Escape From Alcatraz
Directed by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood and Patrick McGoohan.
Clint Eastwood is reunited with mentor Don Siegel (director of 'Dirty Harry') for a film based on the only 'successful' escape from the prison island in 1963. Eastwood plays Frank Morris, the quiet, intelligent convict who chooses his friends and then hatches an elaborate bid for freedom. His nemesis is Patrick McGoohan, the nameless warden whose destruction of the human spirit is a source of pride ('we don't make better people, just better prisoners'). Siegel's style is almost documentary, with each character a walking time bomb within prison walls. By the end you're unsure whether Morris wants to escape for himself or just to spite the warden.
Midnight Express
Directed by Alan Parker, starring Brad Davis, John Hurt and Randy Quaid.
Billy Hayes (the late Brad Davis) is arrested while attempting to smuggle hash from Turkey back to the USA. Initially he believes his sentence will be lenient, but a zero tolerance court hands down 20 years. In a crumbling prison, he witnesses savage assaults and the desperation of drug addiction, clinging to the belief that something good will happen. But when neither his family nor the American government are able to secure his release Hayes decides to catch the 'Midnight Express'. Legend has it that when the film was shown at Cannes the harshest of critics - the projectionists - gave a standing ovation.
Cool Hand Luke
Directed by Stuart Rosenborg, starring Paul Newman and George Kennedy.
Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman) finds himself on a chain gang in the Deep South after a drunken spree of rifling parking meters. A refusenik, he discovers that the gang, led by the boorish Dragline (Kennedy), is a revolution just waiting to happen. After winning their respect, Luke becomes the ringmaster, devising a series of hustles and bets and challenging prison order with his every move ('just because it's your job don't make it right'). Director Rosenberg brilliantly captures horror and humour from sunrise to sunset as the inmates attempt to break the monotony and learn the value of friendship. Newman turns in one of his finest performances as the hero (a mix of boyish looks and rebel fun) while Kennedy (who won an Oscar for his role) is perfect as the heavy with a heart. Rosenborg would later return to the penal system in the Robert Redford vehicle Brubaker.
Dead Man Walking
Directed by Tim Robbins, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.
Susan Sarandon plays a nun (Sister Helen Prejean on whose book the film is based) who befriends rapist and double killer Matthew Poncelet (Penn). Poncelet denies that he committed the murders and insists that he should be allowed take a lie detector test. Fuelled by racist hate, he rebuffs all Prejean's efforts for reconciliation, preferring instead to challenge the nun's goodwill. While Sarandon won an Oscar for her role, it is Penn's hypnotic performance as the proud but scared Poncelet that makes the film so memorable. Director Robbins was accused by pro-death penalty campaigners of altering the shape of the execution gurney so that it would resemble a cross - he didn't.
The Hill
Directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Sean Connery.
In one of his most underrated performances, Connery plays Roberts, a sergeant major convicted of cowardice and sent to a desert stockade during World War II. The stockade is famous for 'The Hill', a man-made sand dune that prisoners must run up and down in full kit until they are broken. When a prisoner dies at the hands of a sadistic guard during drill duty, Roberts enlists his fellow inmates as seekers of the truth. Lumet's film is a masterpiece of economy (no music, shot in black and white), which questions the nature of punishment and rehabilitation. The film is also rich in black humour as Lumet, through the make up of the inmates and officers, pokes fun at the class system.
The Birdman Of Alcatraz
Directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden and Neville Brand.
Double murderer Robert Stroud spent 53 years in Alcatraz and became the most celebrated convict in the prison's history through his books on and studies of canaries and bird diseases. Lancaster's steely performance (Stroud had been sentenced to death but this was later commuted to life) as the dour Birdman gave new depth and insight to the prison genre. While Stroud is not a likable character, caring far more about birds than other human beings (there is a memorable verbal attack from kind guard Neville Brand over his attitude), your respect grows as year rolls into year and his isolation becomes more complete. Malden plays the warden, fascinated by Stroud's mind but infuriated by his views.
The Shawshank Redemption
Directed by Frank Darabont, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
Banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) receives two concurrent life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover. He survives early ordeals in prison and is befriended by Red (Morgan Freeman), a weary sage whose bids for parole are never successful. When it becomes apparent that Dufrense is a financial genius, he is put to work by the crooked governor as an accountant. Dufrense becomes the man who knows too much and the prison authorities stop at nothing to ensure he remains behind bars. Robbins' performance as the gentle dreamer is beautifully offset by Freeman's measured turn as the old con. Based on a Stephen King novella, the film was nominated for seven Oscars but won none.
Harry Guerin
