| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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The Best Movie Associated with War, Period.
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Feb 4, 2006
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
Stalag 17 is the acme in the careers of Billy Wilder [Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, The Lost Weekend] and William Holden [Network, Sunset Boulevard, The Wild Bunch].
The story takes place toward the end of World War II in a Nazi prison camp. The prisoners of Stalag 17 want out. Two of them plan an escape and explain it to the others. But the next day, they are shot down easily, as if the Germans knew the escape was going to happen. The POWs think that there's a spy in their bunk. The scapegoat is Colonel Sefton [Holden] a cynical, aloof man who has taken to trading with the Nazis to get better food. They warn Sefton that if he squeals, again, nothing will save him.
Then another prisoner comes into Stalg 17. He is accused of blowing up a train. However, the Krauts cannot execute him because there is no proof. The POWs ask him how he did it and he shows them. The next day the Germans arrest him because they have the proof. This convinces the men that there is in fact a spy. They beat Sefton violently.
However, Sefton was not the man who did it. One day during a supposed air raid he hides in his bunk. While there he catches a fellow prisoner named Price [Peter Graves] talking with the German leader [Otto Preminger]. NSefton has the proof to clear his name, but will his hostile comrades believe him?
Stalag 17 is a masterpiece. It has all the elements of a good picture, many of which are ignored in modern-day cinema. It has characters we can identify and root for, witty dialogue, a complex and compelling plot, and originality. |
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