Director Don Siegel and actor Clint Eastwood always do classy work together, and "Escape From Alcatraz" is no different.
The film simply involves Clint Eastwood being locked away in Alcatraz prison and then planning and enacting an escape, but the end result is nevertheless one of the best prison escape movies precisely because Siegel's stripped down, no nonsense, ruggedly masculine directorial style perfectly meshes with Clint's stripped down, no nonsense, ruggedly masculine acting style. It's a film in which Siegel's camera simply watches, with minimum fuss, as Clint digs through a wall and escapes a top security prison, with minimum fuss.
With the death of Peckinpah and Siegel, no one makes these manly movies today, directors now all pampered and privileged. When Siegel made a movie, you could feel the grime, sweat and testosterone.
In terms of flaws, the film rather sneakily neglects to tell us why Clint and his associates are in prison, and goes to great lengths to portray the prison warden as a villain, the end result being that we're essentially conned into wishing for the escape of bad people.
Of course most prison movies are largely existential tales. Like Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in their respective prison movies, Clint's less a criminal than an everyman who embodies our yearning for freedom, the film appealing to our desires for escape, transgression and rebellion. Thankfully, Siegel doesn't hype up these existential aspects, the director underplaying or ignoring them entirely in favour for a more dry, docudrama approach. If Clint signed up to the film in order to take his internalized, stoic acting style to new heights, then Siegel was drawn to a script filled with methodical planning. More than most, directors love when a good plan comes together.
8/10 – The film isn't as good as Siegel and Clint's best collaboration, "The Beguiled", but it's still excellent. Clint's the coolest actor since Bogart, and while this is a very simple tale, its procedural like direction, detachment and simple plot mesh perfectly with Clint's quiet scenery chewing, impressive scowling and laconic mannerisms. The film's poster was based on the famous "A Clockwork Orange" poster.
Worth one viewing.
The film simply involves Clint Eastwood being locked away in Alcatraz prison and then planning and enacting an escape, but the end result is nevertheless one of the best prison escape movies precisely because Siegel's stripped down, no nonsense, ruggedly masculine directorial style perfectly meshes with Clint's stripped down, no nonsense, ruggedly masculine acting style. It's a film in which Siegel's camera simply watches, with minimum fuss, as Clint digs through a wall and escapes a top security prison, with minimum fuss.
With the death of Peckinpah and Siegel, no one makes these manly movies today, directors now all pampered and privileged. When Siegel made a movie, you could feel the grime, sweat and testosterone.
In terms of flaws, the film rather sneakily neglects to tell us why Clint and his associates are in prison, and goes to great lengths to portray the prison warden as a villain, the end result being that we're essentially conned into wishing for the escape of bad people.
Of course most prison movies are largely existential tales. Like Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in their respective prison movies, Clint's less a criminal than an everyman who embodies our yearning for freedom, the film appealing to our desires for escape, transgression and rebellion. Thankfully, Siegel doesn't hype up these existential aspects, the director underplaying or ignoring them entirely in favour for a more dry, docudrama approach. If Clint signed up to the film in order to take his internalized, stoic acting style to new heights, then Siegel was drawn to a script filled with methodical planning. More than most, directors love when a good plan comes together.
8/10 – The film isn't as good as Siegel and Clint's best collaboration, "The Beguiled", but it's still excellent. Clint's the coolest actor since Bogart, and while this is a very simple tale, its procedural like direction, detachment and simple plot mesh perfectly with Clint's quiet scenery chewing, impressive scowling and laconic mannerisms. The film's poster was based on the famous "A Clockwork Orange" poster.
Worth one viewing.