Escape from Alcatraz | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold | |
Directed by | Don Siegel |
Screenplay by | Richard Tuggle |
Based on | Escape from Alcatraz by J. Campbell Bruce |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Bruce Surtees |
Edited by | Ferris Webster |
Music by | Jerry Fielding |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 112 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $8 million[1] |
Box office | $43 million[2] |
Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American prison thriller film[3][4][5] directed and produced by Don Siegel. The screenplay, written by Richard Tuggle, is based on the 1963 non-fiction book of the same name by J. Campbell Bruce, which recounts the 1962 prisoner escape from the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island. The film stars Clint Eastwood as escape ringleader Frank Morris, alongside Patrick McGoohan, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau, and Larry Hankin with Danny Glover appearing in his film debut.[6]
The film marks the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), The Beguiled (1971), and Dirty Harry (1971).
Released by Paramount Pictures on June 22, 1979, Escape from Alcatraz received critical acclaim and was a financial success, one of the highest-grossing films of 1979.[7][2]
What Mr. Siegel has made is fiction, a first-rate action movie that is about the need and the decision to take action, as well as the action itself. In this particular case, the action is the escape from "the rock," a maneuver masterminded by a tough con named Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) with two cronies, Clarence Anglin (Jack Thibeau) and John Anglin (Fred Ward).
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