▶ Watch the trailer
Film · 1979 · Action
Escape from Alcatraz
Directed by Don Siegel
1979
★ 5.6 editorial score
Shot on the actual island, in the actual cells: Don Siegel films a 1962 escape as pure method, spoons and paint and papier-mache heads, and explains nothing to anyone.
“For almost all of its length, "Escape from Alcatraz" is a taut and toughly wrought portrait of life in a prison. It is also a masterful piece of storytelling, in which the characters say little and the camera explains the action. 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.”
Where to watch
