Breakout is a cool Charles Bronson action film. Bronson plays a mechanic who is hired by a woman to rescue an American who is serving time in a Mexican prison. Robert Duvall, John Huston (in one or two scenes) and Randy Quaid are the male supporting cast. Jill Ireland and Sheree North are the sex objects to be groped and shared by the men (Bronson is involved in two love triangles). The title scene set to a playful score by Jerry Goldsmith is very impressive. But then the film slows down with Jill Ireland (who plays the jailed Robert Duvall's wife) trying to save her husband. But things pick up after the beer guzzling Bronson makes an appearance. The action scenes with the helicopter were good but not spectacular. Mexicans are portrayed as complete idiots. The actor who played Bronson's helicopter coach and the scenes with him and Bronson were amusing. So were the scenes with Bronson and Shirlee North's husband. Tarantino might have borrowed the coffin scene in KILL BILL 2 from this film and not SPOORLOOS as widely believed.The ending was very very violent with an airplane smashing into the villain who was fighting with Bronson on the tarmac.People in the 70s could look forward to watching cool, badass and provocative action films like Breakout. We are reduced to watching SPIDERMAN and AVENGERS. I bet this film looks great on Blu ray. The DVD I watched was just about OK in terms of picture quality.(7/10)

BREAKOUT isn't bad for what it is: a typically tough '70s-era thriller, with innocent man Robert Duvall banged up south of the border and tough pilot Charlie Bronson the only guy with a chance of getting him out. It's a film shot through with style and character, and yet as a thriller, it's not particularly thrilling. As prison breakout movies go, this lacks almost entirely all of the suspense from something like ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ and it does feel plodding and overlong in places.Still, the joy of watching Bronson at the height of his tough guy fame makes this worthwhile, and the addition of further interesting cast members like Duvall, Sheree North, Randy Quaid and Jill Ireland, only adds to that watchability. And it does finally start to pick up right at the end, including a truly jaw-dropping special effect involving a plane that you wonder how they managed to get past the censors. A win, then, for director Tom Gries, but the various scriptwriters needed to tighten things further to make this a true great.

Before I discuss "Breakout," I have to discuss my love for Charles Bronson, specifically his action films of the 70's and 80's. To me, he was an entirely original movie star...his performances, which many dismiss as "wooden," were in my opinion brilliantly under-stated, especially at a time when characters in movies were forced to be increasingly- sometimes distractingly- complex. Bronson serviced the story; no worrying about what his protagonists were "feeling," or whether they had unresolved issues with their father... no tortured moralizing of a Shakespeare tragic hero- Bronson just Was. He showed up and the movie began, and what makes his movies so engaging and enduring is that you can focus on the story at hand. His films look deceptively simple, but they never fail to suck you in and take you away.Now for "Breakout"... as many IMDb reviewers have noted, it's not a perfect film. But Bronson is so natural, so charming, that he somehow makes it work. His scenes with Jill Ireland have a wonderful chemistry, and his being hired by this willful woman reminded me a little of Bogart in "The African Queen." He's also funnier in this movie than in any other… he has a silly charisma that helps him con his friends and seduce innocent people into his poorly-planned rescue attempts.The movie also has wonderful cinematography, and a "big" visual feel… especially the over-the-shoulder helicopter shots that include the car following on the road below. And Sheree North is a great as Bronson's friend who begs him to rape her. Since I try to be fair in my reviews about the positives and negatives in any film, I have to be honest about the flaws that drove me crazy.First, we are never given a clear explanation for why Robert Duvall's character is framed and sent to jail. John Huston's scenes as Duvall's evil grandfather seem chopped-up and out-of-place. It wouldn't surprise me to discover they were filmed by a second-unit director. And if Huston wanted Duvall in jail, why was he willing to finance Jill Ireland's efforts to get him out? The opening sequence is never explained, in which an anonymous prisoner pays off guards in order to escape and then is shot and killed by a fellow inmate after changing into street clothes and walking off. At one point in the film Duvall tries to smuggle out of prison in a coffin when the sadistic guards lower the coffin into a grave and bury him alive. In the next scene, Duvall is alive, with no explanation given (!) Later on Jill Ireland tells Bronson that Duvall is sick and confined to the prison hospital, but we had no way of knowing that before... also, we get no explanation of what his illness is, although he stays sick until the end of the film.Alright so I'm nit-picking. The fact of the matter is that "Breakout" is Charles Bronson at his best, and if you want to know why the man was a star, this is the film to watch. He's great in "Death Wish" and "Mr. Majestyk" but here he gives one of his most energetic, strong, and sweet performances. He serves the story and he makes the movie fun... and that's why I love Bronson. Catch it if you can!GRADE: B-NOTE: Watch during the frisking sequence near the beginning of the movie for the woman who is "molested" by the guards. She is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. She is not listed in the credits but I'm offering a thousand dollars to anyone who can tell me her name.

Fans (or foes) who think Bronson doesn't say anything in his movies should take a look at this one in which he not only speaks a bit more than usual, but also even smiles occasionally! When shady corporate head Huston decides to sock away his grandson Duvall for over 25 years in a Mexican prison, Duvall's devoted wife Ireland hires Bronson to, as the title alludes, break him out. Duvall tries to get out on his own at first, with unpleasant results, and Bronson's initial attempts are no less troublesome, but eventually he comes up with a plan that has a better chance of succeeding. The trouble is, Huston's pocket henchman Mantee is on the case with plans to kill Duvall should he ever escape! Bronson portrays a rundown, flat-broke pilot who will do almost anything for money and his character has a sly, con-artist bent to it mixed with an appealing uncertainty as to what he is able to do to make the breakout happen. For instance, he settles on using a helicopter for his plan and yet barely knows how to fly it! This makes him more of a feasible pressed-into-service rescuer rather than some super-hero. Duvall is the one who has little to say this time, his character holed up in prison for most of the running time and sick or dazed for a lot of that. Incidentally, he is in very fine shape in this film, evidenced by his torso during a running scene he has. Ireland runs hot and cold, unfortunately saddled with a needless (and obvious) wig in the second have that is meant to be her own hair, but clearly isn't. Her makeup scheme is odd, giving her dark, smeary eyes that look as if they've been punched. Quaid, in one of his early roles, is impossibly tall and skinny and does a nice job. Astonishingly, he has one scene in drag and, facially at least, the result is not quite as horrifying as one might expect! Adding a delightful and sexy aspect to the film is North as one of Bronson's old flames who he enlists to help him with his scheme to save Duvall. For her age, she is in great shape, too, and makes a generally good impression, if, perhaps, a bit too carefree under all the threat of danger. Huston's role appears to have been trimmed a bit and his motives are left rather fuzzy. There's a scene with him and Mantee that begins with a view-screen door closing and it's possible that some pertinent info was relayed in that scene, now lost to the cutting room floor. In any case, his storyline is not really resolved. Mantee has a memorably meaty scene on the runway of an airport. Other notable cast members include Rey, as Ireland's attorney, in a role that seems pointless in the finished film, and Vint, as a flight instructor who gets roped into helping Bronson with his plan. This is not a great movie, but it's an agreeable time-killer with a non-oppressive running time, a Jerry Goldsmith score and several sequences of action and suspense. Fans of the famous real-life husband and wife duo will likely get more out of it than the average viewer.