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Escape From Alcatraz Details

1979 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 4287 members

Based on the true story of the only escape from Alcatraz--a maximum-security prison built on an island located in shark-infested waters to contain the most dangerous, hardcore criminals and most gifted escape artists in the U.S.--ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ stars Clint Eastwood as inmate Frank Morris, the man who plans the escape. .. Read more

Starring Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Larry Hankin
Director Don Seigel, Don Siegel
Genres Drama

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Escape From Alcatraz

Based on the true story of the only escape from Alcatraz--a maximum-security prison built on an island located in shark-infested waters to contain the most dangerous, hardcore criminals and most gifted escape artists in the U.S.--ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ stars Clint Eastwood as inmate Frank Morris, the man who plans the escape. When he arrives at Alcatraz in 1960, Morris has an interview with the pompous warden (Patrick McGoohan), who assures him that the prison is escape-proof, well aware of his record of prison breaks. Upon entering the prison population, Morris makes friends with some of the more human inmates, including Doc (Roberts Blossom), an old lifer who paints in his cell; and English (Paul Benjamin), the prison librarian. Less engaging is Wolf (Bruce Fischer), a huge prisoner who tries to stab Morris during a knife fight in the exercise yard after the latter had refused the hulk's generous offer to become his punk. Morris emerges from his punishment in solitary to find that his old friends, the Anglin brothers Jack (Fred Ward) and Clarence (Jack Thibeau), have arrived. He knows that with them he can make a break. This meditative, deliberately paced film might be the only Zen prison movie on record. Eastwood, Siegel, and screenwriter Richard Tuggle brilliantly evoke the look and feel of prison life in this exhaustively researched project, eschewing excess violence and histrionics as they make clear how much patience, ingenuity, and careful planning are involved in an escape of this magnitude.

Starring Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Larry Hankin, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward
Director Don Seigel, Don Siegel
Studio PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 52 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Dubbed German
Hearing-impaired English
Subtitles DVD: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
Released DVD: 07 May 2001
Production year: 1979
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (4) of Escape From Alcatraz

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    Don Siegel did much to establish his reputation with Riot in Cell Block 11 in 1954, and he went back behind bars for this tough and compelling reconstruction of the only successful escape from San Francisco's notorious island prison in its 29-year history. Driven stir crazy by the strictures of warden Patrick McGoohan's regime and the brutality of his fellow inmates, Clint Eastwood plans an ingenious bid for freedom with Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau. Blessed with expert performances, Siegel shoots the preparations with an attention to detail that exerts as strong a grip as the events of the escape itself.

    • Radio Times
  • 1 stars out of 4

    A dour, terse, depressing prison movie which makes an uncomfortable star vehicle and not very much of an entertainment, but does preserve a certain integrity right to its ambiguous ending.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Most helpful member's review of Escape From Alcatraz

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  • 6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Very interesting!

    I thought this film was extremely well written as it was exciting to see how the 4 men would escape from the prison and was suspensing to see if the wardens would catch them!

    It was interesting to see how the men actually made their way out of the jail, and the different types of methods and tools they used to escape. I thought the ending happened very quickly and unknowingly but then again, no one knows if they survived or not!

      • LoveFilmStepney from London
  • Most recent members' review of Escape From Alcatraz

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Classic one-liners

    This is one fan-bloody-tastic movie of Clint Eastwood. This movie has good mixture of acting & is chock-a-block with one-liner (in Clint Eastwood style, course).

    Enjoyed the movie throughly & I still wonder (as does many) if Frank Morris is still alive & well.

      • Name's Bond from Leicester, UK
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Rating breakdown

4,287 Member ratings
  • 100
422
  • 90
425
  • 80
1,010
  • 70
912
  • 60
819
  • 50
366
  • 40
156
  • 30
89
  • 20
57
  • 10
31

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    • Based on the true story of the only escape from Alcatraz--a maximum-security prison built on an island located in shark-infested waters to contain the most dangerous, hardcore criminals and most ...