Clint Eastwood Movie:

				Salesrank:
		MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
One of Clint Eastwood's two most important filmmaking mentors was Don Siegel (the other was Sergio Leone), who directed Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara, and this enigmatic, 1979 drama based on a true story about an escape from the island prison of Alcatraz. Eastwood plays a new convict who enters into a kind of mind game with the chilly warden (Patrick McGoohan) and organizes a break leading into the treacherous waters off San Francisco. As jailbird movies go, this isn't just a grotty, unpleasant experience but a character-driven work with some haunting twists. --Tom Keogh

Escape from Alcatraz [Region 2] Reviews:
Amazingly directed, Old but still a great movie
2009-12-29 - I purchased this movie and recieved fast with standard shipping. I got this movie in memory of my grandfather that passed a couple years back. I was really happy I got this movie is is directed well and clint eastwood is one of the best actors.

Worth Seeing Once
2009-11-28 - There are many reviews of this movie here that are quite odd. I haven't seen so many zero ratings by other readers for the reviews as in "Helpful" or not. Many of them appear to have been written by teenagers. They are short and don't say much at all.

As escape movies go, this one is okay, but using them as for comparison, this certainly isn't the best one. It's not nearly on the level of "The Great Escape."

I agree with the other reviewers who noticed it moves slowly.

One of the other problems I had with it is the lack of problems to overcome along the way to the escape attempt. There were no real setbacks as in other escape movies in the process of setting up the escape. They didn't get caught and have to start over, for example (cf. Colditz). None of the escape team were injured, killed, or replaced beforehand. There is no mole. There isn't a lot of tension or difference of opinion between the members of the escape team, or controversy deciding who gets to be part of the team.

Then, during the actual escape attempt, there really weren't any great new challenges to overcome where they had to adapt to unexpected events or circumstances. Sure there is drama and some suspenseful music in EFA, but there could have been so much more, and there will be if/when there is a remake.

Clint Eastwood plays his popular persona in Escape from Alcatraz that he played in numerous popular Westerns and police movies. Tough, reserved, independent, leader. He's more restrained than he was in the Dirty Harry movies he did a few years before this in the 1970s.

And that's one thing I liked about EFA: its restraint. There is some prison violence, but not that much considering how extreme the prison and its inmates. The warden is mean but not as vicious as some prison wardens in other prison movies (Midnight Express).

The cast of characters:

* a prison escape artist (Eastwood)

* a mean prison warden

* a middle-aged white inmate who likes to paint

* a cool "senior" black inmate who works at the library

* a spurned "gay" inmate who seeks revenge on Morris (Eastwood)

* a middle-aged inmate who has a pet mouse

* a few con men who become part of the escape team

* an inmate who is Morris's "neighbor"

* a few other inmates and guards

The characters aren't that interesting.

I would suggest you see it, but it's a movie to rent, not buy. I enjoyed it the first time.

Did They Make it?
2009-07-07 - Just picked this up, I usually catch this every several years on TV, but finally had to buy it. On a side note, this shows why blu-ray is having a hard time catching on. I just got a 65 inch tv, and even this, sub-par quality picture "regular" DVD is totally passable (especially for the $6.99 I paid for it!). Anyways, my personal connection to this goes back to 1978 when my family took a vacation to San Fran and we toured Alcatraz. They were refurbishing sections of the prison for the upcoming film starring Clint Eastwood. Even though I was a lad, I was already a huge fan of Clint! When the film came out, we went and saw it in the theater, I was fascinated. Final note, look up this subject on the net, there was just a posting about a manuscript that came from Seattle and the owner gave it to the authorities to look into. This story says that the three men did make it, and then were murdered for money and buried off I-90 somewhere in Washington. Maybe? who knows? Also, the Mythbusters episode dealing with this was good as well. A good story, but remember, Crime dosen't pay! cheers.

"One of Clint Eastwood's Best!
2009-06-03 - My two favorite Clint Eastwood movies are "Play Misty For Me" and "Escape From Alcatraz". This DVD is pretty much a bare-bones release, but the film comes in widescreen format and there are chapter selections. Hopefully Paramount will release a special edition disc soon with anecdotes and info on the film.
Although the movie was released way back in 1979 the film still holds up today. It's mainly about a prisoner, played superbly by Eastwood, who attempts to escape prison with two other inmates. The movie documents their attempts in leaving one of the most well-secured prisons in the U.S., Alcatraz, located in San Francisco Bay. Roberts Blossom, who once played one of the most evil characters in soaps (Sven in "Another World"), also has a supporting role as a prisoner who befriends the Eastwood character.
If you like a good film or a good prison movie "Escape From Alcatraz" is it! Other well-made prison dramas include "Midnight Express", "The Shawshank Redemption", and "The Green Mile".

Film is good, but the books are better
2009-06-01 - Apparently most of the reviewers have only seen the movie. If you're familiar with the books on the subject: "Escape from Alcatraz" by John Campbell Bruce, and "Breaking the Rock" by Jolene Babyak, who actually lived there, you'll find that the real story is way more intriguing than the film could ever be. So much of the film tries to unnecessarily sensationalize events or characters, like the the black inmate English, and his relationship to Morris never existed, nor could it have in 1960-62 prison life. One of the reasons these guys wound up in Alcatraz was because of their extreme racial animosity. The efforts of the (four) prisoners to get out was more intense, involved, time consuming, and dangerous than the film makes out.

Do yourself a favor and hit a library near you for the "real meat".