Escape from Alcatraz

Gotta feel for this due to the later emergence of '<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/the-shawshank-redemption/">The Shawshank Redemption</a>' and even '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_Break">Prison Break</a>', but 'Escape From Alcatraz' still merits its own props as a great film.

I love a good prison escape flick, shown by my love for those two aforementioned productions which do improve on the formula; TSR - one of my favourite films, fwiw - particularly must've took a lot of inspiration from this, I noted a fair few similarities.

With the cast, you have an excellent performance from Clint Eastwood. Patrick McGoohan fits his role nicely, while Paul Benjamin and Larry Hankin are the best of the rest. I would've liked ...

Seen this one several times and still is a well done and straight forward, well shot, escape-thriller with fine performances all around. Nothing fancy and just enough character development to make you care. 4.0/5

Clint Eastwood is at the top of his game in this thriller. He is bank robber Frank Morris, Incarcerated in one of America's most impregnable prisons, under the menacing gaze of warden Patrick McGoohan. He quickly concludes that he has little left to live for but escape. Together with twins Clarence and John Anglin (Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau) he puts together an intricate plan to escape their prison by using the utility tunnels to escape the complex then some makeshift inflatables to get across San Francisco bay. The facts of the story mean the ending is never in doubt - insofar as we actually know what the ending was/is! Now that rather detracts from any sense of jeopardy with the screenplay, but is one of the aspects that make Eastwood al...