the escape of prisoner 614 movie review

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Set in an unspecified but not particularly ostentatiously bygone time when a full meal at a local diner complete with milkshake cost less than three bucks, “The Escape of Prisoner 614” is (at first, at least) an amiable comedic shaggy dog story in which inept law enforcement meets corrupt law enforcement.

Thurman ( Jake McDorman ) and Jim ( Martin Starr ) are deputies in the scenic burg of Shandaken, New York. Here the crime rate is so low that they haven’t any records of arrests going back their whole tenure. As the movie opens, they wonder how they’re going to explain this to the visiting sheriff, who’s played with human-cartoon exaggeration by Ron Perlman .

These fellows had been so not-busy at their jobs that they actually resorted to playing cops-and-robbers in the woods. The Sheriff isn’t aware of that, but he does not buy the fellows’ story about the arrest records going up in smoke. He summarily fires them. And Thurman and Jim are forced to confront an existential crisis. Which they consider thusly:

“If we’re not deputies, what are we?”

“We’re nothing.”

“No, we’re worse than nothing—we’re civilians.”

A shot at redemption comes with a phone call from a wizened prison warden nearby. Prisoner 614, a supposed cop killer who’s been locked up, the warden says, “since ’58,” has dug himself a 400-foot tunnel and escaped. The warden sounds as if he wouldn’t mind if the prisoner were brought back not alive. So up the fellows go, into the Catskills around the vicinity of Slide Mountain, the highest peak there.

The boys run out of ammunition in a contest to see who can hit a soda can. Neither one can. That’s the kind of law officers they are.

Prisoner 614 ( George Sample III ), it turns out, is African-American, and he pleads innocence once Thurman and Jim happen upon him. “In ’58, I went to a protest. Albany…” he goes on with a thoroughly plausible story of how he merely happened to be there when an officer died of cardiac arrest at the scene. Once Perlman’s sheriff catches up with the party, he wants to insure that his deputies don’t buy into such talk. At this point the movie folds in parable with comedy. “Seems there’s racial stuff going on,” as Jim puts it late in the movie.

Starr, best known for playing the spectacularly misanthropic coder Guilfoyle on the TV series “Silicon Valley,” here proves almost as funny playing a bit of a dummy as he is at portraying a smart-ass. McDorman, who’s had runs on the shows “Shameless” and “ Limitless ,” is likable, and Perlman uses his gift for caricature resourcefully. Writer/director Zach Golden , making his feature debut, does all right by the silly but warmhearted character dynamics and the retro-diner humanism. There’s nothing overtly wrong with this movie save its inherent softness. One doesn’t want to damn with faint praise by calling it modest, but modest it truly is. 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Escape of Prisoner 614 (2018)

Ron Perlman as The Sheriff

Jake McDorman as Thurman Hayford

Martin Starr as Jim Doyle

George Sample III as Prisoner 614

Sondra James as Marla

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Review: In ‘The Escape of Prisoner 614,’ Tone Escapes as Well

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By Ben Kenigsberg

• April 26, 2018

A pastiche of western tropes too tongue-in-cheek to sell its dramatic intentions, but just sincere enough to smother any intimations of parody, “The Escape of Prisoner 614” never commits to a consistent tone. Or even a consistent setting, really. Although the film takes place in upstate New York in a vaguely 1960s period, the accents sound like the work of actors playing lawman dress-up after too many viewings of “Bonnie and Clyde.”

The movie centers on two deputies, Thurman (Jake McDorman) and Jim (Martin Starr), in a jurisdiction that barely sees any crime. But their lack of convictions doesn’t sit well with the crusty old sheriff (Ron Perlman). No sooner has he fired them than a warden phones with news of an escaped prisoner nearby.

The pair decide that a bit of vigilante sleuthing might earn them their jobs back (well, right after they use all their ammunition firing at — and failing to hit — a can of cola). Eventually, they do catch up with the prisoner (George Sample III). But he may be innocent, a victim of race-based injustice, which complicates the ex-officers’ plans.

