Rent Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

A true story and a powerful prison/crime thriller - Escape from Alcatraz review by Philip in Paradiso

With Clint Eastwood in the lead, it is the true story of 3 men who, in the early 1960s, staged the only successful escape from Alcatraz prison, on the island sitting in the middle of the Bay of San Francisco. (It is no longer a prison.) No one knows what actually happened to the 3 fugitives after they broke out of the jail, but they certainly succeeded in escaping.

The film is a great classic of the genre, full of gripping suspense, even though one knows the broad storyline. It is exceedingly realistic and has not aged at all (the movie was made in the late 1970s). A great movie.

Great Prison Escape Drama - Escape from Alcatraz review by GI

A great prison escape drama based on real events and the last collaboration between Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel. Typical of both star and director it's a film that doesn't waste anything, it's a taut, well told story with an occasionally clumsy script moment and interestingly it isn't structured as a star vehicle considering Eastwood's box office pull in the 70s. Shot on the actual Alcatraz island this tells the story of the escape by three men, Frank Morris (Eastwood) and the Anglin brothers (Fred Ward & Jack Thibeau) who managed to burrow out of their cells and with makeshift life rafts disappear into the San Francisco Bay. Not only is their plans for the escape create the usual tense drama as discovery is always potentially possible but Siegel also has time to deviate away to reveal the sort of life at Alcatraz as a maximum security prison was for the prisoners. To ensure the film sides with the escapees (and to some extent the prisoners in general) the story creates a fictional head warden played with delicious nastiness by Patrick McGoohan. His casual coldness to all things exemplified in his crushing of the emblematic flower which is part of the narrative centring on the character of Doc (Roberts Blossom) who acts as the films heart. Interesting story in a lean and well made film and a solid Eastwood performance. Definitely a film to seek out if you've never seen it.