Review of The Great Escape (1963) by Lee M — 21 Jul 2014

As well as being a famous film loved by many, The Great Escape also is often recognisable thanks to its iconic theme. I decided to lower my expectations going into this film due to the amount of praise I heard and did not want to disappoint myself. To my surprise, I found myself a solid war film that was enjoyable from start to finish.

The story is simple yet effective. Everyone knows that the film consists of a group of men burying their way out of a German camp. Seeing them play it out and struggle with their personal issues is what really give the film its goodness. The locations is well picked and fits in with the era set. There is really nothing else that I can mention about the score. The music is perfectly put together and plays over the acceptable sequences.

The interesting thing I got out of this was Steve McQueen's performance. Most praise for the Great Escape often came with praise for McQueen. I personally just could not see what was so great about the star. He was not bad or had anything to flaw him with, but I just could not see nothing memorable in his performance. On the other hand, I was very impressed with Richard Attenborough and really was brought into his character, along with Donald Pleasence and Charles Bronson.

I did have some issue with how the Germans were presented. I have had it explained and I am aware that some Germans were quite nice fellas within the camps, but I felt this could have been changed slightly for the tension to work. It works in the second half when the Germans become more demanding and fierce, but in the first half they are interacting in quite a polite manner with the prisoners. I was starting to wonder to myself why they would want to leave, and when they tried to build the tension up I just couldn't get involved in any visible threat.

The only other niggle I would say is the lack of subtitles. There are a few foreign conversations which leaves their wording to the imagination. Other than this, I can't fault The Great Escape. Apart from some very nice Germans, I can easily see why so many hold the Great Escape highly.