Zach Golden, a writer and director making his first feature, clearly has ambitions that exceed his modest budget. (The vintage trappings never convince.) It’s possible to admire his gumption, as Mr. Perlman’s character might put it, but “The Escape of Prisoner 614” doesn’t set steady terms for itself, let alone convince on them.

Rated PG-13. Bad shootin’. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

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‘the escape of prisoner 614’: film review.

Ron Perlman plays a vengeful sheriff in 'The Escape of Prisoner 614,' Zach Golden's satricial modern-day Western about two deputies attempting to track down an escaped prisoner.

By Frank Scheck

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It’s not surprising that a debuting filmmaker whose biggest claim to fame is inventing an apparently hugely successful website dubbed whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com would produce an effort as trivial as Zach Golden’s The Escape of Prisoner 614 . Clearly influenced by the Coen brothers (the debt acknowledged in the press notes, although they really push it by also referencing John Ford), this satirical, modern-day Western induces a few mild chuckles but mostly wastes the talents of its cast.

Release date: Apr 27, 2018

Nearly managing to prop up the wobbly proceedings through the sheer force of his presence, Ron Perlman gives his all to his role as a hard-driving, corrupt sheriff who has little use for his two weaselly deputies Jim Doyle (Martin Starr , Silicon Valley ) and Thurman Hayford (Jake McDorman , American Assassin ). The physically imposing actor even manages to make a line like “I just don’t like having my budget reduced!” feel utterly menacing.

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As the 1960s-set story begins, the sheriff has had it up to here with his underperforming underlings who haven’t managed to make a single arrest in all the years they’ve been working for him (they claim it’s a testament to how effective they are at preventing crime). While the deputies are cleaning out their desks after getting fired, they receive a phone call from the warden (Ralph Cashen ) of a nearby prison who tells them that a prisoner has escaped and has been spotted in their jurisdiction. So they decide to attempt to hunt down the escapee in an effort to get their jobs back.

Their efforts don’t start out well, as they use up all of their ammunition vainly attempting to shoot a soda can for practice. They have a bizarre encounter when they run into a trio of hunters who all seem to be auditioning for a ZZ Top cover band. Somehow, despite their bumbling, the deputies manage to stumble across the prisoner (George Sample III), who claims that while he did escape from prison, he was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. The three men have a spirited debate about the quality of incarceration, with Doyle saying that prisons must be okay since, according to the movie Cool Hand Luke , there’s no shortage of eggs to eat.

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For a while, the film’s brand of tongue-in-cheek, deadpan humor proves mildly enjoyable, such as when the deputies enjoy an outdoor campfire meal that naturally includes, what else, baked beans. There are also some fun scenes involving a sardonic, seen-it-all diner waitress, wonderfully played by Sondra James. But the rambling proceedings go nowhere very interesting, and the longer they do you realize the paucity of actual wit on display. The performers do what they can with the tired material, with Starr mining his doofus character for all it’s worth and Perlman making a committed investment that doesn’t pay off. Despite their strenuous efforts and the picturesque Catskill Mountains locations, The Escape of Prisoner 614 comes to feel as laborious as its title.

Production companies: Film Mode Entertainment, Yale Productions, SSS Entertainment, Wing and a Prayer Productions Distributor: Saban Films Cast: Ron Perlman, Martin Starr, Jake McDorman, George Sample III, Sondra James, John Hickman, Michael Sirow Director-screenwriter: Zach Golden Producers: Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman, Shaun Sanghani Executive producers: Sara Golden, Anthony Sanfilippo, Martin Starr, Brian Cohen, Michael J. Rothstein, Nick Wyman, Drew Wyman, Jonathan Saba, Shanan Becker, Ness Saban, William V. Bromiley, Ron Perlman, Josh Crook Director of photography: Adam Lee Production designer: Roxy Michaud Martinez Editor: Adam Lee Composer: Martin Crane Costume designer: Rachaell Dama Casting: Brandon Henry Rodriguez

Rated PG-13, 95 minutes

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The Escape of Prisoner 614 (2018)

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The Escape of Prisoner 614

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Ron Perlman (The Sheriff) Martin Starr (Jim Doyle) Jake McDorman (Thurman Hayford) George Sample III (Prisoner 614) Andy Animal (Hunter) Ralph Cashen (Warden Cox) John D. Hickman (Hunter) Sondra James (Marla) Dave T. Koenig (Patron) Wayne Pyle (Train Conductor)

Zach Golden

Two inept, small-town Sheriff's Deputies catch an escaped prisoner that they believe was wrongly convicted.

