Les évadés de Maze

I am disappointed, as an American, that I did not learn more about the Troubles from this movie. It's one of the reasons I watched it. Everything seemed to be skimmed over as if every viewer already had the knowledge needed. Wrong.

I tried to figure out how I would make this movie better and I can't - because I am not Northern Irish (Scottish). I do think this was a lost opportunity.

That's why the average score. None of the characters had depth, so we didn't really care about them. Maybe the Guard whose family was almost shot, but that's about it. Otherwise, can't tell you a thing about anyone else. How sad. How very sad for a missed opportunity to educate people to a VERY important period in Irish history.

I was hoping this would have moved irish cinema forward a bit. Unfortunately it succeeded in doing the exact opposite.

There was a great lack of authenticity regarding the prison atmosphere, the supposed northern Ireland accents of some of the actors, the location( shot in Cork southern ireland and didn't care to hide that fact in the film). You would expect a prison drama to be a bit gritty and claustrophobic and maybe even instill a sense of menace. This felt more like an adult day care center where you could sit and drink a cup of tea with your custodian. Some performances worked but overall the film was embarrassing to watch as the amateurish holes appeared one after another.

A little slow for the first 2/3s and as an American, it was sometimes hard to understand the Irish accent. But overall, not a bad movie. I would have made the prison fight scenes a little more realistic.

The true events are far more compelling than the events depicted in this film. Why the producers went down this route is beyond me. As a fictional story it is quite a good film, but for anyone with knowledge of actual events it will be a disappointment.

No explosions or cartoonish special effects so I won't be surprised if it doesn't play well in the US. Factual learning experience, only wish they would have spent more time explaining the situation at that point in history for the younger crowd.