The Great Escape

Rating:
Summary: Good But Not Great
Review: When I first moved to the UK, I was amazed by the extreme reverence for this film. For years, it was shown on television every Christmas and Easter. The fans of the England football team have adopted its catchy marching theme as their own. It regularly features in lists of all time greatest films. And, most curiously, many Brits tend to regard it as a British film, probably because of the presence of so many well known British character actors in the cast. While the Brits will happily ridicule most other American films - quite often for no other reason then that they are American - The Great Escape remains a kind of sacred cow and is treated with unabashed affection.

Well, I always thought this film should be called The Good Escape because it is a good film rather than a great one. And it doesn't really improve with age or repeated viewings. Although based on an actual incident, quite a lot of dramatic licence seems to have been taken to result in a film that requires a huge suspension of belief. This is strictly World War Two - The Comic Book.

Just about all the prisoners in the camp are British except for the two smartest guys who are American. And a Pole (played by an American) - and an Australian (played by an American with a pathetic accent). Everyone is remarkably fit and healthy - prison life and digging tunnels seem to agree with them. No one ever has so much as a cold. All the prisoners are clever and endlessly resourceful - all the Germans are stupid and confused. It hardly seems a challenge for anyone to escape.

The film is neatly divided into two halves. The first and marginally more realistic one deals with all the plotting and planning of the escape and helps to establish the largely two-dimensional characters. Once the escape is underway, however, the movie is pure Hollywood - especially that famous motorcycle chase. Amazingly, the guys who were so clever inside the camp, suddenly seem to be competing with each other to be captured in the quickest and most stupid manner.

The two best elements of the film are the fantastic musical score by Elmer Bernstein and the generally strong cast. Although Steve McQueen is his usual minimalistic self (I love the comment by Robert Mitchum that "McQueen doesn't bring much to the party.") James Garner is much better, even if he does occasionally seem to be trying to keep a straight face. Charles Bronson seems to be doing a Brando impression while James Coburn looks like he's making it all up as he goes along. The Brits are solid and dependable in their various stereotypical parts - James Donald, Gordon Jackson, David MacCallum (prior to the Man From UNCLE) - with Donald Pleasance especially standing out. The Germans are...well, Germanic.

One thing always bothered me about the disposal of the dirt from the tunnels. MacCallum comes up with the idea of sacks of dirt down trouser legs released by strings in the pockets. We then see a squad of marching prisoners (Why is an American RAF pilot drilling British soldiers?) who release dirt en masse. But how? Were they marching with their hands in their pockets?

I suppose we should be grateful that the makers of The Great Escape didn't try to work in a love story. But it's still good (not great) mindless entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Top 1 World War II Movie
Review: This movie is the best WWII movie out there. It was released in 1963 and starred Steve Mcqueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough. Steve McQueen plays, Hilts "the cooler king", James Garner plays Hendley "the scrounger", and Richard Attenborough plays Bartlett "big x".

This is the plot, in 1943 the Nazis built the prison camp Stalag Luft III. The luftwaffe kept American, English, and other pilots that were caught behind enemy lines due to crashing or other causes. But the bad thing the Nazis did was that they poured hundreds of prisoners-of-war and formed the finest escape team in history. In the movie when the Bartlett and the other prisoners arrive the plan gets started. Bartlett wants to confuse the Third Reich by having 250 prisoners escape from the camp and make hundreds of Nazi soldiers have men to look for them. This would make it difficult for the enemy to defend itself on the frontlines. Bartlett holds a camp meeting one night. He tells the men his idea. His idea is to dig three tunnels codenamed Tom, Dick, and Harry. The reason for three would be if the Germans found one they could move into the other. After the plan was told, he assigned all the men certain jobs to make the escape a success. During a 4th of July party, one of the "Krauts" discover Tom, one of the tunnels. They then close down Dick and focus on Harry. Then a little later the tunnel is ready to be used. Then one night all 250 men arrive to the tunnel entrance and escape. The bad news is only 76 made it out. The reason 76 is because when a German heard noises from the field, right by the prison camp, he checked and didn't discover the tunnel. But one inpatient prisoner did not what until the coast was clear. He came out of the hole and was caught, making the 174 remaining prisoners stuck in the camp unable to escape.

Most of the escaping men are caught, there are only 3 men out of the 76 that successfully escaped to freedom. 50 prisoners, including Bartlett, were murdered by the Gestapo. Hendley's blind friend Blythe, played by Donald Pleasence, is killed by a German officer after there plane crashes. The rest of the prisoners were returned to Stalag Luft III. Then Hilts is returned to the cooler, then the credits are shown ending the movie.

The movie was a big success. It was based on an actual true story. Everyone loved Steve McQueen's motorcycle scene during the last part of the movie. There is even a scene where McQueen plays a german on a motorcycle chasing Hilts. Of course in the true story this scene didn't happen. The movie had a great director, John Sturges, and an excellent cast, including James Coburn, Charles Bronson, and more. The special features are very nice. There are a couple of documentaries and a theatrical trailer and many more things that make the Great Escape of the best WWII films in movie history.