Lock In With These Thrilling Prison Movies
Plus, listen to our Scarlett Johansson movie draft on the podcast!
It’s a packed newsletter on this summer Friday! In addition to a couple recommended prison movies, we’ve got a new podcast episode for you, and we’re still vibrating from that Gladiator II trailer release *cue Denzel laugh*.
This week Sing Sing, about a group of prison inmates that create an arts program, comes out in limited release. Lauded for Colman Domingo’s lead performance, this movie got us thinking about our favorite prison movies, both of which take place at Alcatraz. Check out the recommendations, the weekly podcast, and make sure you’re subscribed to both!
Billy recommends…
The Rock
My initial inclination is to make this a rant about how accents don’t matter in movies because everyone is freaking out how Denzel doesn’t sound of the era in the Gladiator II trailer. Presence matters over accent or era specificity and this movie is led by the presence of two incredibly unique performers in Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery, who are two of our most “presence forward” actors in Hollywood history. When it doesn’t work because of their unyielding stature, then sure, it may seem like they’re phoning it in. But when you combine it with director Michael Bay who was on a heater to start his career, we get a pretty magical prison-disaster movie.
Alcatraz is the Alcatraz we know today. A tourist attraction only with an iconic past as America’s highest security prison. A disgruntled general, Francis Hummel (Ed Harris), takes hostage of Alcatraz Island and is going to shoot many massive rockets into San Francisco killing millions instantly if he doesn’t get what he wants. $100 million that he can distribute to his team and families of Recon Marines who tragically died when doing undercover missions for the US Military.
They can only stop him if Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Cage) can utilize the only man to escape Alcatraz, John Mason (Connery). I often refer to action movies being great if they can get me cheering at the screen like Brennan and Dale from Step Brothers. And this is one of my clear examples of that. Cage is able to reign in his Cage-isms to play a slightly quirky straight man, Connery has a ponytail to start the movie, and Harris is incredibly effective at having me be like, “well, he’s got some points.”
The Rock ushers Alcatraz to its former glory by having Hummel recreate the prison, but instead of trying to escape, it is his homestead. A slight twist, but action movies are ripe for making slight tweaks to genres, like prison movies, and letting the setting do a lot of the lifting. Cage, Connery, Harris, and Bay create one of the most lasting popcorn movies of the last 30 years and it seems to only age well.
Streaming on Peacock
Drew recommends…
Escape from Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island is only 1.25 miles off the coast of San Francisco. When I visited Alcatraz, I remember looking across the bay and thinking it looked very possible to make it to land, at least until I learned about the strong currents and extremely cold waters. Back in 1962, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers successfully escaped Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary and were never seen again. Did they drown in the San Francisco Bay or make it to safety? 1979’s Escape from Alcatraz tells the story of Morris (Clint Eastwood) and his fellow inmates’ daring attempt.
Alcatraz was closed a year after the real-life escape attempt, so Eastwood’s movie was shot on location, although the producers had to spend $500,000 to restore the prison to how it looked almost 20 years earlier. In line with Eastwood and director Don Siegel’s other collaborations (Dirty Harry, The Beguiled), Escape from Alcatraz is a lean thriller that still plays well today. The suspense is executed at a high level and often with very little sound or dialogue. Eastwood’s quiet toughness is a natural fit in a movie like this, and it’s one of his best performances that he didn’t direct himself.
Our fascination with Alcatraz is longstanding. In addition to the movies that feature scenes at the penitentiary, Birdman of Alcatraz (starring Burt Lancaster) was released the same year as Morris’ escape, and Michael Bay’s The Rock remains a ridiculously entertaining 90s action classic. Escape from Alcatraz, however, is one of the purest distillations of the prison movie, in that it’s almost solely focused on depicting daily prison life and how a maximum security prison escape went down. Did they survive? The question remains open, but the movie seems to have its own answer.
Streaming on Max
From the DYLA Archive
DYLA Podcast
Fly Me to the Moon, starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, opens in theaters this weekend, so for this week’s podcast we did a Johansson movie draft! After a brief review of new release Fancy Dance on Apple TV+, we took turns selecting Scarlett Johansson movies in categories like lead and supporting performance, MCU, and more. Listen and then vote on our Instagram or X accounts today to decide the winner!
Apple Podcasts:
Spotify:
Links
Water battles in the Colloseum. Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal fighting to the death. DENZEL IN ANCIENT ROME. The Gladiator II trailer is here and it’s glorious.
Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh fall in love and navigate tragedy in the trailer for We Live In Time, a movie that seems determined to not leave a single eye dry in the audience.
RIP Shelley Duvall, known best for playing Wendy Torrance in The Shining and starring in Robert Altman films. She retired from acting in 2002, but her unique screen presence will live on for a long time.