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Review: Despite a solid cast, haphazard comedy ‘The Escape of Prisoner 614’ misses the mark

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A handful of fine actors are wasted in the limp comedy “The Escape of Prisoner 614,” a period picture that never figures out exactly what it’s spoofing. Writer-director Zach Golden stages the action in picturesque locations, but his film’s modest charms can’t overcome its weak, aimless jokes.

Jake McDorman and Martin Starr play Thurman and Jim, two bumbling deputies working in the sedate town of Shandaken, N.Y., nestled in the Catskills. When their grumpy boss, Sheriff Wilson (Ron Perlman), fires them due to a lack of crime, they try to get their jobs back by tracking a fugitive.

The escapee, Andre (George Sample III), is a civil rights advocate falsely accused of murder. The racist component to Andre’s imprisonment is relevant to the plot, which is set in the ’60s, but Golden doesn’t do much with it beyond a little mild tongue-clucking about systemic injustice.

Similarly, while the mountain backdrops look pretty, nobody in the cast seems to have researched how people from the mid-Hudson region talk, since they’re all doing what sounds like twangy West Texas accents. Perhaps that’s because this film is staged as a quasi-western … although Golden doesn’t exactly enliven or comment on the genre, either.

Of course, comedy doesn’t have to be purposeful, so long as it’s zingy and funny. But while “The Escape of Prisoner 614” has the right cast for a good old-fashioned romp, this movie barely moves.

-------------

‘The Escape of Prisoner 614’

Rating: PG-13, for smoking throughout, and for language

Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Playing: Laemmle NoHo7, North Hollywood

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Blu-ray review: 'the escape of prisoner 614' is literally a happy surprise.

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Not plain, Perl.

What a difference a few months make. Back in September, when Ron Perlman became attached to The Escape of Prisoner 614 , here is what the synopsis was :

Set in the 1960s and influenced equally by offbeat Coen Brothers comedies and classic John Ford westerns, The Escape of Prisoner 614 follows Deputy Jim ( Martin Starr ) and Deputy Thurman ( Jake McDorman ), two well-intentioned but bumbling Sheriff’s Deputies who after being fired by their overbearing Sheriff ( Ron Perlman ), decide to go after an escaped prisoner (George Sample III) in hopes of getting back their jobs. But when they realize that the supposed murderer they have hunted down is an innocent victim of a racist judicial system, they face a moral dilemma -- return the prisoner and be hailed as heroes, or act on their principles in pursuit of true justice.

It comes out on Blu-ray this week, and here is how Lionsgate is promoting it, via synopsis on the DVD box:

Ron Perlman is electrifying as a corrupt and cold-blooded sheriff in this contemporary Western that delivers a double-barreled blast of action. After two deputy sheriffs lose their jobs because of poor arrest records, they pursue an escaped convict to try and win back their badges. But nabbing the convict won't be half as dangerous as facing the ruthless sheriff who is tracking their every move.

Quite a contrast, isn't it? But after an apparent April 27th release which yielded approximately $0 , what do they have to lose with a new approach? Depends who reads the reviews, I suppose. Because that second description is almost entirely nonsense. We could start with the word "contemporary," for a '60s-set movie in which characters are audibly charged two dollars for a meatloaf dinner, but really, why go on from there? Especially since the setting is mostly irrelevant aside from that, unless you think rural police racism (and weirdly random Russian interference; yep) is somehow a thing of the past.

