History Film / EscapeFromAlcatraz

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: English is a veteran inmate in Alcatraz prison in 1961. He tells Frank Morris his story of how he wound up in there. He was harassed by two men, who tried to attack him with knives. English killed them both. The reason why he got two life sentences, back-to-back? [[DeliberateValuesDissonance The two men were white, and he was black.]]

* ChromosomeCasting: All the characters are male.

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: English is a veteran inmate in Alcatraz prison in 1960. He tells Frank Morris his story of how he wound up in there. He was harassed by two men, who tried to attack him with knives. English killed them both. The reason why he got two life sentences, back-to-back? [[DeliberateValuesDissonance The two men were white, and he was black.]]

* SinisterShiv: After Frank rejects Wolf's advances, he tries to knife Frank in the prison yard with a shiv. Frank manages to hold him off, and Wolf attacks one of the guards who tries to intervene, getting himself almost a year in solitary for it. When he gets out, he attempts to do the same thing, but switches tactics by having another con smuggle in the shiv to him.

* SinisterShiv: After Frank rejects Wolf's advances, he tries to knife Frank in the prison yard with a shiv. Frank manages to hold him off, and Wolf attacks one of the guards who tries to intervene, getting himself almost a year in solitary for it. When he gets out, he tries to the same thing, but switches tactics by having another con smuggle in the shiv to him.

* VillainProtagonist: Frank Morris, who is an armed robber and a multiple prison escapee. Despite that, he seems like a nice guy.

* TheOldConvict: English claims to have only been in Alcatraz for 10 years by that point, but it's ''Alcatraz''. Those years have turned him into a rather jaded sort, especially since his disproportionate punishment (for killing two men in self-defense) was racially motivated.

* TheOldConvict: English.

* WardensAreEvil: The contrast between the unnamed Warden[[note]]Ironically played by Creator/PatrickMcGoohan[[/note]] and the rest of his staff is quite obvious. The guards and the Deputy Warden are just people doing their job and don't resort to plain brutality at any point. The Warden, on the other hand, is a cold, vain bully. He drives an old prisoner to madness by taking his painting privileges away just because he didn't like a painting the man made of him. His mission to ensure that Frank Morris will remain in prison is also portrayed as more of a personal obsession than just fulfilling his duties as head of the prison.

* WardensAreEvil: The contrast between the unnamed Warden[[note]]Ironically played by Patrick "Series/ThePrisoner" [=McGoohan=][[/note]] and the rest of his staff is quite obvious. The guards and the Deputy Warden are just people doing their job and don't resort to plain brutality at any point. The Warden, on the other hand, is a cold, vain bully. He drives an old prisoner to madness by taking his painting privileges away just because he didn't like a painting the man made of him. His mission to ensure that Frank Morris will remain in prison is also portrayed as more of a personal obsession than just fulfilling his duties as head of the prison.

It's no wonder Hollywood had to grab this story- if any writer tried to make something like this up, they would have been told, "[[RealityIsUnrealistic Get Real!]]"

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: English is a veteran inmate in Alcatraz prison in 1960. He tells Frank Morris his story how he wound up in there. He was harassed by two men, who tried to attack him with knives. English killed them both. The reason why he got two life sentences, back-to-back? [[DeliberateValuesDissonance The two men were white, and he was black]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: The Warden comes off as stern but reasonable and sounds saddened that Morris doesn't have relatives to visit him in his first scene. After that he's consistently portrayed as a {{Jerkass}} going out of his way of making life as miserable as possible for the inmates.

* FriendlyEnemy: Some of the guards are jerks but some are friendly with the prisoners, especially the one who has to take away Doc's paintings.
* GreatEscape: What did you expect? [[ComicallyMissingThePoint A romantic-comedy]]?

** The real life warden at the time wasn't this tyrant we see in the film. It's clear they portrayed the Warden as vile and unlikable as possible to assure that we'll root for our VillainProtagonist, who comes off as a hero in comparison.

* InfractionDistraction: Morris carries a wooden wedge coated with metal out of the carpentry workshop openly in his hand. He is naturally caught right away by the guard; his claims that it is meant to make it easier to take his hung clothes off the hook, otherwise why would he be carrying it openly, are not believed and the guard calls him an idiot. After it is confiscated, we see him return to his cell and take an identically equipped wedge from his shoe heel, to be used to carve out the concrete in the wall behind his bunk.[[note]]This is why in a real prison today, inmates who did this would not only be made to walk through the metal detector again until they were clean, they would be disciplined and likely removed from their cell pending a search[[/note]]

* {{Jerkass}}: The ControlFreak Warden of Alcatraz. While it is his job is to ensure the prisoners are on their best behavior and learn from what they have done, he goes way overboard to the point where the prisoners are "confined alone." He's even reluctant to fund good conduct programs or counseling, leaving the prisoners to have to deal with their problems themselves, and the results are disastrous. He even has no problem ''crushing flowers'' in front of prisoners (and then remaining stone calm when one of the prisoners ''has a heart attack right then and there'' from the anger, deciding to make use of a BondOneLiner to remind the other prisoners of the risk of trying to escape). In a modern-day context, he would represent everything ''wrong'' with prisons today.

-->'''English''': I was in a bar in Tennessee. Then these two dudes start hassling me. That was their first mistake. They pulled knives. That was their second mistake. They didn't know how to use them. [[DeadlyEuphemism That was the last mistake they ever made]].

