Escape from Alcatraz

Escape from Alcatraz is well crafted, both as a film and as an escape through film. This isn’t about deep ideas, but about tension that you could cut with a knife, which is strongly supported by Jerry Fielding’s dark music. Eastwood is perfectly suited to the role of a charismatic, highly intelligent criminal, and he even looks like the real Frank Morris. (18/05/2020)

Today, this is a classic that packed our cinemas during the previous regime. The many similarities (the pet in the cell, the sexual predator, the despotic prison governor, the method of escape, etc.) leave no doubt what inspired Stephen King to write both “Shawshank” and “The Green Mile” (and then Frank Darabont with his film adaptations). As the build-up to the escape continues, the excellently staged tension wins you over, Clint Eastwood is awesome, and what he and Don Siegel touched, they turned into gold. Here, the occasionally reproached open ending is the only correct one. The story is inspired by the real, until then only successful escape from Alcatraz, but nothing is known about the fate of its protagonists, i.e. whether or not they drowned during the swim to the mainland. (16/02/2008)

This is probably the only movie that would be banned in Alcatraz, if Alcatraz had still been in operation at that time. (17/10/2016)

A film about a famous prison escape that became a legend. Many modern films about prison escape still draw inspiration from it, and although it is not considered one of the most highly acclaimed in its genre, it is regarded as an undisputed classic. Excellent casting led by Clint Eastwood and, above all, an economical script that does not distract the viewer's attention with the portrayal of the characters' pasts or their psychological processes, but rather focuses on the preparation and execution of the escape itself. Overall impression: 80%. The open ending may irritate some viewers, but it corresponds to the fact that nothing is known about the fate of the group of prisoners who actually attempted to escape from Alcatraz. (16/03/2010)

If you’re goin’ to San Francisco... Another classic that Stephen King definitely inspired Stephen King when writing Shawshank (and the Mile) (the story is different, but the yard is absolutely the same). Of course, everybody roots for Clint from the moment he arrives at the prison. The atmosphere starts really getting under your skin as the end nears and doesn’t leave you until during the credits. (19/10/2009)

Siegel and Eastwood at their best. I always wonder about the things that could go wrong with such a difficult plan, and escaping from that impregnable fortress is simply out of the question, but I always enjoy the final deliverance all the more and never get tired of it. A classic that will never get old. 85% (26/09/2012)