Escape From Alcatraz (1979)
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The story
In 1960, Frank Lee Morris, a skilled escape artist, is sent to the maximum-security prison on Alcatraz Island. While navigating the harsh realities of life in the high-security facility, Morris forms alliances with fellow inmates, including the elderly Doc and the stoic English. He also faces hostility from the brutal Wolf. As Morris observes the prison's routines and the warden's strict enforcement, he begins to identify weaknesses in the facility's security. When he discovers that his friends, the Anglin brothers, are also held there, he begins to mastermind a complex and daring plan to orchestrate a mass escape from the island.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Frank Lee Morris, a skilled escape artist, is imprisoned on Alcatraz Island in 1960. He forms a network of allies, including the elderly artist Doc, who symbolizes the human spirit, and the man known as English. Morris identifies the Anglin brothers as potential partners for an escape. Together, they spend months preparing, using modified tools to chip away at cell walls, creating papier-mâché dummy heads to deceive guards, and constructing a raft from raincoats. On the night of June 12, 1962, the plan is set into motion. While some allies falter, Morris and the Anglins successfully navigate the roof and the prison yard, reaching the shoreline and escaping onto a raft. The film concludes with the warden finding a dummy head and a chrysanthemum flower, leaving the ultimate fate of the escapees ambiguous as the prison is closed shortly thereafter.
- First release year
- 1979
- Runtime (minutes)
- 112
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Don Siegel
- Writers
- Richard Tuggle · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Clint Eastwood · Frank Lee Morris; Patrick McGoohan · the Warden; Fred Ward · John Anglin; Jack Thibeau · Clarence Anglin; Larry Hankin · Charley Butts; Roberts Blossom · Chester "Doc" Dalton; Paul Benjamin · English; Bruce M. Fischer · Wolf; Frank Ronzio · Litmus; Fred Stuthman · Johnson; David Cryer · Wagner; Hank Brandt · Associate Warden
- Genres
- prison thriller; action; docudrama
- Themes
- freedom; human spirit
- Tone and mood
- tense; claustrophobic
- Premise and plot tags
- prison escape; based on true events
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1963 non-fiction book by J. Campbell Bruce
- Reception
- The film was well received by critics and was a financial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1979.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 7.1 · scale: 10 · review count: 31; Metacritic · score: 76 · scale: 100
- Production trivia
- The film was shot on location at Alcatraz.; The character of English was created by the screenwriter.; The film was a financial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1979.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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