But yeah, comparisons to the Coens and John Ford are super-arrogant for a movie that is, at best, a modest surprise. Maybe the point of the marketing is to swerve, and make you like this film as a comedy more than if it were marketed as a laugh-at-loud yukfest. It worked on me, and yet I wonder if I would have liked it less had it not been free. I can't really advocate a purchase or a pricey rental, but on cable? Sure; it's a fun watch if there's no upcharge.

I'm happy to say that despite being fourth-billed as if he were a special guest celebrity, Perlman is a key part of the story, and feels integral throughout--this isn't one of those DTV movies where it's clear the only big name actor did one day on set and then blew outta there. As a racist sheriff who takes his time with things, he does feel like he's auditioning for a Coen brothers film (Coens, please watch his scenes and act accordingly), playing the sort of double-dealing, corrupt hatemonger that the actor himself frequently rails against on Twitter.

Thurman (Jake McDorman, TV's Limitless ) and Jim (Martin Starr, Freaks and Geeks ) are two sheriff's deputies who try to improve their astonishingly mediocre skills with cops and robbers drills that mostly end in awkward banter. Unable to prove they've done anything much of use, they get fired when the Sheriff (Perlman) shows up for a periodic review, but when he's not around, and they get a desperate call about an escaped convict, Thurman and Jim decide maybe they can save their badges if they catch the bad guy and get some glory. If only they'd remembered not to waste all the bullets they packed on some terribly unskilled target-practice bets.

More of an absurdist comedy than an uproarious one, this mostly works because McDorman and Starr play things completely seriously. They want to believe they're the heroes of their own story, but even when they kind-of get to be, they're not very good at it, and not altogether certain why. George Sample III, as the eponymous Prisoner 614, is the conscience of the thing, and is so by playing it so real you feel like he may have been yanked off the street and directly into a movie by these fools. It must be some kind of progress, one hopes, that we see two witless-yet-likable deputies and a non-threatening black man onscreen and instantly assume the latter must be innocent and the formers mistaken.

Cinematographer Adam Lee gets some great shots of the woods of upstate New York, while writer-director Zach Golden effectively conveys the ease of getting lost in them like a comedy Blair Witch at work. Perlman is hardly the ruthless pursuer the disc's synopsis makes him out to be, but he's game for a lot, including some heavy smoking (if anything marks this as a period piece, and not much does, perhaps it's the massive, constant use of cigarettes by everybody).

Blu-ray extras include...

...drumroll please...

...a trailer for Hell or High Water . And nothing else. If you were misled by the marketing, that's actually the movie you will want to see.

In the meantime, though, you should be able to have some fun with this one.

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The Escape of Prisoner 614: Trailer 1

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The Escape of Prisoner 614 Reviews

• 31   Metascore
• 1 hr 35 mins
• Comedy, Action & Adventure
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When two inept deputies are fired, they try to get their jobs back by pursuing and apprehending an escaped prisoner convicted of killing a police officer. However, the deputies quickly learn that all is not as it seems and the escapee may be innocent, forcing them to reinvestigate the case.

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The Escape of Prisoner 614 (2018)

• Ron Perlman
• Martin Starr
• Jake McDorman
• George Sample III
• Sondra James
• Michael Sirow
• Laurent Rejto

Set in the 1960s, "The Escape of Prisoner 614" sees Starr and McDorman playing two well-intentioned but bumbling deputies who get fired by their overbearing sheriff (Perlman). With hopes of getting rehired, they then decide to go after an escaped prisoner (Sample) only to realize that he's an innocent victim of a racist judicial system and find themselves facing a moral dilemma.

• Apr 7, 2018

Poster of Saban Films' The Escape of Prisoner 614 (2018)

(ron perlman, jake mcdorman, martin starr, george sample iii).

• Nov 17, 2017

Ron Perlman stars as The Sheriff in Saban Films' The Escape of Prisoner 614 (2018)

(ron perlman).

(Ron Perlman, Jake McDorman, Martin Starr)

The Escape Of Prisoner 614 (Clip 'Sheriff Fires Deputies')

The Escape of Prisoner 614 (Trailer)

• 2024-06-12 04:25:00

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The Escape of Prisoner 614 Movie

Who's Involved:

Ron Perlman, Martin Starr, Jake McDorman, George Sample III, Zach Golden

Release Date:

Friday, April 27, 2018 Limited

Plot: What's the story about?

