Escape from Alcatraz (1979) Movie Review

“No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz...and no one ever will.”

That is the tagline of today's film, Escape from Alcatraz. Released in 1979, the film is a dramatization of the infamous 1962 Alcatraz prison break executed by Frank Morris and brothers Clarence & John Anglin. The inmates escaped by each removing an air-vent grate, making their way to the roof via an unused service corridor and a ventilation shaft. Once on the ground the trio scaled a fence, making their way to the water. Once there the prisoners blew up an escape raft constructed from rubber raincoats and contact cement. None of the three were ever seen again, and it is presumed they drowned.

Before getting to the heart of the review, I first have to disclose something I noticed while watching the film for the first time: several moments reminded me of The Shawshank Redemption, from the friendly inmate with a pet to our protagonist pushing a book cart; both also include escapes, but they are done in drastically different ways. Considering there is a fifteen year release window between the films this is either my brain noting random similarities or Frank Darabont included several homages to this film in his own.

From the beginning it is obvious that the audience is meant to sympathize with Frank Morris, played by Clint Eastwood. His past isn't touched on much, other than he has spent time in other prisions and that this played a part in his current placement on the Rock. Despite this, both director Don Siegal and Eastwood do a good job of making the audience sympathize with this career criminal, partially with what he has to put up with inside the prison: an inmate who wants “salad,” extreme punishments for self-defense, and a no-nonsense warden bent on preserving the rock's no escape record.

While Eastwood is not winning any Oscar's for his acting, his style is perfect for Morris. In an interview he once said Morris “was a reclusive type guy. He had no education, but according to prison records, he had an I.Q. of 148. He could have been a success in life if he had channeled his pursuits a little differently,” which sums the character up perfectly. Eastwood's summation is most evident in the scenes in which he has no dialogue, where he has to sell this point with nothing but body language.

Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau play the Anglin brothers. While it is nice to see them, and they play their roles fine they really do not have much to do. Other then the climactic escape most of their scenes are spent conversing with Eastwood, who devises and delegates every element of the plan.

Patrick McGoohan is perfectly cast as the warden. While he only has a handful of scenes he does not waste a single second of screen time. The way McGoohan annunicates his lines gives the audience clear insight into what kind of a no-nonsense man his character is. Like most movie wardens he does make the inmates lives hell at times by flexing his authority, but in the case of Doc (played by Roberts Blossom) it is simply because he paints a portrait of him. Why would he do that? What harm does a picture cause? It's not like he painted him Picasso style. One could think a man of the warden's stature would be flattered that one of his charges painted him in such a stylish manner.

After the escape the Warden has a moment on Angel Island involving a flower that can be looked at a few ways. One interpretation is that he is recognizes and admire's Morris's  ingenuity and is allowing the three to escape under the cover of death; The other interpretation is that the Warden is humiliated that these three pulled something like this over on him from within the Rock's walls, but does't want the world to know about his blunder.

The script was written by Richard Tuggle, based on J. Campbell Bruce's 1963 book chronicling the escape. Tuggle spent about six months researching and writing before he went to the Writers Guild, hoping to find an agent who would accept unsolicited manuscripts. He was unlucky in that department, but he managed to get in contact with Don Siegel's agent, telling him a white-lie about meeting the director at a party. Siegel soon read the script and passed it onto Eastwood. In 84 Tuggle would direct Eastwood in the crime-drama, Tightrope.

While it did not occur during Morris's time on the Rock, an inmate actually did cut off several fingers with a hatchet like Doc does in the film. Angered with the policy of strict silence at all times, inmate Rufe Persfal cut off four fingers, hoping the action would get him transferred off the Rock.

The prison was shut down following the escape. Part of the justification was the damage salt-water saturation had done to the buildings, while the other part was cost; it cost $10 a day to house an inmate while others cost about $3. After closing, the prison became a tourist destination, which continued during filming; it became such a distraction that a majority of filming was moved to night shoots.

Larry Hankin's character (Charley Butts) is based on prisoner Allen West, an accomplice of Morris and the Anglin Brothers. While his film counterpart developed cold feet at the last minute, West was unable to get through his vent the night of the escape. He subsequently told the FBI details in the aftermath.

In the early 2000's the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters proved that the home-made raft escape was theoretically possible. Recreating the raft with materials the inmates had access to in the 60's, Adam, Jamie and a random crew member successful traversed the cold waters of San Francisco bay, landing on the Marin Headlands instead of Angel Island; their reasoning was that it would have been smarter to use the currants to aid the escape rather than fighting the currants.

While not a classic and overly dramatized at points, Escape from Alcatraz is a well-made, and shows that the filmmakers handled the subject-matter seriously. It gets the audience to dwell and think about what life is like for inmates on the inside—an issue that people still argue back and forth about—without coming off as unnecessarily pretentious. It also makes one wonder what exactly happened to the three that night, a question that will most likely never have an definitive answer. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.