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Movies that depict prison breaks are particularly slow and dim compared to Maze. Stephen Burke’s film dramatizes how, back in 1983, 38 IRA prisoners broke out of an impenetrable prison in the UK, called HM Prison Maze. Maze is widely regarded as the best prison escape in the UK’s history. The movie details the relationship between the prison’s main guard and the escape planner, which is quite complex in nature. The movie was well made, but the way in which it was executed can be questioned. The show goes at such an unbelievably slow pace that it becomes unbearably boring.
The breakout was orchestrated by Larry Marley, a participant in the hunger strike that caused the death of Bobby Sands and nine others. Marley is still in prison. Two years later, he is organizing a plan that will allow a mass escape for Republican political prisoners that will serve as a dramatic symbolic statement. Initially, the leader of the IRA prisoners, played by a rather good Martin McCann, does not have much use for Marley’s ambitious proposal which he considers too risky for his advancement. But eventually, he does surrender.
To execute his plan, Larry plays the long game. He sets out to win over Gordon, one of the more balanced guards, slowly. Gordon is a target of the rampant violence in his county as he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt that left his wife and daughter fleeing the country. Even though he is very skeptical of him, Gordon does end up opening up to the overly cheerful prisoner who helps with chores even when they are not necessary.
At its core, Vaughan-Lawlor lectures Marley’s cunning tendencies and gradual respect for the guard while effortlessly embracing his unlikable character, With what we see from Ward, we can only determine that this particular guard’s weakness is what set him up to be fooled by Marley. Besides the skills the actors possess, the constant dialogue without action quickly grows tiring. Your anticipation increases along with the desire to see the start of the action.
Sadly, the film’s final minutes contain the breakout, but it hardly proves to be thrilling. Given all that came before, the sequence feels anticlimactic. In addition, this Irish production does not provide much contextual information to help those viewers who are not already acquainted with these characters and events.
Maze certainly depicts the surroundings of the prison too realistically – it is heavy on atmosphere (most of it was filmed in a recently closed prison in Cork). It is getting hard to take the monotonic visual style. None of the visuals or the editing have the energy required to relieve that close feeling of oppression.
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