Based on the true story of the infamous 1983 prison breakout
of 38 IRA prisoners from Her Majesty’s Prison Maze. A maximum prison considered
escape proof it proved otherwise when these men, convicted of taking part in
armed paramilitary campaigns during in Ireland, did indeed escape.
Following a hunger strike in another prison that resulted in
several inmates dying certain members were transferred to other locations.
Larry Marley (Tom Vaughan-Taylor) is one of those transferred, looked down on
by his fellow inmates who think he caved in on the strike. The fact is that he
remained loyal to the cause and now wants to prove himself by planning an
escape from the Maze.
Each member of the crew must put together bits and pieces of
information that they then feed to Marley. By doing so they begin to piece
together a map of the prison and understand why the term maze was used. But
with this information about the various locations in the prison he is able to
work out a plan that would allow them access from one section to the next.
The movie meticulously shows the process that Marley and his
crew had to go through to make the escape happen. In so doing it makes for a
slow moving film that offers little to no action until the final moments when
the escape actually takes place. The thing is that while viewers today may be
unused to films like this the reality would have seemed more as depicted here
than a rough and tumble action flick.
Perhaps the one thing that will do the movie more harm than
anything is the lack of familiarity with the background story being told here,
that of the IRA and their battles in Ireland. It’s a story that will be
familiar to the Irish and the British but how many people around the world will
understand which side to root for and which one to hold accountable? And will
that decision lie in your loyalties to one group or the other?
The production values here are well done and the prison
looks more realistic than many have in past films about prison breaks. Vaughan-Taylor
does a fine job as the main character the story focuses around and brings him
to life. Barry Ward as prison guard Gordon Close matches him scene for scene
and offers some of the more dangerous aspects of being a guard against this
group when his family is nearly bombed.
The end result is a movie that’s good but at the same time
incredibly slow moving. The final prison break is interesting and deadly. I
have no doubt that the reality of the situation was much more intense than
depicted here but once more not being well read in the war going on made the
film a bit difficult to sympathize with one group or the other. Knowing more on
the topic would make it a much better film so perhaps reading up on the subject
would have made it better.
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