Escape from Alcatraz

1979 "No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz… and no one ever will!"
7.6| 1h53m| PG| en
Details

San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

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Reviews

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
alexanderdavies-99382 "Escape from Alcatraz" was the last time Clint Eastwood worked with Don Siegel after a gap of 8 years. Most of the cast aren't very well known except for Patrick McGoohan, who is outstanding as the cold and austere prison governor. He and Clint Eastwood make for an excellent combination in the scenes they share. If McGoohan was hoping to intimidate Eastwood, it wasn't working! The low key approach works best for this film. The whole thing is very good, with a suitably ambiguous ending.Don Siegel's direction is amongst his best.
edwagreen Alcatraz with its boast then no one ever escaped from it forms the basis of the true story of the men who did. Even though the ending is not satisfying, we have a true gritty film with Clint Eastwood leading a plan with others to get away.Naturally, we have the hard-nosed warden played with precision by Patrick McGoohan. His insensitivity and cruelty alone shall drive you to root for the potential escapees.How they plan their get-away is a story within itself even as the warden becomes increasingly suspicious. They just jump the gun and while their fate is unknown until this very day, we may actually applaud their efforts.
SnoopyStyle It's 1960 San Francisco. Bank robber Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) has tried too many escapes and is brought to Alcatraz where no one has ever escaped from. He befriends Litmus with his mouse and becomes Wolf's enemy. English (Paul Benjamin) runs the library. It turns out that English is the top among the blacks. Charley Butts moves into the next cell. Brothers Clarence Anglin and John Anglin (Fred Ward) join Frank in Alcatraz after a failed escape.It's a nice prison movie with all the horrors that entails and an escape scheme. It's a bit slow and lacks a truly scary opponent. The warden is nothing special. Patrick McGoohan doesn't have enough threatening presence. Wolf is too soft and goes away for much of the movie. I wish more is done with the antagonists of the movie. Nevertheless, it's a good escape movie. Clint is at the top of his game.
d_in_chi Much like some of the best horror/thriller films rely on what you don't see, "Escape from Alcatraz" engages with suspense that almost never exists, and does so to great effect.Eastwood turns in his standard Eastwood performance as Frank Morris, an unassuming and intelligent prisoner whose most heinous criminal acts seem to be breaking out of prisons, for which he is sent to the "inescapable" Alcatraz. Needless to say, he plots to escape (of course, Eastwood would do this no matter what character he's playing), with the help of a few prisoners he befriends, two of whom he knows from a stint in a Georgia prison and followed his coattails to the Rock.By "standard Eastwood" I mean that he plays the character like an expert violinist, but at any moment you know he could make you wet your pants just by asking if you feel lucky; one of few actors (Pesci, Spacey) that can masterfully exist simultaneously as actor and character. Real life Frank Morris likely did not have the intimidating presence of Eastwood, but no guns are drawn or staredowns initiated, so we stick to story but are able to romanticize it ourselves.All the standard prison film tropes (rape, racism, the elderly prisoner) are handled beautifully to establish the prison mood while furthering the story and not hindering the pacing of the movie. All but a few prison movies would be improved by copying and pasting this film's use of the tropes into their own overarching stories. If this film were made today, even with an equally outstanding cast, I fear it would likely fall victim to being forced over the top with superfluous "Gotcha!" scenes, choreographed group fights, sharks, bad weather, maybe a shark/weather hybrid, and so forth. This is not a film that will have you on the edge of your seat or excite you at any time, and that's a good thing. The story is executed realistically, forcing you to generate far more suspense in your mind than is given on screen, which is very minimal and peaks during a routine cell check, with the warden opening the case of Frank's accordion while sitting inches away from the hole in the cell wall.The subtlety may be a bit over the top itself (even for real life), as the actual escape left me generating numerous near-capture scenarios in my head, making the finale somewhat anticlimactic. Though the setting, characters and story were portrayed so well that it didn't matter much, and the film's (and real life's) final question leaves the right type of open end that gives ample suspense.This film doesn't blow you away but it is gripping and highly enjoyable. I have a pessimistic/critical nature and make a habit of looking for things I don't like in books, movies, etc. I know I've watched a very good movie when the best I can come up with is "I wish there were one more scene with the warden" or "Why wouldn't Morris introduce himself unless asked his name?" And neither of those really matter. Unless you count "Cuckoo's Nest," this is my favorite prison movie.