L'évadé

I would recommend this file just so you could see a very young Randy Quaid dress up like a Mexican prostitute, but this film offers so much more. Its an excellent prison movie. The acting is very good, especially from Bronson. This is the perfect late night file.

An innocent man , Jay Wagner (Robert Duval) is set-up , betrayed , blamed and sent to prison in Mexico . A bush pilot called Nick Colton (Charles Bronson) is hired by a wife called Ann (Jill Ireland) whose husband is imprisoned . As Nick for fifty thousand dollars to go to Mexico to free the prisoner wrongly framed and held captive at an impregnable Mexican prison . And thanks to the abundant reward Colton is all to eager to do it . But the nasty people (John Huston , Paul Mantee) who accused Jay will do what they have to make sure he doesn't break out . Only two things can get him out - A lot of money and Charles Bronson! No prison is strong enough to hold Bronson! Impossible? Not for Bronson! .Charles Bronson in action in BREAKOUT ¡

The producers of this action movie use an initial foreword to tell us that the prison getaway method shown in the film has actually been used . Enjoyable and stirring screenplay , though there are a lot of implausibilites in the plot , which gets by on the moving action sequences . Of course , highlight of the movie results to be the thrilling and exciting escape , plenty of nail-biting tension , suspense and noisy action . This is a Charles Bronson show , playing in his usual style , here as devil-may-care bush pilot to execute an extremely dangerous assignment . While not exactly Bronson at his best , this thriller does have its moments as the star carries out the risked mission by flying a helicopter throughout the attractive landscapes and into the penitentiary . And his real life wife Jill Ireland gives an acceptable acting as inmate's spouse who attempts to get him out . Support cast is pretty good with a variety of notorious secondaries , many of them playing in all in light-hearted vein , such as : Randy Quaid attempting to convince the prison guards he's a girl in spite of his weighs 200 pounds and more six feet , John Huston as the villain grandfather , Paul Mantee as a heinous henchman , Alan Vint , Alejandro Rey , José María Caffarel , Luis Prendes , Roy Jenson and special mention for Robert Duval as the prisoner sentenced to 28 years in prison for a crime he never committed and Shree North in a comical/serious role as a ploy to free the inmate.

Superbly photographed by Lucien Ballard on impressive outdoors , this cameraman when he's given the chance is awesome . Being shot on various locations from Spain and Mexico and the prison fortress was filmed in the Pyrenees in the south of France , there , on a mountaintop near Perpignan, sits the grim pile known as the "Fort de Bellegarde". Kudos for the rousing as well as spectacular musical score by maestro Jerry Goldsmith , composed in his peculiar style . Goldsmith charging along to some of the best film soundtracks has ever written . The motion picture was professionally directed by Tom Gries , though hard to tell at times . Tom replaced Michael Ritchie as filmmaker early during production , he was an expert director of Western as ¨Breakheart pass¨ also titled ¨Nevada Express¨ , ¨100 Rifles¨ , and ¨Will Penny¨ that is the best work ever made ; Gries also directed other successes as ¨Breakout¨, ¨The glass house¨ , ¨Helter Skelter¨ and TV series as ¨QBVII¨ , but he also made some real duds . His later output in other genres was routine and flopped in theatres.

In a rare show of his comedic talents as well as having more lines of dialog to read then in his last two or three films put together Charles Bronson as crackerjack pilot Nick Colton is really enjoying himself in the movie "Breakout". Together with his wife, in real life, Jill Ireland as Ann Wagner the wife in the film who's husband Jay, Robert Duvell,Nick Bronson is out to rescue Jay from a brutal Mexican prison.

Jay was framed by non-other then his grandfather Harris Wagner, John Huston, who together with his silent partners in the fruit and transportation business The CIA. Wagner feels that Jays free spirited and revolutionary ideas are a treat to the future of his company and has Jay arrested in Satiago Chile for a murder in Mexico some 2,000 or so miles away. Thrown before a Mexican kangaroo court, with a paid-off judge presiding, Jay's guilt despite the illogic fact that he can't be at two places at the same time, Mexico & Chile,is a forgone conclusion and he's sent up the river for 28 years in a castle-like Mexican prison.

