The Great Escape

Rating:
Summary: A Classic From Elmer Bernstein
Review: Elmer Bernstein's main theme for The Great Escape is one of the most recognizable war themes ever made. It and the rest of the score is lighthearted and comedy-like, a major contrast to the music of most war movies. The score also has a large group of themes represented despite the small size of this release. The main theme, introduced on track 1 by a clarinet duet, is campy, happy, and makes a great symbolization of the POW's hopes of escape. A secondary main theme, reminiscent of "Working On The Railroad", for the lead tunnel digger is another lighthearted, bouncy theme. Pleasance's character on "Blythe" is represented by a gentle, folk-like theme taken up by the oboe, a small break from the comedy of the film. The Cooler theme sounds just as brave and reckless as Steve McQueen's character while the Mole's theme has a slight Irish folk sound to it. The small but important motif heard on "Discovery" by creepy strings and harp is oppressing and sets the otherwise dangerous setting of the prison. The small 2-note alternation motif for the prison, while the least important of all, certainly adds the depression and monotony of the camp. All the themes are woven together masterfully by Elmer Bernstein and are important to every cue. The best cues in the score are found near the end of the CD after some of the prisoners escaped. Bernstein takes the primary and secondary main themes and turns them into beautiful, lyrically flowing pieces. Steve McQueen's thrilling ride across the countryside on a motorcycle with the Germans in pursuit is a thrilling and enjoyable cue with the same recklessness and stupidity as his theme. The last cue, after some surviving escapees escape and Mcqueen brought back to the camp, has a positive outburst of the main theme. It ends the film on a good note and does it with such positivity. I highly recommend this classic. The themes fit in naturally and the score's quirkiness is sure to make any listener happy and joyful.

Rating:
Summary: The Cooler King
Review: What can I say about this movie. Its a great war movie with a great plot, has a ton of famous actors in it, a great Elmer Bernstein score, and Steve McQueen on a motorcycle. What more can you want? The DVD has a good transfer on it, which is about 2.70:1, but is not 16:9 enhanced, so it could cause a problem in the long run. The sound is adequate for a movie this old. It comes with the original trailer and a 24 min making-of that is pretty interesting. This movie has been spoofed it everything from Chicken Run, the Simpsons, and even the Charlie's Angels movie briefly. It is a must own.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest war movies ever
Review: Harking back to a different age, when the studios truly did make movies with "all star casts," The Great Escape is without a doubt one of the finest war movies ever produced by Hollywood. The cast itself is incredible: we have James Colburn, Charles Bronson, James Gardner, Richard Attenborough, and of course, Steve McQueen. The setting? An ultra-high security prison in the heart of enemy territory, where the most notorious and dangerous prisoners of war are brought together. The premise? These men, officers of the Allied forces, have one goal in mind: freedom at all costs.

The arrival of enigmatic Mr. X sets the greatest escape in WWII history in motion, and what follows is movie history. True, the movie is not a realistic depiction of prison life during the war, and many liberties were taken with the facts and characters. Nevertheless, the gripping storyline, the great cast and acting, and a riveting plan for escape create an unique experience.

The quality of the DVD is superb, considering that the film is quite old. I must sincerely say that I've never seen the movie look so good, although I have never seen the original big screen presentation. All in all, if you like war movies, you owe it to yourself to see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest escape
Review: This has got to be one of the all time greats. great story great locations fantastic cast. i`m 31 and i was about 7 the first time i saw "the great escape" and i must have seen it 40 times since.This film must have the best cast ever how did sturges get hold of this lot ,a perfect mix of the finest british and american oh and australian[james coburn]? actors not an actres in sight bliss .sound could be better picture is a bit grainy in places but the scope ah beutiful it has to be 2.60.1 at least . but sound and image are bound to age after all it is 1963 just enjoy it for what it is the best war film ever! films like this are the reason i own a dvd player

