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Movie Reviews
Women in Prison
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Escape From Alcatraz (1979) |
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| Clint on the boat to the Rock |
EfA is set in 1960, and Alcatraz as portrayed in the movie is an ageing, crumbling shadow of its former self. (Indeed, the prison was closed in 1963.) The paint is peeling off its waterstained walls, and the concrete has become brittle and iron bars rusty. Presumably in order to generate audience sympathy, all of Morris' friends in prison are non-violent. Most of them are thieves of various sorts, although English (Paul Benjamin) is in prison for killing two people. But even then, he was acting in self-defense and only ended up in prison because his two armed attackers were white and he was black, and because the crime took place in Alabama. No murdered or rapists in the group, which also includes Doc (Robert Blossoms), a broken man whose only succor is painting, and Litmus (Frank Ronzio) who is so gentle he keeps, feeds, and bathes a pet mouse.
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| Want to come to my cell and see my etchings? |
From the beginning, Morris has his eyes and ears open. When the warden (Patrick McGoohan) informs him that no one has successful escaped from Alcatraz, Morris takes it as a personal challenge. It isn't so much that the prison is intolerable. The warden and guards are more petty than brutal. The warden's main act of cruelty is to take away Doc's painting privileges when he discovers Doc is working on a none-too-flattering portrait of him. Frankly, considering how much time Doc has had to perfect his craft and how mediocre his work is, the warden may sort of be doing Doc a favor. Maybe line drawings would be better. Morris also gets a job in the prison library right away, and then another assignment in the prison carpentry shop afterwards. So this isn't exactly Midnight Express (1978). Morris' biggest problem comes from a fellow prisoner, Wolf (Bruce M. Fischer) who spots Morris in the lunchroom on the first day, and then approaches him in the shower by saying that he is "looking for a new punk." (Note to self: good opening line.) Morris actually handles him pretty easily, dropping him with a few punches in the shower, and later fending off a clumsy attempt at a prison-yard knifing. Although Wolf apparently has accomplices who help supply him with knives, none of them is willing to help him out in the fight, so Morris able to fight him one-on-one. This prison-yard fight does gets Morris tossed into the D-block, a row of cells without any light or bedding in which prisoners are hosed down daily. Upon his return to his cell, Morris is more determined than ever to escape, and when two old prison buddies of his (John and Clarence Anglin played by Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau) end up on The Rock, Morris ready to make a move.
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| Clint digging away |
The big break comes when Morris watches a roach scurry through a ventilation grill in his cell. Morris begins chipping away at the concrete around the grill and discovers it is brittle. It guess the logic for Morris was that cockroaches like water, and water rots concrete. (Personally, I would just have stomped the little bugger and forgotten about it... which probably explains why Morris was able to escape from Alcatraz, while I consider myself lucky if I make it out of my office parking lot without taking a wrong turn.) With English's help, he fashions a digging implement from a spoon and the blade from the nail clipper. Over time, Morris and his companions will steal or make: a metal wedge, a drill, and papier-mâché grills to hide their progress digging through the concrete and dummies to disguise their escape. They also steal raincoats to produce a make-shift raft and life-vests. I'm always impressed by what prisoners are able to manufacture in support of prison breaks. This a true story, remember, so these guys in fact did manage to make all this stuff regardless of whether they survive the swim across San Francisco Bay in the end. If these guys devoted half the energy, ingenuity, and work they spent on escaping in building a business on the outside, they wouldn't have to knock off banks in the first place.
Anyhoo, as escape time approaches, there is a tense sequence when the warden searches Morris' cell, and some underdeveloped issues with unfortunately named prisoner Charley Butts (Larry Hankin), Morris' next door neighbor who is also in on the prison break. Since this is based on a true story, there may have been a Charley Butts in prison, but we never really understand why he wants to break out (based on his description of his crime, he seems like a short-timer) and his situation in the end seems a little weird. But, all things considered, Morris' plan works like a charm.
The escape sequence is well-shot and conceived. Again, there are no phony crises that often mar these sorts of scenes. We are never requires to suspend disbelief. (You know what I mean: Like when the hero suspends himself from the ceiling right above the guard who never looks up or hears breathing or anything.) Instead, we are given a solid, thrilling sequence of the inmates climbing up walls, sliding down pipes, and ducking the searchlights until they reach the water and set off for land.
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| Papier-mâché? Or Clint before makeup is through with him? |
This is a solid, well-crafted movie. In many cases, less is more, and here EfA works precisely because of the restraint in the plot. It would have been easy to make the warden an over-the-top villain, but instead he's just a low-grade martinet. Similarly, in order to generate sympathy, they could have made the prison experience much worse, but again it would have been unnecessary and distracting. Interestingly enough, the low-key approach also allows viewers to retain a certain detachment. Yes, we identify with Morris, but realistically, we don't need to like him. That's a good thing, because in the final analysis, I wouldn't want career criminals like him on the street.
In short, a classic prison escape movie.
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(3.5 out of 5)