Date Watched: Feburary 19, 2011
Source: Netflix Instant Play
This was a phenomenal movie. Seriously. It was one of those movies that the story makes you want to jump up and down on whatever you’re sitting on and yell at the TV for people being so STUPID and CRUEL.
The long-and-short of it is that Henri Young stole something like $3 from a little store in order to feed his younger sister, who he was raising because their parents died. The store happened to also double as the town’s post office, so it was a federal crime, and he was tossed into Alcatraz. He masterminded an escape attempt, and as punishment, he was put into solitary confinement for 3 years, with only 30 minutes once a year outside. The max allowed is 19 days in solitary. So of course we all feel bad for him because he’s completely screwed… can’t stand up straight or walk correctly, can barely talk once he gets out… he’s just a wreck.
Except then you Google or Wiki the REAL Henri Young and find out that he was a bank robber who took hostages aggressively and also a murderer, and this was all before he was even sentenced to Alcatraz. Then you find out that his stint in solitary only lasted a few months, and the murder of a fellow inmate that he committed the day he was released into the general population, really happened a year after he was released from solitary.
So basically, while this movie claims to be inspired by a true story, it’s only INSANELY loosely accurate. And by that I pretty much mean they got the name of the prisoner, the name of the prison, and one crime (the escape attempt) correct. The rest is just la-dee-da’d by some dude who really should have just changed the names of people because it’s so inaccurate, using the real names is just dumb and lazy.
Still, I can’t say I didn’t love this movie. I did. Just finding out the truth annoys me.
silvershamrock.wordpress.com 