This true crime drama about the 1978 prison break of murderer Gary Tison plays like a standard made-for-television drama.
At the start of the film, the character of Tison comes across as a wise guy spouting off one-liners like "B. F. Goodrich is a good tire," just as the tire is about to go flat on the getaway car.
Tison's escape from the Arizona prison was not due so much to his planning or the assistance he received from his fawning sons. Rather, the prison conditions were lax and the officials in charge were incompetent. After Tison and another inmate, Randy Greenawalt, escape, Tison demands complete loyalty from his sons, who become accessories to murder after Tison and Greenawalt kill six innocent people in cold blood.
The filmmakers tried unsuccessfully to raise this tawdry crime drama to a biblical level. The film opens with a quote from Exodus about wrath of the God of the Old Testament: "I, the Lord Thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me."
Unfortunately, the scope of the film was not biblical, but filled only with pathos coming from a dysfunctional family. Tison was undone when he disrupted his escape plans to search for his brother whom he wanted to kill. The filmmakers probably want this to appear like the story of Cain and Abel, when Tison asserts that "Blood calls to blood, and blood answers back." But the final result was no more than the saga of a demented loser, willing to sacrifice the lives of his sons to save his own hide.
It was the brother's tip about the Econoline truck driven by Tison and his boys that sealed his doom. The true motto of the sleazy Tison was not about "blood," but about cowardice, when, in dire straits, he yells, "Every man for himself!" So much for blood, family values, and paternal concern for his sons!
At the start of the film, the character of Tison comes across as a wise guy spouting off one-liners like "B. F. Goodrich is a good tire," just as the tire is about to go flat on the getaway car.
Tison's escape from the Arizona prison was not due so much to his planning or the assistance he received from his fawning sons. Rather, the prison conditions were lax and the officials in charge were incompetent. After Tison and another inmate, Randy Greenawalt, escape, Tison demands complete loyalty from his sons, who become accessories to murder after Tison and Greenawalt kill six innocent people in cold blood.
The filmmakers tried unsuccessfully to raise this tawdry crime drama to a biblical level. The film opens with a quote from Exodus about wrath of the God of the Old Testament: "I, the Lord Thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me."
Unfortunately, the scope of the film was not biblical, but filled only with pathos coming from a dysfunctional family. Tison was undone when he disrupted his escape plans to search for his brother whom he wanted to kill. The filmmakers probably want this to appear like the story of Cain and Abel, when Tison asserts that "Blood calls to blood, and blood answers back." But the final result was no more than the saga of a demented loser, willing to sacrifice the lives of his sons to save his own hide.
It was the brother's tip about the Econoline truck driven by Tison and his boys that sealed his doom. The true motto of the sleazy Tison was not about "blood," but about cowardice, when, in dire straits, he yells, "Every man for himself!" So much for blood, family values, and paternal concern for his sons!