so there were a lot of movies like Easy Rider, Billy Jack the "Then came Bronson" tv series. so you might be missing the point that the prison is society and this is a guy who is disillusioned with society type stuff.

That was the movie zeitgeist at the time and often enough it came across as kind of cheesy. So yeah, if you watch it then you probably knew what was going on, now, not so much, especially when the characters were still updates on the indomitable cowboy, also a lost, or discredited character.

It's also a little disengenuous in that it takes the experience of black characters and transposes them to white characters b/c A) the former wouldn't suceed at the box office B) You get Paul Newman in a buddy flick (Paul also gets anti-hero credits) I mean, you know that thoughts there what I call a veiled plot.

Anyway, all this is to point out how many keys are lost when you see an old movie.