Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood collaborated one last time on Escape from Alcatraz (1979). This sparse but effective prison drama plays to both men's strengths; it's arguably their best collaboration, Dirty Harry included. In 1960, burglar Frank Lee Morris (Eastwood) arrives at the maximum security prison in Alcatraz, off the coast of San Francisco. The Warden (Patrick McGoohan) warns him sternly that no one has ever escaped the prison; Frank almost immediately plots to break that record. He begins to scout the prison for weak points, obtains makeshift tools and employs a series of tricks to throw the guards off his scent. Ultimately, the death of one inmate and overt threats by the Warden drive the prisoners to act, forcing them to hatch their escape in the midst of a fierce rainstorm.
Don Siegel had been making prison movies for decades (Riot in Cell Block 11) and with Alcatraz reduces the genre to its basic components. In a long, near-wordless introduction Frank is transported to prison on a stormy night, grilled by guards and marched to his cell nude, an intimidation ritual that only steels his resolve. From there he's is subjected to the usual horrors of bad food, sadistic guards and bugs in his cell; he bonds with a Black inmate (Paul Benjamin) using ironic slurs and fends off a brutish homosexual (Bruce M. Fischer). We suspect that such antics would result in Frank getting pin-cushioned in real life, but here it naturally makes him the Biggest Badass on the Block. He's too tough for the prisoners to mess with, too clever for the guards and ultimately, too cool for The Rock to contain.
This meat-and-potatoes approach might sound cliche, but Siegel and writer Richard Tuggle treat Alcatraz with admirable restraint. The filmmakers don't overdo the violence; the Warden is a soft-spoken sadist who dominates the prison through random cruelties, like depriving a gentle prisoner (Roberts Blossom) of his beloved painting supplies, rather than overt shows of force. Frank and his allies are forced to operate through stealth, forging homemade tools and digging through the cell wall at night, hoping that the guards don't hear him at work - or that vicious rats don't attack at the wrong moment. Bruce Surtees' photography mixes beautiful wide shots of the Bay with claustrophobic close-ups; key scenes play without music, Siegel making effective use of shadows and sound to amplify suspense.
Clint Eastwood gets the kind of role he excelled in; Frank is a man of few words, lanky physicality and immense cleverness. We don't have a problem buying him as either a kickass crook or a quietly thoughtful chessmaster, finding ways to persuade inmates and outwit his captors. Patrick McGoohan's stuffily cruel warden and Paul Benjamin's cynical Black prisoner also make a strong impression. The economical supporting cast contains tough guys like Jack Thibeau, Larry Harkin and a young Fred Ward, all convincing as hardened crooks.
Perhaps Escape from Alcatraz isn't high art, but as expertly crafted suspense it's hard to beat. Siegel makes the prison genre seem fresh again, and if the movie has minor concessions to cliche (the inmate with a cutesy pet mouse, the obnoxious prison rape subplot, a cloyingly symbolic poinsettia) the whole is so impressive that it's hard to fault. We're rooting for Frank and friends during their mad escape, and even the ambiguous finale can't dampen our enthusiasm.
