[6] The film marks the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), The Beguiled (1971), and Dirty Harry (1971).
Released by Paramount Pictures on June 22, 1979, Escape from Alcatraz received critical acclaim and was a financial success, one of the highest-grossing films of 1979.
Morris also makes an enemy of Wolf, a rapist who harasses him in the showers and later attacks him in the prison yard with a knife; both men are subsequently imprisoned in isolation in the hole.
Later, Morris encounters bank-robbing brothers John and Clarence Anglin, who are his old friends from another prison sentence, and forms a partnership with inmate Charley Butts.
Over the next months, Morris, the Anglins, and Butts dig through the walls of their cells with spoons (having soldered them with heat to form makeshift shovels), fashion dummies out of paper-mâché and human hair to plant in their beds and construct a primitive raft from raincoats.
During mealtime, Morris places a chrysanthemum at the table in honor of Doc, but the Warden stops by and crushes it, causing a provoked Litmus to suffer a heart attack.
The Warden is later summoned to go to Washington and face his superiors, with the prospect of being forced to accept an early retirement/termination of his duties for having failed to prevent the breakout from happening.
[8] Circumstantial evidence uncovered in the early 2010s seemed to suggest that the men had survived, and that, contrary to the official FBI report of the escapees' raft never being recovered and no car thefts being reported, a raft was discovered on nearby Angel Island with footprints leading away (similar to the fictional scene in the movie where the Warden finds a chrysanthemum possibly left by the escapees).
Inmate Rufe Persful, maddened by strict rules that imposed silence on the prisoners, cut off four fingers with a hatchet to try to get transferred off Alcatraz.
Although Alcatraz had its own power plant, it was no longer functional, and 15 miles of cable were required to connect the island to San Francisco's electricity.
Siegel's original ending closed with the guards' discovery of the dummy head in Morris's bed, leaving it uncertain whether the escape attempt had succeeded or failed.
The Warden is then informed by his aide that he has been summoned to catch the next plane to Washington to face his superiors: it is left up to the viewers to conclude whether or not the escapees succeeded in making their escape.
[18][19][20] Frank Rich of Time described the film as "cool, cinematic grace", while Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic called it "crystalline cinema".
[21] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a first-rate action movie", noting that "Mr. Eastwood fulfills the demands of the role and of the film as probably no other actor could.
"[23] Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, "For almost all of its length, 'Escape from Alcatraz' is a taut and toughly wrought portrait of life in a prison.
"[25] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "A delight for cineastes, 'Escape From Alcatraz' could serve as a textbook example in breathtakingly economical, swift and stylish screen storytelling.
The site's critics consensus reads, "Escape from Alcatraz makes brilliant use of the tense claustrophobia of its infamous setting -- as well as its leading man's legendarily flinty resolve.