Escape from Alcatraz (1979) * * * 1/2

 

 

Directed by:  Don Siegel

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau, Roberts Blossom, Paul Benjamin, Larry Hankin, Bruce M. Fischer, Frank Ronzio

Frank Morris (Eastwood) is sentenced to spend the rest of his sentence in Alcatraz federal penitentiary circa 1962 after escaping from other prisons,  Upon his first meeting with Warden Dollison (McGoohan), Dollison tells Morris that "no one has ever escaped from Alcatraz, and no one ever will,"  The warden thinks this is a deterring sentence.  Morris takes it as a challenge and spends the rest of his time there digging through the prison's weakened walls and with help of fellow prisoners John and Clarence Anglin (Ward and Thibeau), devising a plan to escape Alcatraz.  

Of course, even if they get beyond the walls, they need to get off the island and swim one mile plus to the mainland in freezing, choppy waters.  The escape is a fool's errand, but the prisoners figure it beats the alternative of spending the rest of their days in prison.  Morris' file lists him as having a superior intellect, and he also finds a way to be handy with the small tools on hand, many of which are helpfully available in the prison's woodworking facility.  One of the prisoners, Doc (Blossom) is a skilled painter whose painting privileges are removed by the sadistic warden and decides to chop off his own fingers in response.  I think providing hardened, violent criminals with access to a hatchet is probably a bad idea. 

Eastwood's Frank Morris is a strong, silent man of few words but who is always observing and thinking.  He's so smart, we wonder how he's not a scientist working to cure diseases instead of a lifelong criminal, but Escape from Alcatraz is based on a true story of three prisoners who indeed escaped The Rock in 1962.  There whereabouts from there were never determined.  Were they likely drowned in the bay?  No matter, the escapes led to Alcatraz being closed forever in 1963 and turned into a popular tourist attraction.  

Eastwood's innate intelligence makes Morris compelling, and most of the movie captures the rhythms of daily prison life where Tollison runs a tight ship and Morris evades the advances of rapist Wolf (Fischer), who has chosen Morris to be his future victim, which of course ain't going to happen to Morris.  Escape from Alcatraz is populated with perhaps the most likable group of violent criminals in movie history until The Shawshank Redemption came along fifteen years later.  But, Escape from Alcatraz is told with suspenseful skill and we find ourselves rooting against the warden, whose job is to "make good prisoners, not good citizens," and is actually on the right side of the law.  Then again, so was Sheriff Buford T. Justice and we found ourselves enjoying the Bandit making a fool out of him.