Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story (1980)

From my favorite movies..

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

While this is based on some facts within Clarence Carnes life, as a TV movie, you have to remember it is a movie. I didn't think they were making heroes of anyone, as much as just telling a story, and it's a pretty good story too. Telly Savalas is menacing enough as the escaping leader of the cons. And I think the brutality they showed, showed exactly why they were sent there in the first place. And I really enjoyed ARt Carney as "Birdman" R.Stroud--they showed him more realistically doing research and writing than a lot of other movies about him.I really enjoyed Michael Beck's portrayal of C.Carnes-even though we know it was somewhat whitewashed. His early innocence being led astray and then his coming to terms with the WHY he was there was good. And his character's learning his way around the prison system was good, and the fact that he survived 18 years in Alcatraz is a story worth watching. Alex Carras did an interesting portrayal of the Assoc. Warden, and I think that in that time period--I don't think they overplayed the brutality of the Alcatraz system either. This was the LAST STOP!! I enjoyed this miniseries movie, and I thought the actors did a good job with the material.

This movie as well as some of the well meaning comments about it have to make one wonder.Most prison movies focus on the prisoners and more often than not make them the heroes. Of course guards are shown as being brutal. If more people knew who was being kept in prisons, they would send thank you notes weekly to correctional officers for keeping the bad guys and gals locked up and society safer.Of course we have to forget the fact that the people in prison are there for raping kids, killing old folks, committing fraud and taking the life savings of someone, thieves who take a family's hard earned possessions, and on and on.No, we forget that and have actors in this movie talking about escape as being part of a noble goal to shut down an inhumane prison.I thought the acting was rather poor, the direction phony, and the piggybacking on to a real event with a totally unproven conclusion false.

I've seen this recently and you gotta love any movie that has both Joe Pantoliano and Jeffrey Tambor, however briefly. I'm not sure how accurate it all is, but it is fairly entertaining. The first time I came across it was really late at night and though I only planned on watching a few minutes, I soon found myself still awake at 4:00 in the morning. This just shows that made for TV movies often outshine their theater counterparts. Especially in the 80s with The Day After, and all the mini-series that often now are shown as long movies.Not sure how they could release this in widescreen format, despite the letterbox snobs who wish for it. It was a made for TV movie. And therefore most likely never filmed in widescreen aspect. So what would they do on a letterbox? Black out the sides of the TV as well?

This is my favorite Alcatraz movie of all time and I've seen them all! Too bad it is only made for TV and you can't buy it in stores. This is the real deal. Nice and long and involved. This movie tells the whole story of Alcatraz. Luckily I have a copy on VHS.