Escape from Alcatraz

Siegel's finest film since The Shootist, thistells the story of the one successful escape ever believed to have been made from the island penitentiary of Alcatraz. It's not an action film: there's little in the way of exciting set pieces, and Eastwood's restrained performance is low-key almost to the point of minimalism. Rather, as he slowly tries to tunnel out with a pair of nail-clippers, it's an austere depiction of the tedious routines of prison life, and of the courage and strength of spirit needed in coping with unpleasant warders, tough fellow-inmates, and a life sentence. As such, it's closer to Bresson's A Man Escaped (although obviously without the Catholic theme of redemp-tion) than to the Hollywood prison escape movie.