Rating:
Summary: 'Great' is the perfect adjective for this movie
Review: This is a true classic movie. The story is exciting, suspenseful, moving, and based on a true story. The characters are real. They pull us into the story and, very quickly, we care deeply what happens to these men. It also has some of the best music ever written for a movie. The DVD provides a widescreen presentation of the movie with very good but not perfect video quality. There is a little grain in some scenes and a bit of softness occasionally, but overall I was satisfied with the picture, considering the age of the movie. The same can be said of the audio. It won't stress your sound system, but it was clear and had enough range to do the job. The extras consist of the standard trailer and a 24 minute featurette. The featurette was better than many found on DVDs of recent movies. It consisted mostly of interviews with some of the surviving actors and crew, along with readings of comments from those who have died since the movie was made. The featurette is recent and I was glad to see someone capturing the remaining principals on film while they are still available. This movie gets my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: DVD transfer ain't that great
Review: Unlike some of the other reviews here, I'm not too enthusiastic about this DVD version. While I love the film itself and give it five stars, I have to take away one star because the DVD transfer lacks consistancy. Overall the color is crisp, but there are a couple of unfortunate scenes in the film that appear grainy and murky which was clearly not the director's or photographer's intent since they appear bright and clear in the VHS release.

And although this DVD presentation is in widescreen format which is always a plus for any DVD, it turns out to be a bit TOO widescreen. This is an unfortunate case where the studio took the original negative and forgot to matte it at the proper aspect ratio to match the original theatrical release. Watch some of the shots in Steve McQueen's cooler cell sequences. On the left-hand side you can clearly see the very distracting shape of a sound man standing on the other side of the wall just outside Steve's door! And no, that's not a German guard because you can see right through the open edge of the cooler set... Steve's character could have walked around the wall and been free in a heartbeat! Also, in another shot during an assembly of the prisoners in front of the huts you can see massive camera lights standing just beyond the camp's barbed wire. And, when the two escaping prisoners jump from the train you can see 1960's vintage vehicles parked along the side of the road next to the track... in 1944?!?. All of these "goofs" (which aren't really "goofs" because the director and cameraman knew they would be matted out before theatrical release) should have also been matted for the DVD, but someone at MGM literally fell alseep at the switch while making the transfer.

I hope MGM attempts a more attentive transfer of The Great Escape to DVD in the future... and please, for such a great film like this, how about hiring a film historian or critic to give a running commentary when the director is no longer alive to do so himself? The "making of" documentary included with this DVD is fine, but it just leaves the viewer wanting more.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greats
Review: This film is truly one of the greats. Steve McQueen was a role model for me early on when I saw this film for the first time at the age of seven. I think maybe I have seen this film ten or twelve times and I never get tired of it. Widescreen is the only way to go! See the film the way it was MEANT to be seen.

Rating:
Summary: I love this great movie
Review: In a time period today when all movies are full guns blaring blood and guts and stupid ideas that were created to kill more people. This one was designed to keep life. What a great Idea huh? I think so. I love this movie. It's got comedy, tragety, and heroism. Everything and more right? Then why is it such a sleeper. I was lucky to stumble on this movie because it was on a blank tape someone was giving my to use. I watched it and treasured it. I recomend this to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: An Essential Soundtrack
Review: This film contains one of Elmer Bernstein's two most recognizable themes in cinema history, "The Magnificent Seven" being the other. To say that "the Great Escape" has such a distinction is an understatement. His main title theme is as much a tribute to the Allied prisoners in the film as it is to all men who must overcome the odds through their own perseverance and unwillingness to bend to defeat to whatever noble end they strive for. Bernstein's complex score complements the theme by giving us passages and statements on the diversity of the individuals as well as their singular overall objective. Once "on the road" the music reaches exhilarating proportions unlike that of traditional action Hollywood scoring. Bernstein wants to put the audience through the same suspense and anticipation that the escapees feel and then unleashes our pent up emotions in a crescendo of rousing orchestrations that has us cheering them on. That was the same brilliant technique he employed in "The Magnificent Seven." I don't think many people give Elmer Berstein the credit for being the musical innovator that he was back in this period of his prestigious career. Composer Bernstein was able to control our emotions giving us moments of reflective tranquility, then despair and in the next moment lifting our spirits again knowing that actions were not taken in vain and good will eventually prevail. It is so easy to indicate what was left off an album, but I choose not to do that. What is here is very representative of what Bernstein was stating in the film. This is a reissue of the original United Artists album. The remastering is good and the few dialogue cuts are really indifferent to the musical work. I don't mind them. Just program them out if you find them annoying. I would consider this an essential soundtrack for any collector or student of film music.

