Although not a big-budget "A" director, he was recognized by the critics and filmmakers of the French New Wave as a true American auteur, and his most famous film of the time, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), has become a sci-fi classic of Cold War paranoia. From the mid-1940s on he worked steadily, creating mostly action flicks that stood out for their attention to character. Siegel started out as a montage director at Warner Brothers, contributing to such classics as Casablanca (1942) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) before moving on to directing features. Siegel and Eastwood already had thriving careers before they first worked together on Coogan's Bluff (1968). The markings were seen as part of the island's rich history, and the paint had to be carefully washed off them when production was completed. Stuck in the middle of the bay with no heat, cast and crew soon learned the meaning of Mark Twain's statement: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Paramount also had to lay out a considerable sum of money for refurbishment, replacing the corroded wiring and using water-soluble paint to cover the graffiti and paintings left on the walls by the Native Americans who once seized and occupied the island as a political protest. Siegel said Eastwood used his movie star charm to ease the situation considerably by requesting quiet on the set but eventually many of the sequences had to be shot at night. The hordes of tourists, free to roam the area, gathered to watch the filming, talking during the actual shooting. By the time he returned to make this movie, "The Rock" was a tourist attraction, which meant the crew would have to film around the sightseeing boats that arrived every half hour. Siegel had visited there years before, when it was still an operational prison, while he was preparing one of his most highly regarded B-pictures, Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954). The prison itself, rather than those who oversee it, becomes the antagonist.Īlthough it was bested by Morris and the Anglins, Alcatraz almost proved to be the undoing of the film crew. It's less about avoiding guards and more to do with heights and depths and barriers to cross. Instead, the battle is between individuals and the physical space they have to conquer. In fact, the prison officials are not seen until the discovery on Angel Island, and at that point, the prisoners are never seen again in the picture. Even when the three manage to get out of their cells, the story doesn't focus on the suspense of the chase between escapees and pursuers. He follows the breakout plan with meticulous detail. Siegel had a talent for placing his characters in hostile environments they had to escape or survive. To this day, no one knows if they died in the water or made new lives for themselves under different identities.Įscape from Alcatraz doesn't proceed at the break-neck pace of a typical action film. But Morris and the Anglins were never found. Some of their discarded personal items are eventually found on distant Angel Island, and the smug warden (played by Patrick McGoohan, best known for being incarcerated himself in the British TV series, The Prisoner) predicts their bodies will soon be discovered. The three lower themselves down the outside wall and into the icy, treacherous waters of the bay, using makeshift water wings for flotation. Using handmade tools, they chip away the walls from around the ventilation grills in their cells and finally manage to wiggle through the tiny openings to an airshaft opening on the roof of their cellblock. A calculating and nervy mastermind, Morris befriends several other prisoners before enlisting the Anglin brothers in his escape plan. Eastwood plays Morris, who arrives in Alcatraz after breakouts from other prisons, determined that he will be the one to escape the fortress. But the breakout by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers in 1962 shattered that notion, and the prison was closed less than a year later. Touted as escape-proof, "The Rock" had once contained the likes of Al Capone. Based on the true story of an escape from the island prison fortress in San Francisco Bay, Escape from Alcatraz (1979) was the fifth and final film for the successful team of director Don Siegel and actor Clint Eastwood and a major hit.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |