Escape From Alcatraz

In 1962, Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz prison.  In 1979, Don Siegel made a movie about this event starring Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, and Fred Ward.  And in 2026, I watched that movie with my kids.  While Eastwood is no Olivier, he has improved his acting skills since the last time we watched him in his Sergio Leone helmed Spaghetti Western trilogy.  Meanwhile, Patrick McGoohan proves his bona fide acting chops by making my daughters, who are very keen on him thanks to Danger Man, detest the fusty warden who preens his delicate ego at the expense of the inmates.  The rest of the cast does well, with Larry Hankin doing a good job with a nervous nelly character that could be easily overdone and made ridiculous, and Paul Benjamin as English gives a brief but memorable performance.

Escape from Alcatraz is a fairly accurate representation of the entire event, at least as far as Hollywood “based on a true story” movies go, but apart from Eastwood discreetly swiping a fingernail clipper in an early scene, the actual escape machinations don’t even start until the second half of the movie.  While this latter part of the story is filled with the clever problem solving and tension filled moments one expects in a prison break movie, the first half does not drag.  Watching Eastwood figure out the rules of his new prison, navigate the social structures, avoid a predator inmate, and build unlikely friendships all make for an entertaining watch.

Eastwood plays Morris, a high IQ convict who, after escaping from several previous prisons, now finds himself in Alcatraz.  The warden warns Morris that unlike other prisons, this one is inescapable, and all who have tried have been caught, killed, or found dead.  The warden allows privileges, including painting, reading, and working at jobs, based on inmate behavior, and, at first, Morris appears to be willing to play ball.  Even after he gets entangled in a violent confrontation with Wolf, a prisoner intent on being friendlier with Morris than Morris would prefer, and unjustly punished along with Wolf simply because he was defending himself, Morris goes back to minding his own business.

The movie doesn’t spend time exploring what crimes these men committed to earn their stay in prison, because, like all good prison break stories, the focus of the story is not on crime and punishment but rooting for the protagonists to gain their freedom, especially against daunting odds.  Richard Tuggle, the screenwriter, likened the story to watching climbers conquering Mount Everest.  There are, however, some interesting motivations wrapped up in the story.  At their first meeting, the warden explains to Morris, “When you disobey the rules of society, they send you to prison.  If you disobey the rules of the prison, they send you to us. . . We don’t make good citizens, but we make good prisoners.”  Morris does obey the rules of Alcatraz, at first, but when the rules prove arbitrary and provide no protection to those who follow them, then, as in any society even a prison, those with nothing left to lose will risk any consequence.  It’s only after the warden, offended by an unflattering portrait, punishes one of the kindly, elderly prisoners past the point of endurance that Morris begins plotting his escape.  He recruits three fellow prisoners to help him with his plan, and through guile, patience, and perseverance, they attempt to win their freedom

Several of the characters were changed, such as the fictionalized warden, who is never given a name, and Allen West, the fourth member of the escape group who has been changed to Charley Butts, an anxiety prone weakling rather than a fairly hardened criminal.  Most of the other characters are entirely fictional, like English and Doc, although some of the incidents that occur are true, such as Doc’s episode in the carpentry room.  That moment was based on Rufe Persful, who, in 1937, went a little mad due to abuse from other prisoners combined with the complete silence rule in force during that time (inmates weren’t allowed to talk to each other at any point).  The use of the chrysanthemum is also a fictional flourish, but a very good one.  It helped solve the problem of how to end a movie when the actual end of the story is still unknown.

There has been a great deal of speculation on whether or not Morris and the Anglin brothers survived their escape.  Their bodies were never found, and several folks have proven the plausibility of their rubber raft, which was far more robust in real life than it was depicted in the movie, making it safely to either the Marin Headlands or somewhere near the Golden Gate.  Some items, like an oar, a plastic bag with personal contact information, and, according to FBI records, the raft itself washed up on Angel Island, which is referenced in the movie, but men clever enough to plan and execute an escape this brilliant certainly could have been smart enough to throw around a red herring or two.  There have been reports of sightings, conflicting reports of contact with family members, and even a confession letter in 2018 from an old man claiming to be John Anglin hoping to negotiate medical treatment for cancer in exchange for turning himself in; however, nothing has ever been authenticated by the FBI which might still be nursing a bit of wounded pride, even these many decades later.  So the final chapter of the real story ends, like the movie, inconclusively, but, like the legend of D. B. Cooper, perhaps the mystery is what will keep the story alive long after even an elderly Morris and the Anglin brothers have passed on to their eternal rewards.