This blog entry is part of my "movie recommendation site suggestions". Read more about that here.
Le trou
The cinema has no lack of abundance of prison movies, of escape movies, or of prison escape movies. So I was a bit skeptical about what this movie would have that I hadn't already seen countless times. Not that I doubted that was one of the best, but sometimes even the best doesn't seem as great when you've seen a lot of the movies that ripped it off subsequently. Or at least that's what I was thinking at first. I think now I realize that when a movie really is great, it doesn't matter how many movies rip it off subsequently. The original can still stand because it has all the right factors that really made it great.
This is certainly the case here. The film works because of its simplicity. It has wonderful, varied characters that we get to know. But then the bulk of the film is experiencing the reality of the escape attempt along with them. The film spends plenty of time lettings the audience experience each step of the escape attempt along with the characters. The work itself is long, hard, and repetitive, but in no way tedious, at least to the audience. The cutting is so simple, with such little music or emotional indicators that the suspense is immense. We have no idea of knowing if the characters are in danger because the normal cinematic queues are missing or ambiguous. I want to talk about the ending but fear saying much about it at all to give anything away or build expectations in a certain direction. Even if you have seen a dozen escape films and think you are sick of them, make sure you see this one if you haven't yet.
Rating: 9/10