid to deviate from the typical formulas for movie making.