After two deputy sheriffs lose their jobs because of poor arrest records, they purse an escaped convict to try and win back their badges. But nabbing the convict won’t be half as dangerous as facing the ruthless sheriff who is tracking their every move.

3.60 / 5 stars ( 5 users)

Poll: Will you see The Escape of Prisoner 614?

Who stars in The Escape of Prisoner 614: Cast List

Martin Starr

Spider-Man: No Way Home, Honey Boy  

Ron Perlman

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio  

Jake McDorman

American Sniper, Jerry and Marge Go Large  

George Sample III

Person to Person, Goldie  

Who's making The Escape of Prisoner 614: Crew List

A look at the The Escape of Prisoner 614 behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Zach Golden last directed High Heat .

Zach Golden

Screenwriter

Production Company

Film Mode Entertainment

Watch The Escape of Prisoner 614 Trailers & Videos

Theatrical Trailer

Production: what we know about the escape of prisoner 614, filming timeline.

• 2018 - April : The film was set to Completed  status.
• 2017 - November : The film was set to Post-Production  status.

The Escape of Prisoner 614 Release Date: When was the film released?

The Escape of Prisoner 614 was a Limited release in 2018 on Friday, April 27, 2018 . There were 12 other movies released on the same date, including Traffik , Avengers: Infinity War and The Week Of . As a Limited release, The Escape of Prisoner 614 will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the film is playing in your area.

The Escape of Prisoner 614 VOD & Digital: When was the film released digitally?

The Escape of Prisoner 614 was released across all major streaming and cable platforms on Friday, April 27 , 2018 . Digital rental or purchase allows you to instantly stream and download to watch anywhere and anytime on your favorite devices. Available from various digital retailers including Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Apple, Vudu and others.

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• Sat., Apr. 14, 2018
• added Theatrical Trailer to trailers & videos
• added crime as a genre
• added a poster to the gallery
• added Saban Films as a distributor
• added Zach Golden as screenwriter to credits
• added George Sample III as actor to credits
• added Jake McDorman as actor to credits
• added Ron Perlman as actor to credits
• added the US VOD release date of April 27, 2018
• changed the US film release date from TBA to April 27, 2018

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The Escape Of Prisoner 614

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Harry Potter: Sirius Black's Escape From Azkaban Was Surprisingly Simple

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It's important to remember the ongoing controversial statements by the creator of the Harry Potter franchise. CBR supports the hard work of industry professionals on properties fans know and love and the wider world of Harry Potter that fans have adopted as their own. You can find CBR's continuing coverage on Rowling here .

• In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black manages to escape the most impenetrable prison in the magical world, Azkaban.
• While Azkaban is located in the middle of the North Sea and protected by Dementors, Sirius had one secret that helped him avoid all security.
• However, many wizards and witches have escaped Azkaban, which proves the high-security prison isn't as well-protected as the Ministry of Magic likes to believe.

In the world of Harry Potter , Azkaban was supposed to be the most secure prison in existence. It could hold any wizard, no matter how powerful. However, the prison's reputation might not be as great as many wizards believed. While Azkaban held mighty wizards, the few years that Harry Potter remained enrolled at Hogwarts famously saw the escape of a high-security prisoner, Sirius Black, who was believed guilty of the murders of James and Lily Potter as well as the murder of Peter Pettigrew and 12 muggles.

Sirius wasn't the first to escape from Azkaban. There was also a second wizard who slipped out long before him. On top of that, in 1996, all of Voldemort's Death Eaters broke out from Azkaban. The "inescapable" prison was very much escapable, and it seems the Dementors tasked with guarding prisoners didn't do their jobs well at all.

Updated on June 6, 2024, by Andrea Sandoval: Sirius Black was one of the greatest characters in the Harry Potter series. Despite entering the series as a mass murderer, soon enough, his name was clear. Sirius was Harry's grandfather and his closest father figure, until his terrible death in the Battle of the Ministry of Magic. His escape from Azkaban was considered an unprecedented event since the prison was such an inescapable place. We updated this article to include more information about Sirius' escape, Azkaban, and other wizards and witches who also escaped from the magical prison.

