Touchstone stumbled with this unbelievable and interminable saga of an ordinary Joe, framed by bent cops to cover themselves after an unfortunate and near-fatal coincidence, who survives imprisonment to seek justice and revenge. Tom Selleck as the titular victim Jimmie Rainwood is a sympathetic straight arrow schlemiel put in a hopeless position, but the treatment and growing corn are so routine as to render this more suitable for TV, expunged of the absurdly bad language put into every mouth in an attempt to be tough.
Prison, of course, is hell, with the usual cast of psychopaths and beasts. Racism and dubious morality enter when Rainwood is "forced" to kill a rapacious inmate. Under the tutelage of seasoned con F. Murray Abraham our boy becomes cock of the prison while his faithful wife is fruitlessly chasing justice, so when he is paroled as if by magic, he determines to take on the bad guys in the manner he has learned inside the Big House. Patient Selleck fans may enjoy the slam bam action finale.