Fresh
Escape from Alcatraz is relentless in establishing a mood and pace of unrelieved tension.
Variety Staff, Variety
Escape from Alcatraz
No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz… and no one ever will!
1979 · 1h 53m · PG
Drama, Thriller
Directed by
Don Siegel
Overview
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.
Director and cast
- Don Siegel Director
- Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris
- Patrick McGoohan as Warden
- Fred Ward as John Anglin
- David Cryer as Wagner
- Blair Burrows as Fight Guard
- Roberts Blossom as Doc
- Bob Balhatchet as Medical Technical Assistant
- Bruce M. Fischer as Wolf
- Matthew Locricchio as Exam Guard
- Hank Brandt as Associate Warden
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
96%
Tomatometer
Fresh
It's an austere depiction of the tedious routines of prison life, and of the courage and strength of spirit needed in coping with unpleasant warders, tough fellow-inmates, and a life sentence.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Fresh
It's one of those very difficult exercises in which large emotions, like the compulsion to be free, are reflected in minute actions, like the chipping away at stone with a pocket nail clipper.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
What Mr. Siegel has made is fiction, a first-rate action movie that is about the need and the decision to take action, as well as the action itself.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
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