Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

aquauver They take hands to escape from the prison.One of them have a couple of experiences ,so he lead the rest of them.They create the course to outside a so primitive way.They part a bed frame and dug in on the ground.It takes a week to make it.But they do it at the end of this film.

rodrig58 This film is absolutely exceptional, from all points of view: story, actors, director, cinematography, everything. If you like movies with action in prisons, this is the best of all. And the most realistic (the script is inspired by a true story). Although static, because all the action is taking place in a prison cell, the film has great tension and is watching with the soul to the mouth. Michel Constantin and Philippe Leroy in their best roles. Great, great film!

Richard Chatten It was bold indeed of Jacques Becker to make another prison escape film so soon after Robert Bresson had created the genre's masterpiece, 'Un condamné à mort s'est échappé' (1956); but the gamble paid off handsomely.Like Robert Rossen's 'Lilith' (1964), 'La Trou' seen in isolation looks more like the debut of an exciting new talent than the valediction of a veteran in his fifties about to be taken before his time. Released shortly after Becker had died of a heart attack aged just 53, when confronted with such a fresh, modern-looking piece of filmmaking one is vexed by the question of where Becker would have gone next, which we shall never know. The film remains unusual for its lack of a music score (composer Philippe Arthuys, significantly, is actually credited at the end with 'Illustration sonore'), and I can even forgive this film for setting a deplorable precedent by being possibly the first to have no credits at the start; they all come at the end, to the accompaniment of a simple piano arrangement of Rubinstein's 'Melody in F' which may have been intended as discrete mockery on Becker's part of the grandiose use of Mozart's 'Mass in C Minor' at the conclusion of Bresson's film.Jean Keraudy, a veteran of the original escape, segues smoothly into the uniformly excellent cast; while among the staff, Jean-Paul Coquelin has a beguiling air of dry good humour in his scenes as the cell block lieutenant.

disinterested_spectator Asked to categorize this movie, most people would say it is a prison movie, which it is. And as with most such movies, there is an attempt to break out of that prison. But to me, it is primarily an engineering movie.Most engineering movies involve building something, such as the title bridge in "Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957). Another example would be "Land of the Pharaohs" (1955), in which a pyramid is constructed in such a way that no one can break in and steal all the loot the pharaoh is planning on taking with him to the afterlife. In both those movies, however, engineering only plays a minor role compared to all the other goings-on. One such movie in which engineering plays a major role is "The Dam Busters" (1955), but the best engineering movie is "Flight of the Phoenix" (1965), in which survivors of a plane crash build a smaller plane out of the parts of the larger plane that crashed. In that movie, more than half the time is dedicated to this engineering task.In "The Hole," however, prisoners are not trying to build something, but rather to break through what has already been built and intended to keep them locked up. Perhaps because this movie was based on a true story written by one of the prisoners involved in the attempted breakout himself, what the prisoners have to do to get out is not merely implied or briefly indicated, as in most such movies, but rather is shown in great detail. One of the prisoners has broken out of prisons three times before, and so he knows all the tricks. In addition to seeing just how ingenious and resourceful he is, we also experience the physical effort that goes into breaking through concrete.As often happens in movies about criminals, you begin to identify with them and want them to succeed. And so, it is a little disappointing that someone rats them out just before they are about to leave. On the other hand, had they escaped, the prisoner who wrote the book would probably not have written it, and then we wouldn't have had this movie to watch. So, I guess things worked out for the best.