Escape from Alcatraz

Escape from Alcatraz

The granddaddy of prison break movies, Escape from Alcatraz starred Clint Eastwood on top form as grizzled master criminal Frank Morris. Imprisoned on the impenetrable island, Morris has a series of clashes with Patrick McGoohan’s smug warden while, as the title suggests, he attempts to escape from Alcatraz. Eastwood tends to play hard-to-like, anti-heroic characters whose only real redeeming trait is that the people they go up against are worse. As here, Clint’s a bank robber trying to break out of a legitimate prison, this is another situation where we really shouldn’t be on the man’s side, but you just have to respect him for his sheer balls. Who but Dirty Harry could break out of jail with a papier-mâché dummy and a spoon? Awesome.