Country: United States
Genre: Drama
Director: Don Siegel
Year: 1979
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Escape From Alcatraz is that most old-fashioned of things — a suspense picture with no action to speak of. Filmed on location, you’re constantly aware that there’s nowhere to run or hide. The cells themselves are the size of a walk-in closet. The walkway between the cells is about as wide as a driveway. At any time, the nearest hack or bull is only 25 feet away.
The claustrophobia is as thick as the fog on the bay. Escape From Alcatraz does a great job of making you feel the tedium of prison life, the oppressiveness of constantly being watched, the passage of time like the drip, drip, drip of Chinese water torture.
Characters are quickly and efficiently sketched. Menace, danger, and boredom are established along the way, but the main business of Escape From Alcatraz is detailing the ingenious strategies that ringleader Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood), John Anglin (Fred Ward), Clarence Anglin (Jack Thibeau), and Charley Butts (Larry Hankin) employ to attempt to escape from the Rock.
The obstacles are laid out in an expository scene between Frank Morris and English (Paul Benjamin), made more palatable by some amusing race-baiting. The guards do a roll call 12 times a day, it takes 10 hours to swim to San Francisco because of the currents, the icy San Francisco Bay will give you hypothermia in a matter of minutes, and so on.
The fun is in watching how Frank Morris and his fellow conspirators swipe the necessary materials from their prison jobs, manufacture elaborate props, and devise a way out of their cells, all under the noses of their jailers, who watch them like hawks. They’re always within seconds of being caught, and this goes on for WEEKS.
Adding to the urgency of the situation for Frank Morris is two factors: the warden (the unctously loathsome Patrick McGoohan) is determined to break Frank; and the hulking lifer Wolf (Bruce M. Fischer) is determined to make Frank his butt buddy, kill him or both (ewwww).
The only problem with Escape From Alcatraz for modern audiences is that there is little or no relief from the tension of the picture. There are only a few moments of violence, and while they may provide momentary relief, these incidents actually serve to increase the tension overall, not lessen it. You are never allowed to relax, not even for a minute.
If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!
« God of Gamblers II - And You Thought Kungfu Hustle Was Broad Comedy | Home | Shanghai Grand - Fate Throws A Party »
Related posts:
- Two Mules For Sister Sara - An Odd Couple
- Hereafter - Supernatural Bait and Switch
- Changeling - The Good Old Days
- The Eiger Sanction - Another Day At The Office
- The Outlaw Josey Wales - Moving Past Vengeance
- The Shootist - Riding Off Into The Sunset
- Silkwood - Trailer Trash Mom Sticks Her Neck Out
- A Fistful Of Dollars - Yojimbo In The Wild West
- Pale Rider - Another High Plains Drifter
- Hang ‘Em High - Frontier Justice
