Escape

Returning to the U.S. from a 1973 adventure to South America, Dwight Worker, a young American, was arrested in Mexico City, for smuggling a small amount of drugs. He was sent, without trial, to the dreaded Lecumberri Prison, from which only one person had ever escaped ... Pancho Villa, some sixty years earlier.

The first half of this film describes Workers' ordeal, from the time of his arrest, on through the months and years of his imprisonment, wherein he endures brutal treatment, and false hopes for release from a corrupt system.

Eventually, Worker meets Lily Levinson, a tough, middle aged woman with a heart of gold. Later, he meets Barbara Chilcoate, a young, attractive woman with whom Dwight falls in love. Over a period of time, Barbara and Lily devise an ingenious plan to free Dwight. The film's second half is the implementation of this plan, which is filled with suspense.

"Escape" (1980) is quite good. Its impact lies in its origin as fact. The credible script gets strong support from both casting and acting. Timothy Bottoms is excellent as Dwight. Kay Lenz does a fine job as Barbara. And Colleen Dewhurst, with her gravelly voice, is terrific as Lily. My only complaint with this film is the poor visual quality. The copy I watched was grainy, and had a reddish/orange tint.

Fictional prison escape movies are a dime a dozen, because the stories are so contrived. This story is not contrived. The events really happened. And the cinematic effort to tell the story is of sufficient quality to render an absorbing viewer experience.

I enjoyed this movie because it is always a great storyline when a person changes his fate and changes his destiny. I love movies involving escaping from a seemingly hopeless situation. The main character, played by Timothy Bottoms, is jailed in a dirty Mexican prison, complete with poor living conditions and crooked guards. The manner in which he escaped kept me on the edge of my seat. I have tried for years to find the movie, and I have written TV station managers across the country in pursuit of the movie. I'm afraid it is lost forever. The "Shawshank Redemption" is a caparable movie. I would love to find this movie on the late show, or even to buy a reel of it.

Some reviewers have compared it to Alan Parker's masterpiece. OK the topic is more than close to the 1978 feature. And inspired form actual events that occured. But it could have been far better for a TV stuff, so realistic. It was made for home audiences but unfortunately also softened for those large audiences, with seldom brutality scenes. Many clichés too and so many predictable moments, unless the ending of course, so unbelieveble. But never forget that reality is sometimes more unbeblieveble than fiction. And I was surprised to see that in bloody and rough Mexican jails, you could getlaid with your wife. I at least learned something today. Not a bad picture although.

I loved this movie. So naturally I only got to see it once over twenty yrs. ago. I would give anything to see it again. Actually I would love to have it on DVD. It keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat from the time the escape starts until it ends. Much better than Midnight Express. If anyone ever knows how to get a copy please let me know. Kay Lenz is great as the wife. She teaches her husband how to look, act, and walk like a woman. How different is that? I have never seen an escape movie that comes close to being as riveting. I sometimes wonder how Hollywood decides which movies get played over and over and over again when they are not near as good as this one.