Rating:
Summary: Good Film from the Excellent Paul Brickhill Book
Review: "The Great Escape" is director John Sturges' brilliant film presentation of the absorbing Paul Brickhill Book. John Sturges effectively retells the story from the script by James Clavell and W.R. Burnett, which is a condensation of events and people taken from the book. The film deals with the lives and efforts of the Allied POW's to escape from a German prison camp. We do not see John Sturges take any side in this film. Only near the end of the film does he begin to make a political statement on Nazism and its effect on traditional German military ethics and the lives of the captured Allies. Sturges' focus is more on the men caught in war and its effects on them. We see the men rely on dormant qualities they never knew existed until they put on a uniform and were captured and held in foreign territory. We see men going to extreme lengths to escape because of their inborn right to be free. This is represented by Steve McQueen's character Hilts otherwise known as the "Cooler King," Charles Bronson as Danny and Angus Lennie as Ives the "The Mole." We see other men going to equal lengths to escape and cause havoc behind enemy lines by diverting German troops from the front to recapture them. This is the main purpose of the escape and Richard Attenborough as the "Big X" orchestrates the overall plan. He calls upon every expertise of the prisoners to reach this one goal. He calls upon tailors, forgers, scroungers, tinkers, and engineers, just about anyone capable of getting the job done. These are portrayed by James Garner, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, David McCallum, John Leyton, Gordon Jackson, Tom Adams, Nigel Stock and others.

For years this was considered a great World War II action adventure film, but John Sturges' reaches far above that mundane distinction. His style and ease of direction glosses over his own profound statements that he makes in this film. For example, James Garner cleverly befriends a German guard for the sole purpose of stealing his wallet so he can extort a 35-mm. camera and film from the guard. On the surface the audience is very amused at Garner's sly tactics, after all the Germans are the bad guys. However, subconsciously Sturges gave us enough personal information about the guard that we almost feel sympathy for him. This is reinforced by Sturges' choice of James Garner, one of the most likable actors in Hollywood, to perpetrate the deception on the unknowing guard. How can a nice guy like James Garner do this? As it works out Sturges lets the guard redeem himself. It is this guard that discovers the first tunnel when he spills some coffee on the floor and it disappears through the cracks. Now you the viewer are faced with a moral dilemma. Do I still feel sympathy for the guard? Do I still think that James Garner is a scoundrel? Or do I think that in war I have to do what is necessary? Garner's character did what he had to do and so did the guard.

Editor Ferris Webster did an excellent job of putting this complex story together giving it coherence and drive yet never sacrificing any of the wonderful characterizations that is the backbone of this film. Daniel Fapp's cinematography brilliantly gives us a feeling of claustrophobia while in the prison camp. Once the escape begins he gives us panoramas of landscapes which have a dual symbolism. On one emotional hand we are free and the far-off horizons elusively symbolize that freedom. On the other rational hand we know that we are still not free and the vastness of those landscapes only strengthens the reality that ultimate escape and freedom is improbable for the majority of the escapees. Composer Elmer Bernstein also has more to say than meets the ear. This film contains one of his two most recognizable themes in cinema history (The Magnificent Seven being the other) but that is an understatement. His main title theme is as much a tribute to the prisoners in this story as it is to all men who must overcome the odds through their own perseverance and unwillingness to bend to defeat to whatever noble end they strive for. Bernstein's complex score complements the theme by giving us passages and statements on the diversity of the individuals as well as their singular overall objective. Once "on the road" the music reaches exhilarating proportions unlike that of traditional action Hollywood scoring. Bernstein wants to put the audience through the same suspense and anticipation that the escapees feel and then unleashes our pent up emotions in a crescendo of rousing orchestrations that has us cheering them on. This was the same brilliant technique he employed in "The Magnificent Seven." I don't think many people give Elmer Berstein the credit for being the musical innovator that he was back in that period in his career.