* RunningGag: English and Morris call each other "boy," which at first is meant as a derogatory, racist sign of dominance. As they become friends, it becomes more of a joke [[spoiler: up to the final time they meet before Morris escapes and they shake hands through the cell's bars. "Goodbye... ''boy.''"]]
* ScaryBlackMan: {{Averted}} with English. He's one of the toughest cons on the Rock, respected and feared enough that he alone sits atop the top step of the yard with a view of the mainland. But he is quiet, soft-spoken and treats everyone with respect unless they cross him. He also heads up the black gang in the prison, however.

* VillainProtagonist: Frank Morris, who is an armed robber and a multiple prison escapee. Despite that he seems like a nice guy though.
* WardensAreEvil: The contrast between the unnamed Warden[[note]]Ironically played by Patrick "Series/ThePrisoner" [=McGoohan=][[/note]] and the rest of his staff is quite obvious. The guards and the Deputy Warden are just people doing their job and don't resort to plain brutality at any point. The Warden on the other hand is a cold, vain bully. He drives an old prisoner to madness by taking his painting privileges away just because he didn't like a painting the man made of him. His mission to ensure that Frank Morris will remain in prison is also portrayed as more of a personal obsession than just fulfilling his duties as head of the prison.

* YouHaveFailedMe: At the end of the film, as the Warden sits on the beach and contemplates [[IronicEcho the flower he just crushed]], an underling informs him that [[BigBoss the Attorney General]] wants to see him in Washington as soon as possible. Since the end title informs us (correctly) that Alcatraz was closed within a year of the escape, we can assume the Warden, uh, accepted early retirement.

* YouHaveFailedMe: At the end of the film, as the Warden sits on the beach and contemplates [[IronicEcho the flower he just crushed]], an underling informs him that the Attorney General wants to see him in Washington as soon as possible. Since the end title informs us (correctly) that Alcatraz was closed within a year of the escape, we can assume the Warden, uh, accepted early retirement.

* KansasCityShuffle: Morris carries a wooden wedge coated with metal out of the carpentry workshop openly in his hand. He is naturally caught right away by the guard; his claims that it is meant to make it easier to take his hung clothes off the hook, otherwise why would he be carrying it openly, are not believed and the guard calls him an idiot. After it is confiscated, we see him return to his cell and take an identically equipped wedge from his shoe heel, to be used to carve out the concrete in the wall behind his bunk.[[note]]This is why in a real prison today, inmates who did this would not only be made to walk through the metal detector again until they were clean, they would be disciplined and likely removed from their cell pending a search[[/note]]

** Wolf is the only prisoner who is impossible to sympathize, given he tried to kill Frank Morris ''twice''. He is a rapist, after all.

* {{Jerkass}}: The ControlFreak Warden of Alcatraz. While it is his job is to ensure the prisoners are in their best behavior and learn from what they have done, he goes way overboard to the point where the prisoners are "confined alone." He's even reluctant to fund good conduct programs or counseling, leaving the prisoners to have to deal with their problems themselves, and the results are disastrous. He even has no problem ''crushing flowers'' in front of prisoners (and then remaining stone calm when one of the prisoners ''has a heart attack right then and there'' from the anger, deciding to make use of a BondOneLiner to remind the other prisoners of the risk of trying to escape). In a modern-day context, he would represent everything ''wrong'' with prisons today.

* TheOldConvict: English

** Downplayed for the most part. Most of the guards are just doing their jobs. If violence is shown, it's to stop a fight in the yard or to discourage a con from starting a fight again.
** Subverted with the warden. He's depicted as a sadist, especially when he revokes the painting privileges of a sweet old prisoner whom he finds out painted an unflattering portrait of him.

* ScaryBlackMan: Averted with English. He's one of the toughest cons on the Rock, respected and feared enough that he alone sits atop the top step of the yard with a view of the mainland. But he is quiet, soft-spoken and treats everyone with respect unless they cross him.

* ShownTheirWork: It's considered one of the most accurate Alcatraz movies ever made. One of the few mistakes: the cots used in the prison are UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era cots that don't resemble what was actually used in Alcatraz. Another is Eisenhower's photo in the warden's office in 1962. Another is the lighthouse, installed after the prison closed.

* VillainProtagonist: Frank Morris, who is a robber and a multiple prison escapee.

* TheEndOrIsIt: The film has the warden finding a flower on a nearby island where the gear is found, hinting that Morris and the Anglin brothers might have gotten that far. He crushes the evidence in his hands and insists "They drowned." In RealLife, there hasn't been a sign of any of the escapees in over 45 years. If even one of them survived, he'd kept one of the biggest secrets of all time with him, possibly to the grave...

* TemptingFate: The Warden, telling a genius-level, escape-artist criminal like Morris that "No one has ever escaped Alcatraz... and no one ever will!"

* ShownTheirWork: It's considered one of the most accurate Alcatraz movies ever made. One of the few mistakes: the cots used in the prison are WorldWarII-era cots that don't resemble what was actually used in Alcatraz. Another is Eisenhower's photo in the warden's office in 1962. Another is the lighthouse, installed after the prison closed.

* HateSink: Wolf is the only prisoner who is impossible to sympathize, given he tried to kill Frank Morris ''twice''. He is a rapist, after all.

* {{Jerkass}}: The ControlFreak Warden of Alcatraz. While it is his job is to ensure the prisoners are in their best behavior and learn from what they have done, he goes way overboard to the point where the prisoners are "confined alone." He's even reluctant to fund good conduct programs or counseling, leaving the prisoners to have to deal with their problems themselves, and the results are disastrous. He even has no problem ''crushing flowers'' in front of prisoners. In a modern-day context, he would represent everything ''wrong'' with prisons today.