ESCAPE FROM PREORIA (2000)

As nobler-than-thou prison escape films go, this one’s a solid-citizen contender, neither overblown nor oversold.  Debuting director Francis Annan makes his points and gets out of the way on this truish story of two 1970s South African anti-Apartheid activists (Daniel Radcliffe & Daniel Webber) sentenced for setting off harmless exploding devices to scatter political leaflets.  Finding a like-minded support group in their segregated jail (but only one willing to join the escape plan), Radcliffe’s character uses the prison tool shop and his resourceful ideas to create a series of wooden keys to fit a series of doors, gates & locks leading out of the helpfully antiquated prison.  Perhaps it's all too straightforward, character development and background on their unlikely talents skipped over, and what went missing left the film commercially lost in the shuffle of Early Covid lockdown.  A shame, as you can easily infer the missing pieces on your own.  (Like having Radcliffe’s creative mechanical engineering of ‘safe’ explosive devices figuring into his whiz-bang jailhouse ingenuity amid white-knuckle fear of failure and the even higher stakes of detection.)  Or is it simply a lack of clear prison logistics when we really need to know just where everyone is at every moment for the suspense to take hold.*  Still, if you’re on the hunt for a nice prison escape escapade, look no further.  And count your blessings to find certain prison movie tropes passed over: no sexual threats or dropping the soap; no rants on bad prison food (Radcliffe digs in when nervous); no solitary confinement heroics.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Fitting that a country with such an ugly political system should feature the ugliest English-language accent you’ve ever heard.  Listen to the vowels coming out of the Judge on the case.  They could curdle the contents of a can of Coca-Cola.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  That’s a cut from an L.P. of the Mozart Requiem played on the prison sound system cued up by the night watchman as he makes his rounds.  A nod toward THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION/’95 use of the Letter Duet from THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO on their turntable?  (Naturally, all the inmates love it.)