Escape From Alcatraz |  | Director: Don Siegel
Actors: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.82
as of 2/10/2010 09:30 EST details
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Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 3749
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: PARD012567D
ISBN: 0792154568
UPC: 097360125672
EAN: 9786305310365
ASIN: 630531036X
Theatrical Release Date: June 22, 1979
Release Date: March 9, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential video
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 organizes 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
Product Description
Filmed on location on Alcatraz Island, this is an account of the only three men ever to escape from this maximum security prison.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Release Date: 28-MAR-2006
Media Type: DVD
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 73
 Dishonest advertising January 25, 2010
Inventor (Triad, NC)
This movie is billed as CC, closed caption. It is - but in FRENCH ONLY. LOL A bit slippery I'd say.
 Alcatraz themed Christmas January 9, 2010
Robert C. Sullivan (Tampa, FL)
Girlfriends daughter became obsessed with all things Alcatraz this year. So a package of Alcatraz themed items was a big hit. The movie, the book are still being enjoyed.
 Amazingly directed, Old but still a great movie December 29, 2009
Zachary Gustafson (Maryland)
I purchased this movie and recieved fast with standard shipping. I got this movie in memory of my grandfather that passed a couple years back. I was really happy I got this movie is is directed well and clint eastwood is one of the best actors.
 Worth Seeing Once November 28, 2009
T.R. Hammer
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There are many reviews of this movie here that are quite odd. I haven't seen so many zero ratings by other readers for the reviews as in "Helpful" or not. Many of them appear to have been written by teenagers. They are short and don't say much at all.
As escape movies go, this one is okay, but using them as for comparison, this certainly isn't the best one. It's not nearly on the level of "The Great Escape."
I agree with the other reviewers who noticed it moves slowly.
One of the other problems I had with it is the lack of problems to overcome along the way to the escape attempt. There were no real setbacks as in other escape movies in the process of setting up the escape. They didn't get caught and have to start over, for example (cf. Colditz). None of the escape team were injured, killed, or replaced beforehand. There is no mole. There isn't a lot of tension or difference of opinion between the members of the escape team, or controversy deciding who gets to be part of the team.
Then, during the actual escape attempt, there really weren't any great new challenges to overcome where they had to adapt to unexpected events or circumstances. Sure there is drama and some suspenseful music in EFA, but there could have been so much more, and there will be if/when there is a remake.
Clint Eastwood plays his popular persona in Escape from Alcatraz that he played in numerous popular Westerns and police movies. Tough, reserved, independent, leader. He's more restrained than he was in the Dirty Harry movies he did a few years before this in the 1970s.
And that's one thing I liked about EFA: its restraint. There is some prison violence, but not that much considering how extreme the prison and its inmates. The warden is mean but not as vicious as some prison wardens in other prison movies (Midnight Express).
The cast of characters:
* a prison escape artist (Eastwood)
* a mean prison warden
* a middle-aged white inmate who likes to paint
* a cool "senior" black inmate who works at the library
* a spurned "gay" inmate who seeks revenge on Morris (Eastwood)
* a middle-aged inmate who has a pet mouse
* a few con men who become part of the escape team
* an inmate who is Morris's "neighbor"
* a few other inmates and guards
The characters aren't that interesting.
I would suggest you see it, but it's a movie to rent, not buy. I enjoyed it the first time.
Did They Make it? July 7, 2009
JadeRain (Juneau, AK United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Just picked this up, I usually catch this every several years on TV, but finally had to buy it. On a side note, this shows why blu-ray is having a hard time catching on. I just got a 65 inch tv, and even this, sub-par quality picture "regular" DVD is totally passable (especially for the $6.99 I paid for it!). Anyways, my personal connection to this goes back to 1978 when my family took a vacation to San Fran and we toured Alcatraz. They were refurbishing sections of the prison for the upcoming film starring Clint Eastwood. Even though I was a lad, I was already a huge fan of Clint! When the film came out, we went and saw it in the theater, I was fascinated. Final note, look up this subject on the net, there was just a posting about a manuscript that came from Seattle and the owner gave it to the authorities to look into. This story says that the three men did make it, and then were murdered for money and buried off I-90 somewhere in Washington. Maybe? who knows? Also, the Mythbusters episode dealing with this was good as well. A good story, but remember, Crime dosen't pay! cheers.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 73
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