Watch Weeds (1987) Free Online

Release Date: 1987

Cast: Rita Taggart, Mark Rolston, Nick Nolte, Joe Mantegna, William Forsythe, Lane Smith, Ernie Hudson, John Toles-Bey, Anne Ramsey

Categories: Movies, Prison, Crime Fiction, Biopic [feature]

Weeds is a 1987 American drama film about a prison inmate who writes a play that catches the attention of a visiting reporter. The film was directed by John D. Hancock, and stars Nick Nolte, Ernie Hudson, and Rita Taggart. Lee Umstetter (Nick Nolte) is in San Quentin for armed robbery serving "life without possibility" -- that is, with no chance of parole. After two failed suicide attempts, Lee begins to read books from the prison library. He attends a performance of Waiting for Godot given for the prisoners and is deeply moved. He begins to write plays about imprisonment and then stages... MORE

Weeds is a 1987 American drama film about a prison inmate who writes a play that catches the attention of a visiting reporter. The film was directed by John D. Hancock, and stars Nick Nolte, Ernie Hudson, and Rita Taggart. Lee Umstetter (Nick Nolte) is in San Quentin for armed robbery serving "life without possibility" -- that is, with no chance of parole. After two failed suicide attempts, Lee begins to read books from the prison library. He attends a performance of Waiting for Godot given for the prisoners and is deeply moved. He begins to write plays about imprisonment and then stages them, too. One is a social-protest musical extravaganza about life in the penitentiary, which attracts visitors and earns Lee the regard of a San Francisco theatre reviewer (Rita Taggart) who persuades the governor to release him. Lee organises an acting troupe made up of former cons -- a shoplifter (William Forsythe), a murderer (Ernie Hudson), an embezzler (Lane Smith), a smart pimp (John Toles-Bey), a flasher (Mark Rolston), and others. Lee's work doesn't make the same impact outside the prison as it did inside. Touring in a camper, with no money, the men are torn by impulses to revert to their LESS