Jay’s wife Ann (Bronson’s wife Jill Ireland) realises she’s got a short window to save her husband, and enlists bush pilot Nick Colton (Bronson) to drop a whirlybird into the prison yard and literally pick him up. If you only know his stoic work in the increasingly risible Death Wish films, Bronson’s Breakout should be something of a revelation.īased on a real-life chopper in-a prison-yard rescue, Breakout creates a fresh fictional story John Huston plays sinister figure Harris Wagner who frames-up his son Jay (Robert Duvall with hair) and gets him sent to a Mexican prison, where even hiding in a freshly buried coffin doesn’t provide a reliable way out. Bronson was a major star in the mid 70’s, and this is one of his best performances laid-back, intense but not without humour or empathy. Only two things can get him out – a lot of money and Charles Bronson!’ Popping up on Prime for no discernible reason other than it’s a decent enough back-catalogue entry, Tom Grier’s action movie for Bronson is something of a museum piece in terms of cultural references, but certainly delivers the requisite action scenes. ‘Sentenced to 28 years in prison for a crime he never committed.
