The Great Escape- User Reviews

Throughout the years Hollywood has created numerous films portraying the background of America’s historical wars. Two of the major campaigns were the first and second world war, but some people feel that world war two was one of the most brutal of all global conflicts humanity has ever engaged in. Hollywood felt that some of the chronological campaigns in world war two had interesting accounts of war fare, danger, adventure, and soldiers that rose to become living legends. These notions prompted film-makers to recreate the accounts of the historical wars by making films based on all the different backgrounds that had taken place on land, air, and sea. One of the biggest war accounts was the Prisoner Of War stories, which was one of the biggest legends centering on heroic characters that were trapped behind enemy lines and became hell bent on escaping from captivity. One of the biggest escape stories that rose to become a classic in war genre was John Sturges ‘The Great Escape’. Sturges had already become a household name in Hollywood after his success with his classic western ‘The Magnificent Seven’, which is one of most popular western films of 1960. In 1963, Sturges would move fourth to create a classic war film that depicted the accounts of World War Two POW’ in their escape attempts from Nazi captivity. That film is called ‘The Great Escape’. The film tells the incredible story of a whole group of allied prisoners of war; who accomplish one of the biggest mass breakouts in World War Two. The film is so great that one do not mind the fact that some of the American players were tossed into the story as the true accounts were one accomplished by the British.

Based on a true story; ‘The Great Escape’ deals with the largest allied escape attempt from a German POW camp during the Second World War. The first part of the story focuses on the escape efforts within the camp and the process of secretly digging an escape tunnel. The second half of the film deals with the massive effort by the German Gestapo to track down the over 76 escaped prisoners who are at this point throughout the Third Reich attempting to make their way to England and various neutral countries. Within the prison camp are the creative minds of soldier who all hold a special talent in making their escape plan work. Among the group is Captain Virgil Hilts AKA “The Cooler King’; the rebellious American prisoner who is always getting thrown in the cooler whenever he breaks out or ticks off the Prison Warden (Steven McQueen), Lt. Hendley AKA “The Scrounger”; the second American prisoner who is good at getting his hands whatever is needed to help plan the escape (James Garner), Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett AKA “Big X”; the man who formulates the mass escape plan (Richard Attenborough), Group Captain Ramsey AKA “The Senior British Officer”; who maintains high command on the whole prison population in the camp (James Donald), Lt. Danny Velinski AKA “The Tunnel King”; the man who has dug seventeen escape tunnels during his captivity in prison camps, now faces his most toughest dig yet (Charles Bronson), Lt. Colin Blythe AKA “The Forger”; who is responsible in providing false identification papers to allow escapees to travel out of Germany (Donald Pleasance) Lt. Sandy Macdonald AKA “Intelligence”; who is in charge of gathering all information on everything that goes around in and out of the camp. Together the group works at pulling the most daring prison escape in history, and as the group gains close to reaching their primary objective they must maintain absolute secrecy in order to keep their German captors from discovering their plan. The escape is on in the Great escape.

Besides the captivating story, the film contains an all-star cast who rose to becoming Hollywood legends; such as Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Donald Pleasance, James Donald, and David McCallum. There are no female roles in this film due to the fact that women in the Second World War were kept involved in either production of weapons and supplies, or were usually working in intelligence for the government. This is an all male cast film set in the back drop of war, where allied soldiers are in a position where they are trapped behind enemy lines in an escape proof prison camp, and they continue to up hold their sworn duties as military officers to try to escape no matter the odds. Some the actors who worked on this film were actual veterans of the Second World War and had participated in prison camp escapes. Actors that shared their background in the war are Donald Pleasance and Richard Attenborough, on the special edition DVD there is a documentary where the actors share their significant roles in their escape. This is the kind of thing that makes ordinary people into living legends in the outcome of war, where they enter hell and find oneself in the mist of escape is impossible, yet they come together with other people and engineer to make the possible happen. This is what makes the film so unique because of the essence of heroism and humanity is demonstrated through the characters who strife to break free from their brutal captors and return home. The Great Escape has become a genuine classic that continues to inspire many people of today of what makes a great movie, and it carries a torch of adventure with its amazing story and incredible characters. This film is also one of Steve’s McQueen greatest performances from his departure from The Magnificent Seven and come to earning a reputation as the King of Cool as a point of reference to his escapee character’s nickname ‘The Cooler King’. I was upset that McQueen’s Character did not make his escape, but then again one can expect that when he is thrown back into the cooler at the end of the film that he is thinking to himself “There is always tomorrow” because his character is so determined to get out that he will try again and again no matter how many times he fails or gets thrown into the cooler. That’s the kind of character that influences people to not take crap from anybody even if they are in a time of war. In closing, The Great Escape is one of those rare escape war pictures that comes around only once in a lifetime, and even though there are other war pictures that follow the same plot as Great Escape like Stalag 17, Hart’s War, etc. Nonetheless, The Great Escape sums up to being the true Escape/Adventure film of our time even after forty-five years it still remains as a classic for many movie lovers. This is a fine addition to one’s movie library and I highly recommend on seeing this brilliant escape adventure picture.