Alcatraz

🧠 Plot Summary

The British thriller Alcatraz (2018), directed by Andrew Jones, is a low-budget film whose name is derived from the infamous high-security island prison. Despite the film trying to establish its name as a gritty prison drama and a heist film, its overused tropes and shallow execution forces it to lean on the latter.

The film’s story revolves a group of inmates led by the brooding and commanding Frank Morris (Gareth Lawrence). Frank is a hardened criminal with a genius for escape planning. Morris, who is loosely based on the inmate who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962, brings on board the two brothers, Clarence and John Anglin, played by Mark Homer and Marcus Langford. Together, they attempt what they believe will be the first successful escape from the fort-like prison.

Within the Alcatraz prison walls, the guards enforce a brutal and monotonous regime alongside harsh treatment. Alcatraz is a place which seems designed to crush the human spirit. The story chronicles the inmates escape plan, which involves constructing makeshift tools, cell wall excavation, and meticulous study of the guards’ schedules.

Regardless of its setting and an intriguing story, the film’s pacing remains problematic due to the lengthy and repetitive dialogue scenes. Psychological tension, arguably the film’s weakest point, is overshadowed by overuse of camera angles and foreboding music in contrast to true character progress and plot advancement.

🎭 Characters and Performances

Frank Morris (Gareth Lawrence)

As the presumed mastermind, Lawrence portrays Frank Morris with a stern, stony demeanor. Morris emotionally remains flat through the film, and with few exceptions, wanes in depth as the story progresses. For the film’s duration, Morris is present but unremarkable and is never sufficiently analyzed in his motivations, history, and most crucial, the personal stakes involved.

Clarence and John Anglin (Mark Homer and Marcus Langford)

These siblings provide the film with a sense of relatability and shared urgency in an otherwise alien context. Their character development turns static as the narrative progresses. Their interactions in the planning scenes, meant to convey tension and brotherly emotions, come off as bland due to the overt lack of substantial development aside from the bare minimum needed to qualify for the breakout genre.

Warden and Guards

These portrayals have no design whatsoever. Emotionally, the stern warden and the prison guards are reduced to the archetype of a brutal and antagonistic mid-tier boss. Their demeanor is entirely composed of yelling, and as a result of this, interrogation and blunt force domination form the only characteristics available to the character, completely lacking any sense of moral struggles.

Other Inmates

Outside of the main characters, there are several other characters that populate the cellblocks, but these characters are mostly just there to give the impression that the prison is crowded. None are developed enough to leave a lasting impression or influence the primary plot.

🎥 Themes and Symbolism

Imprisonment and Resistance

At the center of the movie is the well-known concept of freedom and control. The inmates’ efforts to regain autonomy is a form of symbolically resisting a controlling structure. This idea, however, is only superficially examined. There is little to no attempt to explore moral complicity or critique the structure.

Isolation

The natural setting of Alcatraz enhances the theme of isolation. The island is portrayed as cold and wind beaten. The walls and steel bars serve as metaphors for emotional as well as physical confinement. However, the film’s limited budget undermines the island’s rich visual metaphor.

Hope in Desperation

The idea of escape is slow and methodical, suggesting that hope in the most desperate conditions can motivate action. However, this idea feels empty and unsupported because there are no stakes rooted in the characters. The audience never feels the weight of what the characters stand to gain or lose.

🎬 Film Elements: Style and Atmosphere

The film seems to struggle with budgets and resources in its technical aspects, even though its settings are ambitious and grand scale. Most of the prison’s interior is constructed with cheap sets that capture none of the imposing grandeur of the story. The story that unfolds, in many ways, needs and flat lighting along with lack of dynamic movement in the cinematography makes the visuals much more basic than they sway to be.

The music attempts to build up any tension to enhance the narrative but fails. The score is more often than not out of place and annoying. The dialogues are not engaging to the viewer, introducing idle, motionless action that fails to draw the audience into the story’s climax. To add to all of this, the movie is neither sound designed well nor edited properly.

The camera reveals the dismal aspects of prison life. Grimy walls, clanking chains, the sparse echo of footsteps along endless hallways. However, the saderness of such visuals to behold is instead undercut by the lack of tone the movie possesses.

⭐ Audience and Feedback

For lack of creativity or originality, technical execution, and screenplay, Alcatraz 2018 has seemingly unanimous reviews by audiences and critics.

The film is rated around 3 out of 10 by users of IMDb, which reveals the apparent discontentement of users on the app.

Reviews by the viewers center around the non-polishedness of the film, lack of character development, and poor articulation of the story as well as poor acting that the film attempts to portrays.

The film seems inspired by actual events, but doesn’t out of prison films which are centered around the same escape.

Alcatraz (2018) lacks emotional and thematic depth, especially when contrasted with Escape from Alcatraz (1979) or the fictional The Shawshank Redemption.

📌 Key Viewer Takeaways

• This is a slow and suspense-less prison escape film.

• Character motivations are generic, and the audience cannot connect with the characters.

• The film is set in Alcatraz but does not capture the ominous atmosphere that is expected from the location.

✅ Verdict

Alcatraz (2018) had the potential to explore rich themes of injustice, resistance, and the human spirit with the infamous prison escape in its premise. It instead chose to tell a generic and forgettable prison break story with uninspired performances and a lack of ambition.

The film does not invoke deep emotional connections and is only good for casual viewing for those curious about Alcatraz. The film is best avoided for viewers looking for a captivating prison drama.