How Sirius Black Used His Animagus Form to Escape

10 Times Sirius Black Was The Best Character In Harry Potter

Harry Potter's loyal godfather, Sirius Black was not a perfect wizard. Nevertheless, he stepped up for the heroes and had several moments to shine.

As explained throughout the Harry Potter series, Azkaban had a lot of protection, keeping the most dangerous wizard criminals in Britain locked up. It sat on an island in the middle of the North Sea, built in the 15th century and in operation since 1718. The prison used charms to remain hidden from all Muggles and was Unplottable, meaning it didn't exist on any maps. Instead of prison guards, Azkaban used Dementors, which seemed inhumane to many people. The Dementors had one specific power, which was draining people of all happiness and leaving them with only their worst memories. Most prisoners of Azkaban died from despair and ended up buried on the island after their deaths. In 1998, the Ministry of Magic outlawed the use of Dementors in Azkaban, but before this, there were still at least two people who escaped the watchful eye of these creatures.

Sirius Black ended up being the only wizard ever to escape Azkaban without help. Sirius was sent to Azkaban when Bartemius Crouch Senior sentenced several suspects after the First Wizarding War without trials. This locked away many Death Eaters before they could use their powers to escape justice, but innocents went to prison as well, with Sirius being one of the unlucky ones. The accusations against Sirius said he killed Peter Pettigrew and 12 Muggles while betraying James and Lily Potter and serving Lord Voldemort . None of this was true, as Pettigrew was still alive, and he was the one who killed the Muggles and helped Voldemort. That made Sirius' escape from Azkaban justifiable.

There Are Four Known Unregistered Animagi In The Harry Potter Series

• Sirius Black became an animagus during his time at Hogwarts, together with his best friends, James and Peter. The Marauders decide to become animagi to help their friend Remus Lupin when he turns into a werewolf. Because they were underage, the Marauders never registered with the Ministry of Magic, which was considered illegal.
• Another illegal animagi in the Harry Potter series is Rita Skeeter, who could turn into a beetle. This helped her witness private events without being observed and publish terrible pieces in the Daily Prophet.

As fans learned in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Sirius Black and James Potter were the best of friends, and Sirius was Harry Potter's godfather. This made it important for him to escape Azkaban to help the boy. What aided Sirius here was that he was an unregistered Animagus. These are wizards who can transform into animals, such as Professor Minerva McGonagall, who was a registered Animagus and could turn into a cat. As for Sirius, he could change into a dog, but no one in Azkaban knew about this talent. After spending 12 years locked away in Azkaban, he saw a newspaper that showed Pettigrew in his Animagus form as a rat and realized he had to get out to help Harry. He turned into his dog form and easily slipped out of prison without any Dementors realizing it . However, he wasn't the first person to escape Azkaban.

SiriusBlack Wasn't the First Wizard to Escape Azkaban

Barty crouch sr., the ministry of magic's head of magical law enforcement, helped his son escape.

The Movies Saved One Harry Potter Villain From a Fate Worse Than Death

A Harry Potter villain, played by David Tennant, was underutilized following his one and only role in The Goblet of Fire movie.

While Sirius' escape from Azkaban was seemingly extremely easy and quite a shock to Harry Potter 's public, he wasn't the first to escape. What made the first escape so embarrassing for the Wizarding World was that no one knew that Barty Crouch Jr. had escaped until long after it happened. This is because his parents set up the escape and helped him cover it up. Barty worked with the Death Eaters and pledged his loyalty to Lord Voldemort after the First Wizarding War, so when the time came, his own father, who led the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, sentenced him to Azkaban. It was the torture of Aurors Alice and Frank Longbottom that doomed his son to his fate.

