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| The sparse but effective poster for Don Siegel's Escape from Alcatraz |
Frank Morris arrives at the maximum security prison at San Francisco's Alcatraz Island and soon learns that he does not intend to stay there. An incredible plan for escape begins to take shape.
Escape from Alcatraz, written by Richard Tuggle (Tightrope (1984)), based on the book Escape from Alcatraz (1963) by J. Campbell Bruce about the 1962 Alcatraz escape, and directed by Chicagoan master director Don Siegel (Jinxed! (1982)), is a phenomenal prison escape film that dramatizes the notorious flight from The Rock. It combines several nuanced, sympathetic human portrayals of inmates, guards and the warden (portrayed by Patrick McGoohan (Elephant Gun (1958))), who also to some degree remains understandable. And then, of course, there's Clint Eastwood (Hang 'Em High (1968)) as Morris, a more subdued part here than in some of his films from the period, but not one that lacks force or memorable lines, though, SPOILER such as when he moves away from the step inhabited by the black 'king' of the prison and tells him with a sly smile, reaffirming his relentlessly steep character; "I just hate niggers."
The circumstances concerning Alcatraz and the escape contribute greatly in making this an incredibly exciting thriller.
Related reviews:
Don Siegel: Charley Varrick (1973) or, The Last of the Independents
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It!
Listen to a piece of Jerry Fielding's score for the film here, entitled Carpenter Shop
Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 43 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty (most likely a huge hit)
[Escape from Alcatraz was released 22 June and runs 112 minutes. Tuggle had a hard time getting his script read and had it refused many times before he got Siegel on the phone and made up a lie in order for him to read it. Siegel outmaneuvered Eastwood by buying the rights for 100k $ and getting Paramount involved, which created a rift between the two friends, and Escape from Alcatraz became their fifth, last (and best) collaboration, following Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), The Beguiled (1971) and Dirty Harry (1971). 0.5 mil. $ were paid to make Alcatraz ready for shooting, including pulling 15 miles of power cables from the city to it. The prison had been closed in 1963, shortly after the escape, - which it isn't known positively to be successful or having resulted in the drowning of the escapees. Shooting took place from October 1978 - January 1979 in Alcatraz, San Francisco and in LA's Paramount Studios. No stunt doubles were used for the dangerous escape down the prison wall, and Siegel twice thought that his three actors had drowned. The film takes some fictional license with story and characters. It opened #2, slightly behind Alien, with a 5.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America. The film's world gross is unknown. It was, undeservedly, not nominated for or won any awards, although it was well-reviewed and the 15th highest-grossing film of 1979 in North America. Siegel made only two more films, both far inferior in quality. Escape from Alcatraz is fresh at 95 % with a 6.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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