da best prison-break: 'Le Trou' (1960)
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Paul P. Powell — 6 months ago(September 14, 2025 03:13 PM)
Stephen King's '
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
' –later turned into a hit movie –was a hit, but is not a classic.
It made plenty of money and a lot of kids liked it –but this can be said about a lot of modern popculture. Network TV shows, cable TV series, movies, videogames.
Nevertheless it was not produced nor released in the classic era. It was released in the era of 'movie consumption'. Different demographic.
King himself –all his fiction is part of 'popculture churn' (recycling cultural references from the past into new products).
Scorcese has spoken witheringly about this consumerism
(he also admitted recently that he won't even attend movies in a theater anymore, due to smartphones)
So when I asked, "
What else really is there?"
I'm not casting my net so wide as to include flicks from the Lucas\Spielberg\Cameron era. They never count.
Instead, I was casting around for any true milestones, anything from the silent era onwards up through cinema verite' and further along up towards 'New Hollywood'. Anything which sets the first foundation-stone and mints the first boilerplate.
Prison-break movies (Eastwood's "
Escape from Alcatraz
") were well-established as proven popculture moneymakers long before 'Shawshank' came around. It wasn't any kind of risk or gamble.
2.
Now, regarding '
Papillon
' and several others I mentioned in my OP –'
Papillon
' doesn't quite take place inside a prison. It's not a prison break movie. Rather it takes place on a series of islands. His goal is to escape the islands.
Same thing with '
Riot in Cellblock 11
'. This is a movie about a prison riot.
'
The Birdman of Alcatraz
' –is a film about a man adjusting to life inside prison.
Same applies to '
The Jericho Mile
'.
Charles Bronson's terrific action flick, '
Breakout'
–fun as hell –but not about prisoners breaking out. Instead, a man (Robert Duvall) is broken out of prison with help from the outside.
Burt Lancaster in
'Brute Force
' is a story about a battle of wills between sadistic guards and despairing inmates. There is a prison break but it is negligible to the story.
'Fast Walking
' with James Woods –ditto.
'Each Dawn I Die'
–Jimmy Cagney & George Raft. Set in a prison, but nothing to do with breaking out.
You see what I mean? "
Le Trou
" is pure prison break; nothing else. Nothing else about criminal justice or the legal system or the rights of man. Just the break.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player -
I Got This! — 6 months ago(September 14, 2025 08:06 PM)
You see what I mean? "Le Trou" is pure prison break; nothing else. Nothing else about criminal justice or the legal system or the rights of man. Just the break.
If you're criteria to accept a suggestion of a prison break movie is just all about the break then it is going to be a very short list as you are showing.
I don't mind the backstory, character development and subplots of the convicts, how they got there and their life behind bars.
That is what makes Shawshank so good and a classic.
And yes, it is considered a classic since the word means:
judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.
Shawshank does this.
It is so well beloved and popular and is one of the best movies ever made.
We are drawn in to care and sympathize for the characters and their plight and cheer when the main one succeeds at beating a corrupt and sadistic warden and his guard by escaping.
I find prison to be a fascinating other world within ours so I'm willing to check out all kinds of movies about prisoners and their situations and motivations to escape if that is part of the movie.
Prison movies I like that do not involve escape include:
Brubaker.
One about a warden who tries to change the system for prison reform and has to fight the powers that be in a struggle for it while he discovers a very grim past connected to the prison that the corrupt powers want to be kept as a secret.
The Longest Yard
An excellent movie about a disgraced football player organizing and coaching a team of convicts to play the guards for a chance to redeem himself. -
Paul P. Powell — 6 months ago(September 15, 2025 02:32 AM)
Ayah. None of these are prison-breaks.
They're perhaps set in a prison; but they're not about breaking out of prison.
It's a narrow but strict definition I'm applying here.
A better debate would be John Sturges' "
The Great Escape
" except the argument fails; because this is a war movie. They're not breaking out of a prison.
I explicitly deal with classics, not Luc\Berg modernity.
I'd go so far as to label 'Shawshank' slop. Who would argue with me? The dumbass Gen-X n00b audience who gobbled it up? Those scumbags?
