‘Escape from Alcatraz’: Stay for this solid prison movie
Directed by: Don Siegel
Written by: Richard Tuggle, based on the book by J. Campbell Bruce
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward, and Larry Hankin
“Escape from Alcatraz” (1979) – “You’ve escaped from quite a few prisons, haven’t you? That’s why you’re here.” – Warden (Patrick McGoohan)
On a rainy Jan. 18, 1960 evening, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) takes a ferry across the San Francisco Bay, reaches land and then hops on a bus for a brief, lonely ride to his final destination. Not one moment on this trip, however, can be defined as voluntary, because an exasperated legal system threw their collective hands in the air and banished Frank – a convict with burglary, armed robbery and grand larceny perched on his criminal record, along with a history of prison breaks – to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
Today, Alcatraz plays the role of a benign tourist destination, as 1.5 million annual visitors explore the island – that sits over a mile from San Francisco’s shores - but back in 1960, just about everyone deemed Alcatraz a feared, inescapable edifice.
In director Don Siegel’s “Escape from Alcatraz”, Warden (without a surname) tells his newest resident Frank Morris, “No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz, and no one ever will.”
From a distance, this steel and concrete stronghold might resemble the Hohensalzburg Fortress’ troubled kid brother. Austria’s lofty castle spurned invaders for hundreds of years, but Alcatraz encloses its tenants with gapless tentacles of fortified construction, manned by an army of guards and surrounded by an enormous, shark-filled moat. The interior decor doesn’t ease anxieties either, as this maximum-security institution can house up to 450 inmates, but don’t expect marathon Monopoly matches, card games or group caucuses that go deep into the night. Each detainee lives in a lonely, individual 10-foot by 4.5-foot cell.
Siegel – who filmed at Paramount Studios and on location - spends more time inside rather than outside the prison’s shell. Frank’s introduction to Alcatraz occurs at night, so we don’t gather a real perspective of the pen’s external identity at first. No, most of our experiences take empathetic turns for Frank and his equally-orphaned cohorts…in their indoor existences.
Several establishing shots - during Frank’s first evening and morning - capture the long, orderly sightlines of the central housing core. Three floors of slim, uniform, vertical and horizontal steel bars extend through a narrow corridor, as the men in blue walk in synchronicity. No matter the physical enormity that faces these incarcerated men, the soulless rituals are the greater enemies.
Shaving once a day, showering twice a week and receiving haircuts once a month are permanently listed on the grooming schedules, and buttoned blue shirts and khaki pants are the daily required uniforms. Warden usually discourages creativity, and Frank plays along while mingling with familiar types of caged dormmates, including a detestable bully (Bruce M. Fischer), an eccentric introvert (Roberts Blossom) and a resourceful old-timer (Frank Ronzio).
The film moves slowly and methodically, as Siegel leans on an overall oppressive atmosphere through day-to-day monotonies. Other than one menacing threat named Wolf (Fischer), Warden’s designed restrictions assemble a greater malaise, one that deadens spirits and weakens wills. For instance, when he messes with an inmate’s painting privileges, it stings more than a run-of-the-mill courtyard tussle.
Siegel didn’t make an overly violent picture. Certainly, guards and detainees recognize Mr. Morris as an alpha male, but Eastwood’s character doesn’t ask every jailbird to make his day, and he doesn’t own a pet orangutan that watches over fistfights. Mostly, Frank navigates his way through this painful, confined existence by searching for opportunities…for escape.
“Escape” also identified a new opportunity for Siegel (“Dirty Harry” (1971)) to collaborate with Eastwood. Together, they forged their cinematic superpowers to present an altogether different lone wolf, one always attempting to dance in between the raindrops of the law. The literal and figurative shifty weather also includes a dramatic lightning and thunder cue when a random guard declares, “Welcome to Alcatraz.”
Jerry Fielding’s score feels well-timed throughout the picture too, and especially when Frank and three new friends – Clarence (Jack Thibeau), John (Fred Ward) and Charley (Larry Hankin) - plan an escape. Secrets and deception become their trusted allies. While Frank runs covert ops through the prison’s catacombs, Fielding triggers modern (for the time) keyboards that feel somewhat-similar to John Carpenter’s chords from “Halloween” (1978) that play mind games with our perceptions of time and space.
You might ask yourself, “How close is that guard? I can’t see him, but I hear his footsteps!”
Certainly, Warden would gladly serve large helpings of severe consequences for Frank and company, as Siegel nicely captures (pardon the pun) the stressful mechanics of our anti-heroes operating in shadows and avoiding the spotlights.
A couple of threads, however, feel a little dim. For instance, Warden touts that Alcatraz tenants don’t have connections to the latest news or cultural events, but the prison’s trusty library offers plenty of magazines and books. Hardware supplies are also - ironically - readily available, as Frank rattles off his extensive list of needs that might perplex a Home Depot consultant, but Litmus (Ronzio) willingly offers handy options.
Oh, you need a Ryobi Lithium-Ion cordless drill? No problem. A 12 or 18 volt?
While watching “Escape from Alcatraz”, it feels impossible to not compare it to “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994). The latter – with a 142-minute runtime - is about 30 minutes longer than the former, so director Frank Darabont has more leeway to let his movie breathe, and an entirely hushed narrative layer delivers a whopper of a surprise.
“Escape from Alcatraz” takes a straightforward approach. It is a designed, chronicled history lesson, and – based on J. Campbell Bruce’s book “Escape from Alcatraz: The True Crime Classic” - a prominent one, and hey, Eastwood has starred in quite a few big movies, hasn’t he? That’s why he’s here.
(3/4 stars)
Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.
