SIX AGAINST THE ROCK

US, 1987, 100 minutes, Colour.
David Carradine, Richard Dysart, Jan Michael Vincent, Charles Haid, Howard Hessemann, David Morse.
Directed by Paul Wendkos.

Six Against the Rock is based on a true story, an attempt by six convicts to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island in 1946. The film was written by John Gay, regular writer of telemovies and adaptor of classics.

The film offers a names and times structure for introducing the characters as well as the chronology of the escape attempt.

The film has a very strong cast led by David Carradine and includes Jan Michael Vincent, Howard Hesseman in a particularly strong role, Charles Haid as a maniac prisoner. Richard Dysart is the governor.

The film delineates briefly each of the central characters, shows the organisation of the escape attempt, the details of the escape, the miscalculations by Bernard Coy, the organiser, especially in having the murderers participate and unleash their vengeance on the guards. The attempt is ultimately foiled, violently. Direction is by Paul Wendkos, veteran director of many films and telemovies.

1. The prison at Alcatraz? Its reputation? Its security? The escape attempts? Failures?

2. The setting of San Francisco, Alcatraz? The use of the actual prison? Authentic atmosphere? The blocks, the cells? The musical score?

3. The title, the focus on the convicts, the focus on Alcatraz as a rock? Inability of people to escape?

4. The introduction of each of the characters: in prison, their name and age, crime and sentences? Audience interest in and sympathy for them? Understanding them and their interactions? Their behaviour during the escape attempt?

5. Bernard Coy as the focus? His paintings, the symbol of the bird on his arm and in the painting? Desperate? The organiser of the attempt? His obedience to the authorities? His fasting in order to get through the bars? His contact with each of the convicts? Co ordination of the time? His participation in the attempt, getting through the bars, finding the keys, the gun? The clash with Dutch? Letting the kid go back? Trapped with Marvin? Reminiscing about their past? The failure of the attempt, the contact with the governor, the death of the guards? His being shot? The finale, his death?

6. Marvin, a victim of circumstances, the depression, work in the dining room? Talk with Bristow? Participation in the attempt? His control? Friendship with Coy? Their talking, deaths? Fate and the possibilities of different lives?

7. Dutch, the brutal criminal, the escape attempt, his temper, the clash with Coy, wanting to kill him? The guns, the guards? Thompson and Sam egging him on? The shooting of the guards? His climbing into the roof, the grenade attempts, his shooting coy, his death? A brutal convict?

8. Sam, solitary, his madness? Being let out, the violence, wanting to kill? His fears, pleading with the kid and going back into his cell?

9. Thompson, cold-blooded, violent, participation in the attempt?

10. The kid, young, offered the opportunity, his reluctance, going, his change of heart, going back to his cell?

11. The governor, the news, his handling of the situation, the National Guard, no guns on the floor? The military attack? The grenades on the roof? His concern about his men?

12. The sketch of the guards, their treatment of the men? Taken as hostages? The shoot-outs and deaths? Their skills in maintaining order?

13. Films about American prisons? Prison life? The effect on the convicts? The desire to escape? Inherent violence? Death for convicts and guards? How effective a picture of prison life?