Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3397 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-05-07
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of Clint Eastwood's two most important filmmaking mentors was Don Siegel (the other was Sergio Leone), who directed Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara and this enigmatic, 1979 drama based on a true story about an escape from the island prison of Alcatraz. Eastwood plays a new convict who enters into a kind of mind game with the chilly warden (Patrick McGoohan) and organises a break leading into the treacherous waters off San Francisco. As jailbird movies go, this isn't just a grotty, unpleasant experience but a character-driven work with some haunting twists. --Tom Keogh

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Languages: English, German
Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech,Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish

Synopsis
Based on the true story of the only escape from Alcatraz--a maximum-security prison built on an island located in shark-infested waters to contain the most dangerous, hardcore criminals and most gifted escape artists in the U.S.--ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ stars Clint Eastwood as inmate Frank Morris, the man who plans the escape. When he arrives at Alcatraz in 1960, Morris has an interview with the pompous warden (Patrick McGoohan), who assures him that the prison is escape-proof, well aware of his record of prison breaks. Upon entering the prison population, Morris makes friends with some of the more human inmates, including Doc (Roberts Blossom), an old lifer who paints in his cell; and English (Paul Benjamin), the prison librarian. Less engaging is Wolf (Bruce Fischer), a huge prisoner who tries to stab Morris during a knife fight in the exercise yard after the latter had refused the hulk's generous offer to become his punk. Morris emerges from his punishment in solitary to find that his old friends, the Anglin brothers Jack (Fred Ward) and Clarence (Jack Thibeau), have arrived. He knows that with them he can make a break. This meditative, deliberately paced film might be the only Zen prison movie on record. Eastwood, Siegel, and screenwriter Richard Tuggle brilliantly evoke the look and feel of prison life in this exhaustively researched project, eschewing excess violence and histrionics as they make clear how much patience, ingenuity, and careful planning are involved in an escape of this magnitude.

Customer Reviews

Jailhouse
This is a no nonsense, straight forward film that starts suspense early and lasts all the way through. Like another reviewer said, this is a classic Clint role - monosyllabic, distance and hard as nails. I don't think there is much of a soundtrack in this film at all either, which shows how well Seigel and Eastwood produced this film.

*****5stars*****
I love this film...i can watch it over and over again...Clint eastwood's not my favourite of actors but he is brillint in this film...

totaly reccommend it !!..acutally i'll start watching it now...

Can he escape? Of course he can...
Clint Eastwood takes the role of Frank Morris a very intelligent bank robber who supposedly escaped from Alcatraz. The film depicts Morris planning his way out (escaping through the cell wall with a pair of nail clippers). Once through this he as able to work out where the best place would be to escape from as well as construct a raft of some description and create a dummy to place in his bed so guards would not notice his abscence. Undeniable brilliance. Whilst Eastwood is without doubt the star and performs well I always feel that Patrick McGoohan as the Warden is most intense. The film wouldn't work without him. A great performance in my eyes. The bottom line is that this film is fascinating, enjoyable and entertaining. Not a bad combination.