Clint Eastwood and the Don Siegel movie ‘Escape from Alcatraz’

Malpaso Productions was founded in 1967 as the production company closely tied to Clint Eastwood. Don Siegel directed five movies for the company, with the movie Escape from Alcatraz (1979) serving as the fifth. This day we look at the movie of a prison break inspired by the J. Campbell Bruce book Escape from Alcatraz: The True Crime Classic.

(From left, Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris and Paul Benjamin as English in the Don Siegel movie Escape from Alcatraz).

Escape from Alcatraz opens with a boat ride onto Alcatraz Island for prisoner Frank Morris, as portrayed by Clint Eastwood. The early part of the film acclimates Morris and the audience to the reality of prison life, including a visit with the warden. Patrick McGoohan protrays the warden.

(From left, Bruce M. Fischer as Wolf Grace, Roberts Blossom as Chester ‘Doc’ Dalton and Frank Ronzio as Litmus in the Don Siegel movie Escape from Alcatraz).

It’s at mealtime the day after arrival that Murray becomes acquainted with some of the prison regulars, including English, Wolf Grace, Chester ‘Doc’ Dalton and Litmus. Paul Benjamin portrays English, who serves as a leader of sorts among the prisoners. Bruce M. Fischer offers an undercurrent animosity in portraying Wolf Grace. In portraying Chester ‘Doc’ Dalton and Litmus, Roberts Blossom and Frank Ronzio offer distinct and interesting color to what the prison experience is like.

(From left, Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris and Larry Hankin as Charley Butts in the Don Siegel movie Escape from Alcatraz).

You might consider now that the nature of prison life is great and all, but when do things turn into an attempted escape. The notion of this was always on the mind of movie protagonist Frank Morris. When Charley Butts, as portrayed by Larry Hankin is moved into the cell next to Frank Morris, the makings of a potential plan are started.

(From left, Fred Ward as John Anglin and Jack Thibeau as Clarence Anglin in the Don Siegel movie Escape from Alcatraz).

When John and Clarence Anglin, as portrayed by Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau were moved to Alcatraz, the plan became a degree more serious. The drama of how the administration of the prison functioned made for intense drama as the plan for escape proceeded. The drama as the warden performed cruel and psychologically harmful things to the Alcatraz inmates prompted a certain stick it to him feeling for the audience and inmates alike. Then there’s the question of how things work out.

(From left, Hank Brandt as Associate Warden and Patrick McGoohan as Warden in the Don Siegel movie Escape from Alcatraz).

I’ll leave it to you to watch the movie Escape from Alcatraz to see if the folks aiming to escape made it out of the prison. I’ll leave it to you to determine what became of the inmates and that were not attempting to escape. The realism of the filming combined with filming that occurred onsite at Alcatraz Island offered to the feeling the feeling of true crime that the movie, as well as the book it was based on, were meant to portray. I give Escape from Alcatraz as directed by Don Siegel 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Top 20 Movie “Do the Right Thing”

Top 20 Movie Do The Right Thing (1989) ranks 7th in Matt Lynn Digital’s Top 20 Movies in ranked order listing. This critical look at race relations, political issues, urban crime and violence brought film producer, director, writer, and actor Spike Lee an Academy Award nomination for the best writing category for screenplay written directly for the screen.

The film stands as a testament to acknowledging racial tension in a way that speaks with sympathy to the perspectives of many sides. As the Roger Ebert review of Do The Right Thing says

“[Spike Lee] didn’t draw lines or take sides but simply looked with sadness at one racial flashpoint that stood for many others.”

(Spike Lee as Mookie in Do The Right Thing)

Do the Right Thing tells the story of a day in the life of one Brooklyn street. We meet the neighbors and the neighborhood, seeing in small steps how a heated, hot day in the life of a neighborhood looks and feels like. We see the humanity and the frustration as a neighborhood living in bigotry boils over into violence, and the setting of a revenge fire in the face of an unprovoked murder at the hands of the police.

 (Love and Hate for Radio Raheem as played by Bill Nunn in Do the Right Thing)

It is the loud music of Radio Raheem’s boom box, in concert with the demands of Buggin Out (played by Giancarlo Esposito) to see African American faces on the wall of Sal’s Pizzeria that ostensibly leads to the film’s resolution. Sal (played by Danny Aiello) takes a bite of hate out of the booming sound of Radio Raheem’s boom box, symbolically answering one form of disrespect (the loudness) with another (property destruction). The pizzeria is destroyed while Raheem loses his life; the inequality of this exchange given that insurance can rebuild a pizzeria is the testimony that speaks loudest.

As Rosie Perez, who played Tina in the film, is quoted as saying in the 20th anniversary DVD for Do the Right Thing:

“I saw the magic of the filmmaking…There’s a science to it. And it’s science, plus love, plus art, plus talent. And that occurred, and that’s why I think this movie is an American classic. I really do. I really do. Hands down. Hands down. Hands down.”

Do the Right Thing is our eighth (8th) ranked film. Twenty-eight years after the initial release, the message of this film still stands up today.

Matt – Saturday, December 9, 2017