Unlike most of us, only a few ever had the pleasure to be in prison. And the privilege to be a prison breaker also belongs to a narrower minority. Perhaps that's why all movies about prison breaks feel a tad bit similar to us, because all we have is second hand experience. An inmate or a number of them bands together and make a ploy of escaping. Then they go about finding and creating makeshift tools to dig a tunnel, hack some doors or window bars. There's usually some hide and seek games with the prison guards and this is when the prisoners must be clever. Then comes the moment of truth — the escape. The aftermath is often played out as how the storyteller fits the narrative with their personal moral understanding. In some cases, the prisoners escape and remain escapees, and in some cases the they are caught and prosecuted again. This is usually how this trope goes.

And so it is a perfect case that demonstrates how the story itself matters little to cinema. While the basic plot will be the same for almost all such films, the characterization, storytelling, framing, cinematography, editing, performances by the actors involved etc. will vary quite a lot to distinguish one film from the other and even make a case for quality differences of those said aspects.

I have seen Le Trou (The Hole) only yesterday and it is based on a real life prison break (from La Santé in 1947). So, whether the escapees succeed or not is a question of history, not the filmmaker's/writer's whim. Of course, I will not be discussing that climax or the aftermath in this article.
The filmmaker Jacques Becker actually used this liaison to his advantages. One of the inmates, Jean Keraudy, who were part of the escape incident, played his own character and he appears at the very first scene to testify, whatever the filmmaker shows, actually happened.
That's all fine and dandy, but this is not a documentary. Intense drama is there, mixed with humane dreams and aspirations.

An inmate named Claude is moved from his old cell to a new cell on a different block. He's young, naive and easygoing. He exuberates well manner, pleases everyone he meets. In the new cell, he meets the old residents of it, an array of memorable characters. Manu—a pragmatist with a nice physique who immediately challenges authenticity of their new cell mate. Geo—a laid back, worriless fellow who likes to sleep even in the face of death (perhaps he's playing me), Roland—an engineer of sort, can jerryrig everything, he's the primary support for logistics in this band and also the mastermind, and Monseigneur—elsdest of the band, a jolly fellow with a never diminisihing smile.
Before Claude came to this cell, they were hatching a plan to escape and with his intrusion, a dilemma immediately arises, do they tell him? They have to, if they are to make the plan work at all. And all of them are facing long time in prison if put into trial. They have to escape. Everything hangs on the question—how much jail time the new guy is facing? If its long, the chances are he will comply too!

Filmmaker Becker casted all new actors to play the parts, (apart from the actual inmate) and they were surprisingly fresh at their job. Their on-screen relationships I enjoyed much.

Becker does something differently though — in the hole digging scene all the actors dig the hole on-screen, in real time. They're pounding the floor with a piece of iron they severed from the iron bed. That scene is uncut. Hitting the floor as hard as they can, tearing debris from the concrete, sweating like pigs. Heavy thumping sound is on the air, one of them is on the look out, watching the corridor with a makeshift periscope. The sound keeps resonating, and I can hear my chest thumping as well, with anticipation! At any moment, might come the guards running, with their batons raised and faces red with anger, rendering the escape plan null and void, along with the desperate dreams. Whoo.... hard to accept it all happened in real! And not only that, the whole tunneling stage is quite elaborate, planned meticulously with nothing omitted. So the screentime devoted to executing the plan is rather high. Of course I suspect some events are dramatized to fit the films narrative, that's quite expected.

Le Trou has become one of my most favorite prison escape films already. I'm pretty sure I'll give it another watch someday.

The poster is from pinterest, not sure who to give credit. And rest of the photos used are screenshots from the film.