USA TODAY International Edition
8. “Papillon” (1973) Prison dramas offer pure escapism
The arrival of Showtime’s “Escape at Dannemora” (Sunday, 10 EST/PST) provides a great opportunity to look at a thrilling entertainment genre, the prison-escape drama. (To be honest, we don’t need much of an excuse.)
“Dannemora,” based on a daring 2015 breakout that captured the nation’s attention, follows two men who escape from an upstate New York prison with the help of a female employee before heading on an ill-fated run from authorities.
Here’s where “Dannemora” ranks in a dandy dozen of the best films and TV shows that deal with escapes and inmates on the run (You can’t go wrong with any of them.):
12. Prison Break (2005-09; 2017)
This one makes the list for its first and best year, an almost comically complex but mesmerizing story of a man (Wentworth Miller) who goes to jail in order to break out his wrongfully convicted brother (Dominic Purcell) with an intricate set of instructions tattooed on his body. Stop laughing; the first season made for an excellent thriller.
11. “The Defiant Ones” (1958)
Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis play chain-gang refugees who escape their captors but not each other – they’re shackled together – after a fortuitous truck crash. Their relationship is engrossing and the film has historical value because of its progressive look at race relations in the 1950s.
10. “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?” (2000)
Many films dive into the detailed mechanics of getting out of jail, but this Coen Brothers project spends most of its time with prisoners (George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) on the run in a post-escape romp through the Depression-era South. Ralph Stanley’s bluegrass is a highlight of the delightful soundtrack.
9. “The Fugitive” (1963-67 TV series; 1993 film)
Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) is the archetypal innocent man fleeing the law in this ’60s anthology that succeeds despite Janssen’s perpetually guilty look, a giveaway for a fugitive. The 1993 film squeezes Kimble’s escape and effort to find his wife’s killer into a taut Chicago thriller memorable for an acidic, Oscar-worthy response from Tommy Lee Jones’ marshal, Sam Gerard, when Harrison Ford’s Kimble proclaims his innocence: “I don’t care.”
Ignore the 2017 remake and watch Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman as safecracker and indefatigable breakout artist Henri “Papillion” Charriere and his prison compatriot, the forger Louis Dega, two unlikely partners in a frequently thwarted effort to get off notorious Devil’s Island.
7. “Escape at Dannemora” (2018)
The seven-part drama, directed by Ben Stiller and starring Patricia Arquette, Benicio del Toro and Paul Dano, is a worthy inductee in the escape-artist hall of fame as it delves into the minutiae of an escape scheme while revealing the fascinating pathology of a self-destructive character triangle.
6. “Escape from Alcatraz” (1979)
It’s a battle of San Francisco icons as Clint Eastwood takes a break from “Dirty Harry” punk-busting duties to play an inmate, Frank Morris, who takes the measure of the Rock, the allegedly inescapable island fortress. The prisoners are the good guys as Eastwood & Co. try to foil a cruel warden (Patrick McGoohan). Digging out, the escape genre’s exit of choice, is but one element of a masterful plan that requires negotiating frigid San Francisco Bay.
5. “Down by Law” (1986)
Director Jim Jarmusch offers a bizarre comedic peek at an odd trio of cellmates (played by Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni) who escape a Louisiana jail cell to become buddies on the run in an offbeat netherworld of light and shadow. “Down” is worth watching just for the scene where Italian actor Roberto Benigni incites a jailhouse riot with his heavily accented chant of the kids’ rhyme, “I scream-a, You scream-a, We all scream-a for ice cream-a!”
4. “Out of Sight” (1998)
Escaped bank robber Jack Foley (Clooney, in a movie-star-making turn) and kidnapped U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez, in her best movie role) become lovers and adversaries in Steven Soderbergh’s wry, rollicking, romance caper, perhaps the top adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel.
3. “Stalag 17” (1953)
William Holden won an Oscar playing a cynical sergeant in Billy Wilder’s film about American soldiers relentlessly seeking a way out of a German World War II prison camp. A mole – the spying, not the digging kind – heightens the paranoia.
2. “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994)
Frank Darabont’s adaptation of a Stephen King novella combines a great look at the bonding and brutality of prison life, wonderful period detail from the 1940s, a surprise escape and a beautiful friendship between inmates (Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman).
1. “The Great Escape” (1963)
Nothing tops this film for pure “escapist” brio. Getting out of a German prison camp is the be-all, end-all for our heroes, Allied POWs, in this film adaptation of a real WWII story. It’s a big action drama, as a top-notch cast, headed by McQueen and James Garner, takes part in a meticulous effort to tunnel to freedom. McQueen’s motorcycle leap is as emblematic as it gets in the genre, as is the whistle-while-you-dig theme from Oscar winner Elmer Bernstein.