Escape From Alcatraz (DVD)

...no one has managed to escape from the prison alive and that he should accept his sentence and try and earn the privilege of getting a job within the walls. As he sets about serving out his sentence and keeping his head down, he makes acquaintances with little Italian Litmus, who keeps a pet mouse, and Doc, an elderly convict who lives for his painting. His arrival also comes to the attention of prison thug, Wolf, who takes a fancy to him and approaches ...
...of inmates, their plans to escape are hurriedly moved forward.


Before the success of The Shawshank Redemption, and before Alcatraz became the focus of military action in The Rock, there was Escape From Alcatraz, featuring Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood. Based upon the real life events, surrounding the supposedly only successful escape attempt by a group of inmates from the infamous American prison. The outcome of which was ... more

After being transferred to the maximum security prison of Alcatraz from Atlanta, bank robber, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) is soon introduced to the bleakness of the island penitentiary. Informed by the stern Warden (Patrick McGoohan), that no one has managed to escape from the prison alive and that he should accept his sentence and try and earn the privilege of getting a job within the walls. As he sets about serving out his sentence and keeping his head down, he makes acquaintances with little Italian Litmus, who keeps a pet mouse, and Doc, an elderly convict who lives for his painting. His arrival also comes to the attention of prison thug, Wolf, who takes a fancy to him and approaches him is the communal showers in the hope of scaring him into providing sexual favours. Wolf's sexual advances are met with a quick violent response which sees him lying prostrate on the floor, with a bar of soap inserted into this mouth. Annoyed by this unceremonious beating, Wolf attempts to take revenge on the prisons courtyard, but fails, resulting with them both thrown into solitary confinement.

After his spell in the dark cells of solitary confinement, Frank is returned to his cell and manages to earn a job in the prison workshop with new inmate Charley Butts (Larry Hankin) along with the surprise arrival of the Anglin brothers, old friends from his time in the Atlanta prison. After a time, he finds a weakness in the old walls of his cell, caused by the salty sea air and hatches a plan with the aid of his three close inmates to stage an audacious escape. But with the return of an angry Wolf after six months in solitary and the warden who was becoming increasingly suspicious of the tight knit group of inmates, their plans to escape are hurriedly moved forward.

Before the success of The Shawshank Redemption, and before Alcatraz became the focus of military action in The Rock, there was Escape From Alcatraz, featuring Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood. Based upon the real life events, surrounding the supposedly only successful escape attempt by a group of inmates from the infamous American prison. The outcome of which was a contributory factor which caused the closure of the prison just a year later, as they realized the prison was in a seriously dilapidated condition and was no longer viable as a non money making facility. I say supposedly successful escape attempt, because they were never found alive or dead, so there is no proof to the validity of the story.

Released back in 1979, Escape from Alcatraz attempts to paint a realistic picture of life on Alcatraz, even though it does come across slightly watered down. Compared to the epic The Shawshank Redemption, which dwelled on each grizzly aspect of time on the inside, Escape from Alcatraz may be perceived as poor relative. But considering its age, Escape from Alcatraz is a very good film, which uses many subtle techniques to convey the atmosphere and story, which modern day films seem to ignore. Straight from the opening sequence, involving the arrival of Frank to the prison, you realize that this film is going to be slightly different to other film from this genre and era. For the 5 minute duration of the opening sequence, we get introduced to the bleak and miserable world of Alcatraz through the sounds of the beating rain and the sound effects of the handcuffs around Frank's wrists; there is no dialogue at all. This use of vocal silence, substituted by the sounds of items within the scene is used through out the whole movie and really helps to demonstrate what a miserable life it was in the prison. The actual dialogue when used is not the typical cliché ridden text that is the main stay of a lot of movies and at times shows a real intelligence in what is being said. On the subject of sound, it should be mentioned that this film does not use a soundtrack other than the opening and closing credits. This also aids the film in not only setting the mood of the film but also allows the film to create a strange sense of suspense and drama. Admittedly, I found this lack of soundtrack a bit unnerving to start with, but it really does help to make Escape from Alcatraz that little bit special.

Escape from Alcatraz came at a point in Clint Eastwood's career, where he was venturing into roles where he was not necessarily a gun totting force to be reckoned with. In this film, although he was playing a typical strong silent type, he was able to demonstrate his skills as an actor in areas we had not seen from him before. Although his performance is convincing and captivating, it lacks some of the class he has demonstrated in more recent movies and at times he relies heavily on his tough guy image rather than his acting ability. The film also has some great characters such as the stern warden played by Patrick McGoohan, as well as Fred Ward as one of the Anglin brothers. But in all honesty, the focus of the film is the character of Frank Morris, and it is a testimony to Eastwood's ability as an actor that this film is as good as it is.

Escape from Alcatraz was the fifth and final collaboration between director Don Siegel and actor Clint Eastwood, having previously worked together on both the Spaghetti Westerns and the Dirty Harry films. This final collaboration proved that Siegel and Eastwood knew how to get the best from each other and in my opinion, although not their most famous of joint efforts, it demonstrated their abilities to a much a greater extent than their previous efforts. In the same way that Eastwood was experimenting with this different sort of role, Siegel was experimenting with a slightly unorthodox way of creating atmosphere and drama by dispatching with the soundtrack and overlong dialogues. This resulted in a rather unsettling film, with long periods of silence, but in reality it was remarkably effective in getting over the point of how depressing the atmosphere on Alcatraz really was.

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The Cast
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Clint Eastwood .... Frank Morris
Patrick McGoohan .... Warden
Fred Ward .... John Anglin
Jack Thibeau .... Clarence Anglin
Larry Hankin .... Charley Butts
Bruce M. Fischer .... Wolf
Frank Ronzio .... Litmus
Roberts Blossom .... Doc
Paul Benjamin .... English

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Technical Details
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Genre: Drama/Thriller
Certificate: 15
Length: 107 mins
Originally released: 1979
Language: English, German
Sub Titles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
Hearing Impaired: English
Ratio: Widescreen

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Bonus Material
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It is no surprise seeing that this film is over 25 years old, and that director Don Siegel passed away in 1991, that there is no bonus material on the disc.

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The Message

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There is no real message in this film, although it does demonstrate the bleakness of life that inmates of Alcatraz suffered on a daily basis along with some of the harsh practices they suffered at the hands of the prison guards and wardens.

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Conclusion

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Although Escape from Alcatraz is now over 25 years old and has been surpassed by the truly magnificent Shawshank Redemption, it is still a remarkable piece of cinema, considering the era that it was made in. The fact that it is based upon a true story adds to it's appeal, especially as it manages to maintain a gritty realism about it. Compared to modern movies, it does feel very dated and in all honestly would only appeal to hardened fans of Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel. This is a shame, as it is a master class in film making which does not necessarily follow the rules set out by other Hollywood movies of this genre.

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Price and Availability
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Amazon - £6.97
Play.com - £6.99
Tesco.com - £11.99
Whsmith - £10.65

It is also available on Amazon as part of a pack deal with the 1962 movie "Birdman of Alcatraz" for £13.94.
 

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