Review of The Great Escape (1963) by John T — 16 Mar 2009

Ask anybody of a certain age in the UK to name a war film and it's likely that The Great Escape will be the first mentioned.

It's an iconic film that gets an airing on terrestrial TV every Christmas and nearly every public holiday.

So to criticise it in anyway would be like telling your kindly ageing grandmother that she smells and her cooking sucks.

So I'm going to show The Great Escape the respect it deserves and not be too critical.

The Great Escape is based on the true story of a group of Allied prisoners of war who managed to escape from an allegedly impenetrable Nazi prison camp during World War II. At the beginning of the film, the Nazis gather all their most devious and troublesome POWs and place them at a new prison camp, which was designed to be impervious to escapes. Immediately, the prisoners develop a scheme where they will leave the camp by building three separate escape tunnels. Richard Attenborough is the British soldier who masterminds the whole plan, and who commands his motley squad--.

Featuring Charles Bronson as a Polish trench-digging expert, James Garner as an American with a talent for theft, Donald Pleasence as a masterful forger, and Steve McQueen as an American rebel--through the construction of the tunnels and, eventually, their escape.

This is the first of four Steve Mcqueen films that I tend to review in the near future and is probably his most famous role.

To be fair , it's not his most challenging role as regards acting is concerned. As like some of his other films the action scenes are the most memorable ones. His escape attempt from the Germans on a motorbike is the part of the film everyone remembers fondly and quite rightly so.

You can see he's having so much fun in the muddy fields with that bike.

The Great Escape is nearly three hours long but at no time does it drag. I think that's because of the great cast. Everyone is at the top of their game ( except James Coburn and his peculiar Australian accent) and it was not too often that a film a had such a mix of top British and American actors in one film.

Richard Attenborough and Gordon Jackson are the serious players in the escape attempt while Steve Mcqueen and Angus Lennie bring a lighter side to the proceedings.

It also has a very memorable and catchy soundtrack that everyone immediately recognises. What is it with films in the sixties and fantastic original soundtracks and why don't movies have them anymore?

Being totally honest Stalag Luft III is portrayed more like a holiday camp than a prisoner of war camp but I suppose back it was made in 1963 , a little to close to the end of the war for it to be too brutal.

The Great Escape is certainly not the best war film ever made , far from it , but it a great film for all the family to sit down and watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

8 out of 10.