The last of the five collaborations between director Don Siegel and producer/actor Clint Eastwood, Escape from Alcatraz isn't a great blockbuster action flick like Dirty Harry or an experiment like the Beguiled. It is more the former, if anything, and a crackerjack example at best of what to do in crafting suspense from the elements of basic despair in the mindset of men. Barely sentimental (the exception might be with the loss of painting privileges for one prisoner), the film is an examination of a cold system put on by hard-bitten prisoners who are stuck by what the character English says is "one huge count." It isn't a kind of existential struggle like A Man Escaped, nor a big bombastic crowd-pleaser like Shawshank Redemption either. But for its intended audience, which are fans of its perennial heroic star, and for the lean style from director Siegel, it's one always worth a look when it pops up on TV or if it remains sitting all by itself on the video shelf at the store.
Basics to know: Eastwood plays Frank Morris, a criminal who broke out of an Atlanta prison and got sent to Alcatraz, the most insurmountable prison ever constructed. But after taking enough guff from the exacting prison warden (McGoohan looks like he's not entirely acting, as if he's been a warden for years and years, which is why he's one of the most convincing of all movie wardens), getting stuck in the horror that is 'the hole', and seeing the damage done to fellow prisoners, he takes action through the crumbling wall of his grate. Among certain accepted- and refreshingly well done- prison movie clichés, we get the big fat brute (Bruce M Fishcer), the wise old inmate (Paul Benjamin, some of his are the subtlest scenes), and the determined but weak-in-the-spirit inmate (Larry Hanklin, a great character actor, one of those like Robert Schiavelli you can spot right away). And all the while, the storytelling goes at a pace that never rushes, never pushes against little details with Litmus or the visitors to the inmates.
If sometimes it doesn't give a little bit of exposition on some characters- like its protagonist (we never know how bad Eastwood really is or not, he just is, though unlike a Nicholson he never really exploits any kind of rebel posit)- and sometimes has a moment of suspense that can be seen right around the corner (a funny sound while digging, trouble with the disguised dummy heads in the beds), the climax practically makes up for any moments of conventionality. Especially if one isn't completely familiar with the real history behind the Alcatraz escape it cranks up to a high degree through the dark shadows of the prison innards and the outside at night. And it's also fascinating to see an indefinite point at the end of the film; it's the attempt that counts, not the total end result. A cool and effective thriller. 8.5/10
Basics to know: Eastwood plays Frank Morris, a criminal who broke out of an Atlanta prison and got sent to Alcatraz, the most insurmountable prison ever constructed. But after taking enough guff from the exacting prison warden (McGoohan looks like he's not entirely acting, as if he's been a warden for years and years, which is why he's one of the most convincing of all movie wardens), getting stuck in the horror that is 'the hole', and seeing the damage done to fellow prisoners, he takes action through the crumbling wall of his grate. Among certain accepted- and refreshingly well done- prison movie clichés, we get the big fat brute (Bruce M Fishcer), the wise old inmate (Paul Benjamin, some of his are the subtlest scenes), and the determined but weak-in-the-spirit inmate (Larry Hanklin, a great character actor, one of those like Robert Schiavelli you can spot right away). And all the while, the storytelling goes at a pace that never rushes, never pushes against little details with Litmus or the visitors to the inmates.
If sometimes it doesn't give a little bit of exposition on some characters- like its protagonist (we never know how bad Eastwood really is or not, he just is, though unlike a Nicholson he never really exploits any kind of rebel posit)- and sometimes has a moment of suspense that can be seen right around the corner (a funny sound while digging, trouble with the disguised dummy heads in the beds), the climax practically makes up for any moments of conventionality. Especially if one isn't completely familiar with the real history behind the Alcatraz escape it cranks up to a high degree through the dark shadows of the prison innards and the outside at night. And it's also fascinating to see an indefinite point at the end of the film; it's the attempt that counts, not the total end result. A cool and effective thriller. 8.5/10