L'évadé d'Alcatraz

Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGooghan, Roberts Blossom, and Paul Benjamin.

Eastwood is Frank Morris, who, with the two Anglin brothers (their names were changed for the film) contrived the most elaborate scheme ever to escape "The Rock."

Their bodies were never found, and a photo surfaced some years later of the brothers in Brazil. The escape, plus Alcatraz's bad reputation, helped it close less than a year later.

The movie gives a good idea of the horrors of prison life, and particularly the horrors of Alcatraz. Frankly, I don't think the escapees cared if they died. I'm sure anything was better than being in Alcatraz.

Escape from Alcatraz is old-fashioned in that it has the art of the buildup, something lost in today's scripts. Today you must get to the point of your story in the first ten minutes. A film, for instance, like San Francisco where the earthquake happens toward the end would be a no-no.

So we see the preparations, and they're impressive - papier mache heads with hair stolen from the barber shop to fool the guards into thinking they were asleep, digging out a grill at the back of the cell and putting a false grill up to fool the guards; welding a digging tool together with silver from a dime; the making of a raft; playing music while digging to hide the noise (though this really isn't shown). It was painstaking.

Patrick McGoohan plays the warden, who, like all film prison wardens, is a horror show. When he sees a portrait of himself in a cell, he takes away the painting privileges of one of the inmates, Doc. When he finds out two inmates are talking cell to cell, he demands that they be separated.

Actually, at the time of the escape, the warden was Olin Blackwell, considered the most lenient warden Alcatraz had ever had. And by then, inmates were performing music (shown in the film), and had weekend movies (also shown).

Clint Eastwood, heavier than we've seen him in years, does an excellent job as Frank Morris, low-key but lethal. There isn't a tremendous amount of dialogue, but with his great presence and Frank's quiet leadership, we really don't need it.

Recommended for a gritty look at life on Alcatraz, and the fascinating escape.

An excellent second half of this film elevates it overall as the Alcatraz inmates plan and then execute their escape, narrowly missing several disastrous occurrences. The suspense during those scenes is outstanding.

Clint Eastwood is good as the fairly low-key character "Frank Morris" and most of the inmates are likable guys (which was highly unlikely in real life).

For tourists of San Francisco (of which I was one about five years ago), I would recommend taking the Alcatraz tour. It's fascinating and makes this movie even more interesting once you've seen the place. I notice the people here at IMDb make the same recommendation on the title page of this film.

Much of the rest of the cast are not well-known actors but they do a fine job in here. This is one of director Don Siegel's final films. He worked with Eastwood on "Coogan's Bluff" and then "Dirty Harry."

Transfer-wise, the DVD was not that impressive, a bit too grainy for the usual standards. However, the story is always interesting and the movie is definitely recommended.

And Escape from Alcatraz is a great movie. Based on a true story, it's one of those rare films that doesn't contain endless mindless fight scenes, overt homo eroticism, impossible action scenes, cartoon like special effects that film makers seem to be overly obsessed about these days. Somebody on the board asked if they should do a re-make of the film. NO!!!! Escape from Alcatraz is excellent as it is. The film is all suspense and great acting. The prison scenes realistic. I'd been to Alcatraz before (as a tourist) and a lot of it is in ruins but the film makes it look like the prison is still intact.

I know some people may find the film dull, well that's fine. Go elsewhere and watch your cartoon action films. I'll stick with cool films like Escape from Alcatraz.

I first went on the evening tour of Alcatraz Island which I'd highly recommend, the prison was cast in a dark gloom which seemed appropriate as we walked around the jail cells and listened to many interesting facts on the audio tour, walked the grounds, and heard about the escape depicted in the move. Naturally, I had to go see this movie...

Watching the movie, I was very impressed with how accurate the movie mirrored what my sense of prison life and the escape would be like based on my impressions of the prison and the island during the tour. Having had walked around the space of the prison in the dim evening light really enhanced my sense of the movie's environment.

Small details like the painting of black shadows for sharp tools that they shared in the tour were also present in the movie, very authentic. The lack of action per se perfectly captures the actual mood of the prison, where boredom reigned, and I thought the film balanced this well with an entertaining cast of characters and well-timed action. Eastwood's silently intense attitude was a good fit for the role and the drama and atmosphere of the escape scene was done perfectly.

In short, I'd highly recommend the evening tour on Alcatraz, followed by a viewing of "Escape from Alcatraz", you will not be disappointed.

If there was ever an inmate who was destined to escape from Alcatraz, it was Frank Lee Morris. In the movie entitled "Escape from Alcatraz" starring actor Clint Eastwood, Morris was accurately portrayed as the keen and brilliant mastermind of one of the most famous prison escapes in history. The escape plan took nearly seven months to design, and it would necessitate the fabrication of clever decoys and water survival gear.

F L Morris had spent a lifetime navigating the prison system before his arrival on Alcatraz. From his infant years until his teens Morris was shuffled from one foster home to another, and he was convicted of his first crime at the youthful age of only thirteen. By the time he reached his later teens, Morris' criminal record would include a multitude of crimes ranging from narcotics possession to armed robbery, and he had become a professional inhabitant of the correctional system. He spent his formative years in a boys' training school, and then graduated.

Morris was credited by prison officials as possessing superior intelligence, and he earned his ticket to Alcatraz by building an impressive resume of escapes.

Frank's accomplices in the "Great Escape" were equally well acquainted with the dark world of organized crime. Brothers John and Clarence Anglin were also serving sentences at Alcatraz for bank robbery, having been convicted along with their brother Alfred. All three had been incarcerated at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta when they first became acquainted with Morris, and John and Clarence were eventually sent to Alcatraz following a sequence of attempted escapes.

i wud love to explain in detail but then....

After months of long preparation the inmates had completed fashioning all of the gear they needed for their escape, This what Clint had really shown his acting by the Direction of Siegel! I love the entire detail structure of the movie and wud be on my favo's...i have almost watched it more than 15times!!and Will do too...