A Man Escaped
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Movie Reviews of A Man Escaped
Movie Review: A Man Escaped--so did the print
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of cinema's great achievements, a testament of the combination of elements (subject, visual style, photographic image, movement, sound, background music, character, montage) are perfectly blended into a unique experience. The New Yorker print, however, is the worst copy of this film (16mm, 35mm, television screenings) I have ever seen. This was a copy with a lack of contrast, extra noise on the track, looking like a dub. If only there was a decent attempt to attain anything better would have begun to do the film justice. As it is, enjoy what you're stuck with but know there's something better out there.
Burt Shapiro
Movie Review: "I kept on working. It stopped me from thinking. I had to open this door."
Summary: 3 Stars
"On my right, no one. An empty cell. On my left, a neighbor who didn't answer my tapping." So the French prisoner tells us in this film as we look at him (in black & white) in a concrete cell. We rarely see the few German guards in this film and we hear almost nothing from them...or from anyone besides our prisoner and a few of his fellow inmates (when they are throwing out trash together or washing up). 80% of the dialogue in this film is actually a first person monologue, actually (which hardly conveys the tension others characterize this film as having more than its fair share of).
From a spoon he holds back from soup our prisoner tells us, "I made a kind of chisel." "I couldn't work fast, because of the noise I made and the constant fear of being caught. I kept having to sweep under the door with a piece of straw from my broom." "I kept on working. It stopped me from thinking. I had to open this door. I had no other plans." "Three boards would give me room enough." He tells us of he neighbor's silence scaring him then. "I plugged up the holes with paper I'd soiled on the floor." "After three weeks, working as quietly as possible, I was able to separate, lengthwise, three boards. But they were still in the frame, fastened by joints which bent my spoon. To dislodge them from the frame I needed another spoon. Only then could I force them hard enough." Then we see two spoons employed after he swipes another during an intervening scene. "I busted the frame, but more than I'd intended. I was able to put the piece back in place." "After one month's work my door was open." (Perhaps half of the speech of this film's 100 minutes passes by in this manner.) Then, in this instance, we see him slide a panel in the door and lift it out of line and put his face up to the opening.
During all of the above explanation, by the way, the director gives us close-ups of what is actually happening and what this prisoner is actually doing at the moment. The dialogue, thus, you could say, is rather redundant throughout most of this film. We don't see much besides the prisoner's cell, a room with sinks, a courtyard and sundry hallways. Mind you, the film does build, to some extent, to its denouement, but it ends rather abruptly. All in all, it was worth watching, in my opinion, but then again, It didn't cost me anything to view "A Man Escaped." By all means buy this film if such is your inclination, but I believe you'll be more satisfied having simply rented it (if possible). Cheers