THE ESCAPIST
UK/Ireland, 2008, 99 minutes, Colour.
Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Liam Cunningham, Seu Jorge, Dominic Cooper, Steven Mackintosh, Damien Lewis.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt.
It is only at the end of this effective small-budget film (made principally in Ireland) that what seems to be a basic and low-key title is found to be far more significant than was expected.
This is a prison film. It is an escape film. The first-time feature director and co-writer, Rupert Hyatt, states that he has an admiration for genre films, the tough kind of the 1930s, which had stars like Humphrey Bogart or Spencer Tracy. This is what he is aiming for in The Escapist. It stays within the prison walls for most of the film, moves out into tunnels and sewers during the escape and, only for some minutes at the end at Charing Cross Underground station followed by a quietly emotional scene on the Thames Southbank, can the audience escape the confined settings as well.
Moviegoers have long been familiar with the routines of prison life. The Escapist shows us these routines and, while there is tension amongst the inmates, a boss who thinks he is kingpin (Damian Lewis) and his psychotic brother (Steven Mackintosh particularly and frighteningly convincing), the prisoners are more ordinary, less melodramatic than usual. The guards are the usual mixture of tough and considerate but there are no sadistic types that seem to populate prison movies. This means that the action focuses on the small group of prisoners involved in the escape attempt.
What makes the film more interesting dramatically is that the escape is introduced at once. However, throughout the film, there are continual flashbacks which illuminate the characters but also show us the development of the plan. The cumulative effect of this, along with the frequent returns to the escape in progress and, sometimes, in danger, means that the audience has to work at two different emotional levels. There is the obvious emotional hope that the escape will succeed simply because this group has undertaken it. But, as we learn more about the characters and see them within the confines and routines, we become more sympathetic.
The cast is strong. Brian Cox, always an impressive character actor who appears frequently in roles on both sides of the Atlantic, plays the lifer who wants to get out to see his daughter. Liam Cunningham is another life who knows ways out. They get a surly thief (Joseph Fiennes) to join the plan – which involves him having to endure a tough boxing bout to get the diamond tooth stud which will enable them to cut through the steel. The pressure of the insane brother requires them to bring in another member who is the librarian as well as producing the drugs circulating for inmates (Seu Jorge).
We know from the beginning that they are all part of the team but the flashbacks are able to build up the reasons why they are there.
The final member of the group is a young criminal (Dominic Cooper) who is targeted by the brother for sexual reasons. The leader of the escapees who shares his cell with him shows generosity and concern by pushing him into the escape.
This means that the escape is also symbolic of a journey to freedom and, for the escapist, some final hope and redemption. The final ten minutes are not expected and offer a deeper meaning to the whole film.
1.A prison film? An escape film? The tradition of prison escapes on film?
2.The sets for the prison, the interiors, the central area, corridors, cells? Shower block, laundry, library? Authentic feel?
3.The audience confined like the prisoners, getting out into the tunnel? The final moments on Southbank?
4.The sound engineering, for prison life, during the escape? The different phases of the musical score? Different instruments?
5.The screenplay: the escape, the flashbacks, the double development? Plot, characters, interrelationships, motivations?
6.The end, the change of perspective, deeper and symbolic meanings?
7.The introduction to Frank Perry, in his cell, the escape attempt, the group, in the hole, with Lacey, dropping him in?
8.The progress of the escape, through the confessional, through the wall, the laundry, the drop into the baskets, the dryer, the tunnels, sewers, the brick walls, the water, breaking the walls, the underground columns, the railway tracks, Charing Cross station?
9.The gradual linking of the group and the plan? Perry and his needs, his daughter and her photo, fourteen years later, the news, her addiction? His wanting to get out to see her? Contacting Brodie, their needing Lenny Drake? Their needing Viv Battista? Lacey’s experience and his becoming part of the escape?
10.Prison, the introduction to each of the characters, the lifers, the explanations, the effect, prison and the ordinariness of day-by-day routines? Rizza as a boss, his presumptions? Tony, madness, drugs, sexual orientation and behaviour, the transvestite, the boxer? The guards and their behaviour, participating with the prisoners, turning a blind eye? Lacey and his arrival, the group, humiliated, Tony eyeing him off?
11.Perry and his life, Brodie and his life? Their plans, information about the laundry, Perry working there, going to the confessional, the plans, having to cut through steel?
12.The need for Lenny Drake, his background as a thief, tough, clashes with Brodie, wearing the hood, the build-up to the boxing bout, needing to get the diamond, the knockout, knocking out the tooth?
13.Battista and the drugs, making them, distributing them, working in the laundry and collecting, the library books? With Rizza, forcing the prisoner to cut his own finger off? The guards not taking any notice? Approaching him for the deal, for the escape, his delivering the drugs, for Tony?
14.Tony, mad, the drugs, Lacey and the sexual behaviour, coming to the cell, getting the drugs, Lacey’s reaction and bashing him?
15.Perry, the visit of his wife, news of the death of his daughter? Lacey and his experience, Perry deciding he should go? Lacey and his being taken away, brought back, his accompanying Perry throughout the escape, their interactions, on Charing Cross station, Perry tired, urging Lacey to go?
16.Perry, weariness, the toll of the escape? Being called by Rizza? The confrontation, Perry’s speech about the smallness of Rizza’s life? The experience of the escape, the detail in his imagination, seeing his daughter on the rail tracks, the encounter with her on the Embankment? His going over the meaning of his life as he died?
17.The daughter, Southbank, Perry and the meaning of his life? The overall impact of the film, prison life, the journey, possibilities for some kind of redemption?
