Decorated director Quentin Tarantino and I share an affinity for the thrillers of the 1970s. So, I was surprised to learn that he wasn’t initially a fan of Don Siegel’s Escape from Alcatraz. I count the flick as a thrilling affair with a third act that is equally gripping and intense. However, it seems the Pulp Fiction director came around over time and now holds the film in high regard.
In his book Cinema Speculation, Tarantino discusses his initial distaste for the picture but then describes how it changed upon retrospective viewing.
“Escape from Alcatraz, a film I didn’t like when it came out […] proved a revelation on a re-view a few years ago,” Tarantino writes. “Cinematically speaking, it’s Don Siegel’s most expressive film. Siegel takes lifelong learned lessons of ingenuity, practicality, experience, and skill and applies them to his use of montage. Siegel is almost as silent as [Eastwood’s character Frank Morris], preferring to illustrate via montage than explain through expositional dialogue.”
If you haven’t seen Escape from Alcatraz, you’re in luck. The flick is available to stream on Max as of the publication of this post.
The setup is as follows: Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood), a hardened con with a history of prison breaks, is sent to serve the rest of his life sentence at Alcatraz — America’s most infamously brutal and inescapable maximum security prison. Morris quickly realizes the prison’s dehumanizing effects and clashes with its cruel warden (Patrick McGoohan). Fed up with life at Alcatraz, Morris and two convict brothers (Fred Ward, and Jack Thibeau) meticulously plan the unthinkable: an escape from the island.
That’s all we’ve got for the time being. Stay tuned to the site for more recommendations from the masters as we learn them. And be sure to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter so you never miss an update.