I’m blogging some of my past movie reviews; please don’t hate me for not giving the classic film more love.

*****

“Escape From Alcatraz” (1979) was a decent flick; I’d give it a 7 out of 10.   (And, yeah, I do know I’m going to get nailed to the wall by my film buff friends who no doubt can point out reasons why it would deserve a higher rating.  This is why I hide behind an internet connection with these reviews.)

Clint Eastwood really is a wonderful actor, and there are nice amounts of tension here.  I personally think the best actor was Roberts Blossom as “Doc.”  I was also pretty surprised to discover just how much “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) borrowed from this – right down to an elderly, eccentric  prisoner nurturing a pet and dying tragically.

To me, the movie seemed a little thin.  Of the four protagonists, the only one we really get to know is “Butts,” and two others are convenient Italian American stereotypes.  Little was done to exploit Patrick McGoohan’s amazing acting skills as the warden.  (This was the guy who played Longshanks in “Braveheart” (1995)!!)

It also seems thinly plotted.   Little transpires beyond four prisoners gathering small objects to effect their escape.  And if you’ve already read about the true story of Frank Norris, there are no surprises here.  Finally, we do not even fully see the aftermath of the story for the one unfortunate conspirator.

This movie also might suffer from … “genre fatigue?”  Yes, it’s regarded as a classic, but, since 1979, we’ve seen fictional film prisons do more with this kind of setting.  One, of course, is the obviously inspired “Shawshank.”  Another is HBO’s “Oz.”   I just don’t think this movie would thrill a modern audience the way it did in 1979.