Barty Crouch Jr.'s Loyalty To Voldemort Was Well Rewarded

• Barty Crouch Jr. escaped Azkaban in 1982.
• He spent the next 13 years under his father's Imperius Curse, hidden beneath an Invisibility Cloak and cared for by his house-elf, Winky.
• Bertha Jorkins realized Barty was at his home during a visit to Crouch's home.
• Barty Crouch Senior obliviated Bertha Jorkins, causing severe brain damage to the witch.
• Peter Pettigrew stumbled upon Bertha, and Lord Voldemort extracted the information from the witch.
• Realizing his most loyal Death Eater was alive and free, Lord Voldemort helped Barty escape from his father.
• Barty took Polyjuice Potion to pass as Hogwarts' new professor, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, sealing the real Moody away.

However, Crouch Sr. had other plans and did the unthinkable to save his son . He sentenced his 19-year-old son to life imprisonment in Azkaban and allowed him to enter the prison, where the Dementors began draining him of any joy he ever felt in life. One year later, his wife's health deteriorated because of what happened to their son, and she was dying. Because of his government position, Bartemius took his wife to see their son before she died.

However, this was all a plan where she agreed to take Barty's place, and they used Polyjuice Potion to switch their appearances. Crouch Sr. took his son home, and his wife died in Azkaban, disguised as Barty, and ended up buried on the grounds. It wasn't until Voldemort came for Barty and used him to infiltrate Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that the Wizarding World discovered the truth, and Azkaban received another black eye in history.

The Mass Death Eater Breakouts from 1996 and 1997 Prove That Azkaban Simply Doesn't Work

Once it became clear they could more or less just walk away, everyone started doing it.

10 Darkest Things the Death Eaters Did in Harry Potter, Ranked

Death Eaters performed numerous evil deeds for the Dark Lord, some more wicked than others.

After Lord Voldemort came back to life at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, his next move was to free all of his Death Eaters from Azkaban. This was easy for Voldemort as he allied with the Dementors, who simply let these high-security prisoners escape. T he known Death Eaters that escaped from Azkaban in 1996 were locked on the highest floors of this prison, which proved ineffective once Lord Voldemort blackmailed the Dementors . Dementors had a lot more to earn from Voldemort's reign of terror, since they fed from the people's fears. This makes them, clearly, a bad choice for guarding a prison.

After the Battle of Hogwarts , several of the Death Eaters that had escaped were recaptured. However, the Ministry of Magic, neglectfully sends all these dark wizards to Azkaban once again, which is still under the protection of Dementors. Of course, it didn't take long for them to escape the prison to participate in the Battle of the Seven Potters and the Battle of Hogwarts.

Azkaban is a magical fort in the middle of the North Sea, protected not only by Dementors but also by various charms. However, whatever the Department of Magical Security uses to keep prisoners locked, seems to be highly inefficient, as more than 10 prisoners have successfully escaped from Azkaban, some of them more than once. The fact that the Ministry didn't learn from its mistakes with Sirius Black and Barty Crouch Jr. makes sense up to a point, as they were exceptional cases. But when they have ten Death Eaters escaping Azkaban, and they just put them back in prison after recapturing them, that's just not smart.

Sirius Black was an outstandingly powerful wizard . However, the fact that the Ministry of Magic didn't even make sure he wasn't an Animagus before keeping him behind bars makes very little sense. If Dementors weren't able to detect animals, it would stand to reason that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would be very careful about Animagi. Sirius wasn't registered as Animagus in the Ministry of Magic, but this must have been a pretty common occurrence for criminals. So, Sirius managed to escape the prison due to his great determination and magical prowess, but also thanks to the fact that Azkaban is simply easy to escape.

After 1998, Azkaban replaced Dementors with Aurors, so maybe it's a little bit safer now . With Harry Potter leading the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Hermione Granger positioned as the Minister for Magic, surely the two wizards have taken actions to make Azkaban as safe as possible.

Harry Potter

The Harry Potter franchise follows the adventure of a young boy introduced a whole new world of magic, mayhem and darkness. Traversing the obstacles in his path, young Harry's rise to heroics pits him against Lord Voldemort, one of the most dangerous wizards in the world and all his minions.