Nick hired by Ann to rescue her husband is stifled by Jays sleazy grandpa Harris Wagner who Ann, unknowing that he had her husband set up, is totally trustful of. Nick realizing that the best way to get Jay freed is to do it by air and to keep the plan only to himself and his fellow rescuers Hawk Hawkins & Myrna, Randy Quaid & Sheree North, which leads to the exciting final. Nick not only rescues Jay but also finds out who that lousy creep Cable, Paul Mantee, really is by him making sure, for Harris and the CIA, that his rescue of Jay falls flat on it's face. Cable is to murder Ann's husband if he ever makes it back to the USA, where the Mexican police can't touch him.

Charles Bronson as Nick Colton and wife Jill Ireland as Ann Wagner really touch off sparks in all their scenes together even though Jill isn't married to him in the movie and they have no romantic scenes in the film at all. Nick's trying to learn how to fly a helicopter didn't go that well at all at the start of his lessons from helicopter pilot Harve, Alan Vint. Later when he took off by himself, Harve felt that the rescue attempt was to dangerous, with only three flying lessons under his belt had even Herve surprised and shocked at just how good he was at the controls.

Tense action when Nick tries to land and then rescue the very sick Jay Wagner who escapes from the prison hospital with the help of fellow prisoner Sosa, Jorge Moreno. Sosa who ironically was part of the frame-up that put Jay there in the first place may have gotten guilt feelings about what he did to Jay.

Some really great stunts in the movie with a man falling some 100 feet from a helicopter straight through the roof of a house, with what looked like nothing to break his fall. Later at the airport across the border in Texas at the end of the movie one of the baddies is sliced to pieces, by an oncoming jumbo passenger plane, as if he were a roll of salami.

Charles Bronson gets the rare chance to exercise his comic chops in this relatively lighthearted role (I've never seen him smile and joke so much before). Apart from that, "Breakout" is nothing special, there is very little action, and after all the anticipation the actual ecsape sequence is totally unbelievable. The only other notable part of the movie is the eye-popping (no pun intended) finish to the plane field fight. **1/2 out of 4.

"Breakout" is easily one of Charles Bronson's best starring vehicles. For the most part his early 70's films fell into two categories: either junky (Violent City) or pretentious (The Mechanic). The first Death Wish film was thought-provoking, but marred by sickeningly graphic and misogynist violence; the sequels had the violence with none of the art. His late-70s films were quickie garbage (Death Hunt, Love and Bullets). His 80's films featured a sickly prurient violence level and a sleepwalking star.

But Bronson did have quite a string of quality films in the mid-70s: "Breakheart Pass (1974)," "Hard Times" (1975), "Mr. Majestic" (1974), "From Noon Til Three" (1976), and "Telefon" (1977)were all quality films in which Bronson's star quality, charisma, and acting ability was able to shine through.

The best of Bronson's mid-70s output in my opinion, however, is Tom Gries' "Breakout." The story has drama, humor, and tremendous forward momentum, the cast is superior (Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, John Huston, and the always-underrated Jill Ireland). Most importantly, Charles Bronson breaks out of his silent-and-stony persona and creates a character that has depth, humour, and humanity as well as toughness.

Those who complain that this film has little action have obviously not seen many of Bronson's films. Very few of them are actually what could be called "action movies". For the most part they were melodramas with some gunplay, the occasional fight, and a maybe car chase near the end. "Breakout" is actually as much or more of an action film than most of Bronson's others. I think that most folks who mistakenly lament the lack of "action" in this film compared to his others are confusing "action" with sick, perverse violence. Look at "Death Wish" for instance: Bronson shoots some guys. That's the extent of the action, if you exclude the graphic rape scene near the beginning. He points a gun and shoots. He rarely runs. There's never a car chase. It's a melodrama, not an action film. `Breakout' has a helicopter escape, a fistfight on a dark runway as a twin-prop plane approaches at breakneck speed, and an attitude that make it more of an action film.

So "Breakout" doesn't have graphic torture, or rape, or someone getting sodomized with a nightstick. I'll settle for a great story, fine acting, cool action, and interesting characters.