Oldies Review - Escape from Alcatraz

Director: Don Siegel
Genre: Thriller/ Drama
Runtime: 112 minutes
Year: 1979
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward, Paul Benjamin, Larry Hankin, Bruce M. Fischer, Frank Ronzio, Fred Struthman, David Cryer, Madison Arnold

Description: Alcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possible successful attempt at escaping from on of the most infamous prisons in the world.

Review: Frank Morris tries to make the impossible possible in this true story, by escaping from Alcatraz, one of the most highly secures prisons, just off the coast of San Francisco, California.
Clint Eastwood excels as the stoic but intelligent Morris. To his superiors he is obstinate and among the prisoners he is loyal to anyone who approaches him kindly. Gradually he becomes somewhat of a leader.
Eastwood forms a group of confidants around him. People who see him as someone they can trust. It is great to see how Morris doesn’t seem to fear the warden, but also no fear for anything else in Alcatraz. A guy named Wolf, who is supposed the be a threat, doesn’t really scare or impress Morris.
Director Don Siegel, who also made “Dirty Harry” with Eastwood, managed to create film that you will be invested by, without any frills or fuss. Less is more for this film, which could have easily turned out the be a bombastic, epic and spectacular Hollywood film. But that doesn’t fit for this film or for Eastwood. It’s modest, but extremely effective.
“Escape from Alcatraz” is an excellent film, which has excitement without any fuss.

Rating: 4 / 5

Netflix Friday - Volume 12

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.

Action: Twister (1996)
Bill (Bill Paxton) and Jo Harding (Helen Hunt), advanced storm chasers on the brink of divorce, must join together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes.

Drama: Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Alcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men (Clint Eastwood, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau) make a possible successful attempt at escaping from on of the most infamous prisons in the world.

Comedy: Hot Fuzz (2007)
A skilled London police officer (Simon Pegg) is transferred to a small town with a dark secret.

Animation: Princess Mononoke (1997)
On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami’s curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke of Hime.

Romance: Always Be My Maybe (2019)
Everyone assumed Sasha (Ali Wong) and Marcus (Randall Park) would wind up together except for Sasha and Marcus. Reconnecting after 15 years, the two start to wonder.

Horror: Event Horizon (1997)
A rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now returned… with someone or something new on-board.

Science Fiction: Children of Men (2006)
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which woman have become somehow infertile, a former activist (Clive Owen) agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.

Crime: Catch Me If You Can (2002)
A seasoned FBI agent (Tom Hanks) pursues Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) who, before his 19th birthday, successfully forged millions of dollars’ worth of checks while posing as a Pan Am pilot, a doctor and a legal prosecutor.

Thriller: Along Came a Spider (2001)
When a congressman’s daughter under Secret Service protection is kidnapped from a private school, detective Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) investigates the case even though he’s recovering from the loss of his partner.

Documentary: Jane (2017)
The life and work of the renowned primatology scientist, Jane Goodall, especially on her research about chimpanzees.

Family: Bean (1997)
The bumbling Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) travels to America when he is given the responsibility of bringing a highly valuable painting to a Los Angeles museum.