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Friday, November 19, 2010

Friday's Top 5... Cinematic Prison Escapes


#5: Escape From Alcatraz

Clint Eastwood stars in the story of the only successful (well, if escaping and very probably dying shortly thereafter qualifies as "successful") escape from Alcatraz.


#4: The Fugitive

The escape from the bus and path of the on-coming train, the jump from the storm drain, and a damn lot of chasing in between. The much-revisited story of The Fugitive remains an exciting and all around entertaining thriller.


#3: The Silence of the Lambs

7 words: "I'm having an old friend for dinner." Stay crazy, Dr. Lecter.


#2: The Shawshank Redemption

Do I even need to say anything about this one?


#1: The Great Escape

The tunnels, the motorcycle, Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, James Garner, and Charles Bronson. In a word: awesome.

2 comments:

R. D. Finch said...

Two more films that predate the ones you listed but also worth considering are "Brute Force" (1947) directed by Jules Dassin and "Le Trou" (1960) directed by Jacques Becker. Both of these treat the prison breaks almost as heists in reverse--breaking out of someplace rather than in.

Norma Desmond said...

I'll have to check thouse out - I've never seen either.

I also totally forgot about Grand Illusion. Oops!