"Breakout" is a film apparently based in part on an actual case. In the early 1970s, a man was supposedly falsely imprisoned in Mexico on behalf of the CIA (how true that part is, I have no idea). After years of trying to secure his release, the family decided to take a more active approach...and arranged for a helicopter to land IN the prison and rescue the man....and it worked! This real incident inspired the studio to make "Breakout".

In this story, Jay (Robert Duvall) is imprisoned in a hellish prison because some CIA operative paid the authorities to do this...even though he broke no laws. His wife (Jill Ireland) is beside herself and approaches a pilot (Charles Bronson) to try to fly into the country to rescue him. But the plan and the next one both fail. In the first attempt, she never told the pilot where he was flying in the first place...and when he landed he was attacked by the police and gave up the mission. The second, well...see about that one...and see if there's yet another attempt to free the man.

So is the film any good? It's not bad...reasonably exciting and worth seeing. One of my only reservations is that I found the rape jokes in one of the scenes a bit distasteful....though the 70s were clearly a different time! The other is that the Mexican soldiers giving chase were dumber than the Three Stooges...which doesn't seem very realistic!

Rain for a murder he did not commit, Robert of all ends up in a Mexican prison and has to convince wife Jill Ireland to help him Escape. Nearly buried alive, almost put in drag, it seems that there's no way out of this mess. But with Charles Bronson hired by Ireland to help her, they are sure going to try. Playing a character far different than anything else he's ever played, Bronson is quite lively in this comic action film, maybe not funny in theme but humorous in the way the plotline is rolled out. There's plenty of action as Bronson proved himself to be unstoppable although when his partner dresses as a Mexican seniorita to try to get into prison for an alleged conjugal vidit, it's very obvious that he's going to be exposed. Wahlberg actor playing this role looks hysterically funny in drag, the result is not so funny.

There's also a scene where Duvall, paranoid that his wife is having an affair with Bronson, rapes her during a conjugal visit, so he's not the most sympathetic character either. It appears that his wealthy father in New York, director John Huston (not behind the camera, just acting),is somehow responsible for him being jailed. He doesn't want to lift a finger to help him. It's interesting to see Ireland playing the wife and love interest of someone other than Bronson, and there's never any hint that they are actually having an affair. That's just a ridiculous plot point that took this down a rating point for me. Still, this film is non-stop action, and Bronson, who has become one of my favorite action stars of this., is there a unique in a role that is totally unique. Sheree North has an amusing supporting role as the girlfriend of Bronson's partner who aides him in the mission.

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.