Said another way: Rob Reiner is not an auteur. Not a pioneer. Same as Eastwood, he simply reverted back to tried-and-true studio styling to guarantee the turnstyles would turn.
No one is ever gonna emulate Rob Reiner's style. He has no unique style to call his own. What are young directors always doing? Trying to repeat the artistry of Edgar G. Ulmer.
Reiner's products lack any true pedigree or maturity. No stature whatsoever except that they happened to turn out to be money-makers. They are the mundane codswallop that turn up on the 'AFI Best 100 Movies list'. Utter kowtow.
I'd go so far as to assert that 'Shawshank' (likewise anything by Eastwood) are no better nor no lesser as any of the other flicks of its era (Tom Cruise, Sly Stallone, Arnie, etc).
Cut from the same bolt of cloth.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player -
I Got This! — 6 months ago(September 16, 2025 05:52 AM)
Maybe those movies and filmmakers you dislike are not making the kinds of movies you prefer but that does not diminish their craft any less.
They have made successful movies which kept them active because they gave us movies that are good and draw us in which become beloved classics.
I mean, they did something right.
We both have what we like and prefer with our opinions and if movies in a more modern era is not your thing then it isn't your thing.
Whatever.
To each our own.
From seeing your choices and the way you look down on the movies I suggest and prefer I don't think we are going to find much common ground or agreement with them.
Are there any American movies you like?
And if so which years or era?
Getting back to the prison theme…
In another post we both agreed on liking Runaway Train.
Is that a prison break movie that fits in for your criteria of Le Trou? -
Paul P. Powell — 6 months ago(September 16, 2025 06:54 PM)
Maybe those movies and filmmakers you dislike are not the kinds of movies you prefer but that does not diminish their any less.
Gotta diverge from most of your remarks above. There are objective criteria which reliably measure the decline in movie quality once the studio-era was shuttered. It's not purely subjective.
Naturally, this doesn't mean I'm disagreeing with you, with any rancor or spleen. Live and let live.
I understand that everyday, average film-buffs will usually not agree with me. Ah well. No matter.
After all, it's just like music. Most people tend to dig the music they happened to hear when they were in high school. They're not music scholars or historians, they just groove to whatever they grooved to as teens. That's what they feel sentimental towards, so that's what they advocate for.
But when it comes to any kind of culture, this is not what I'm doing. I matriculated a bit differently.
Are there any American movies you like?
Yes, certainly. I maintain numerous shortlists. Like this:
Personal Favorite Fifty US Films 1920s
Objective Best Fifty US Films 1920s
…for each decade. Listing them first by my personal taste and then a second time by more rational criteria.
Then, I expand it:
Personal Favorite 250 Films of - All Time - World Cinema
Objective Best 250 Films - All Time - US Cinema
I sift 'n sort, mix 'n match every way I can to cover all bases. It's obsessiveness on my part, I admit it.
In another post we both agreed on Runaway Train. Is that a break movie that fits in for your criteria of Le Trou?
No. It's a train movie. As fine as it is, the challenges faced by the protagonist are completely different.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player -
Paul P. Powell — 3 months ago(December 12, 2025 05:37 AM)
Earlier in this discussion –I pondered aloud,
"What other stories from the classic or European ranks of cinema are really even in the same ballpark?"
At the time I reckoned there simply weren't any 'near neighbors'. Not in terms of quality or storyline (prison-break).
But I've just recently encountered
"A Man Escaped
" (1956) dir by Robert Bresson.
I would immediately place this as #2 in my esteem. It's an excellent escape yarn.
The experience really surprised me. I've never been a fan of this overtly-intellectual director; darling of cineastes.
I've seen all his most reputed works and never found one of them which was entertaining.
His style is usually painfully slow and introspective, anguished, over-wrought, strained.
I doubted this work would be any different. But –amazingly –he does an impressive job.
For once, his skills are put to use on material which is inherently sturdy enough to handle his brooding style.
Yes indeed. "
A Man Escaped
" is a fine thriller. Meticulously crafter; visual storytelling.
It isn't quite as riveting as, "
Le Trou
" but that's okay.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player
