The escape from Alcatraz was a gripping event which captured global attention. In 1979 Hollywood took advantage of the escape and director, Don Siegel put us in perspective through his film 'Escape from Alcatraz'. Siegel received minor criticism, in relation to the denouement, as critics said it was ‘boring’ and ‘too realistic’ thus didn't give enough of a direction for a fictional film. My opinion subverts the criticism as I appreciate the lack of artistic license and enjoy the realism embedded in the narrative.
There is a lot of curiosity surrounding the event regarding what happened to the men post-escape. In my opinion, the ferocious water conditions would've made it almost impossible for the convicts to survive unless they got onto a boat. A team of Dutch researchers constructed a study based on models which would solve these mysteries.
One model was used to measure the movement of detritus and particles in the bays to assess the sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay. Researcher Rolf Hut, wanted to use this to challenge the "Mythbusters" theory (in 2003 the series showed how it would have been possible to survive overnight). Hut wanted to put this to the test so by using old tidal records of the night the escape occurred, he found that 50 boats were released, every 30 minutes, between the hours of 8pm and 4am. He discovered that if the men left between the hours of 11pm and midnight, they had a chance at survival, any later - the men would have perished. At 1am the tide reversed, which would've pushed the men back into the bay, thus being re-incarcerated.
I constructed my opinion around the evidence which emerged in 1975 that brothers, John and Clarence Anglin, made it to Brazil. Their nephew, Ken Widner, told Daily Mail online that he would like to go to Brazil to contact his uncles. He stated his uncle, Robert Anglin, admitted to keeping in touch with the brothers 25 years after their escape.
