Jailbreakers was the 18th feature film and 3d television film directed by William Friedkin, whose directorial debut in one of the later The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes, in 1965, reportedly earned him a scolding by Hitch for not wearing a tie on set, and who later earned major notoriety with The French Connection(1971) and The Exorcist (1973), the latter virtually reframing the horror genre for the next half century. His subsequent work, often as good if not better, never gained comparable acclaim, very undeservedly so, as Friedkin's cinema evinces a primal energy matched only by the likes of Raoul Walsh or Samuel Fuller.
In Jailbreakers the emancipating young woman is cherubic cheerleader Angel (Shannen Doherty) who falls for drug-dealing high school dropout Tony Falcon (Antonio Sabàto Jr), both subsequently engaging in a series of ill-advised crimes and misdemeanors which relentlessly drive them to perdition, the only feasible escape seeming to be the standard Hollywood lumpen golden exile, Mejico, at which border (spoiler alert) Tony comes undone.
Jailbreakers is easily and by far the best instalment of the Rebel Highway series. The plot is as formulaic, if not more, as all the others, but William Friedkin's approach to the overarching theme of the series - how to grow up and fit in in the 50s, as codes of conduct, social hierarchies and sexual politics convulse - dodging socio-politics and going instead for 300 kph melodrama, culminating in a final consummation reminiscent of White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949), is a total winner.
In Jailbreakers the emancipating young woman is cherubic cheerleader Angel (Shannen Doherty) who falls for drug-dealing high school dropout Tony Falcon (Antonio Sabàto Jr), both subsequently engaging in a series of ill-advised crimes and misdemeanors which relentlessly drive them to perdition, the only feasible escape seeming to be the standard Hollywood lumpen golden exile, Mejico, at which border (spoiler alert) Tony comes undone.
Jailbreakers is easily and by far the best instalment of the Rebel Highway series. The plot is as formulaic, if not more, as all the others, but William Friedkin's approach to the overarching theme of the series - how to grow up and fit in in the 50s, as codes of conduct, social hierarchies and sexual politics convulse - dodging socio-politics and going instead for 300 kph melodrama, culminating in a final consummation reminiscent of White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949), is a total winner.