The Great Escape (2-Disc Collector's Set)

The Great Escape portrays the heroism of prisoners never giving into their captors and the pompous honor of Nazi Germany. The group becomes a monkey wrench at all turns determined to send their adversary to the Russian front. My only complaint is that it is shown in letterbox format which saps some of the power of the story. Wasn't this picture worth a full screen format? But this is probably par for the epics of that era. The stars had to carry the load and be bigger in life even though you are peeking through a window. Steve McQueen was a man of epic tales and this one does not fail to deliver. Even doomed to failure he never gives up. Resist with every last breath was the motto of the prisoners. Guile and guts served them well and in the end Germany was defeated even if only in small part by the escapades of the escapees. Grit abounds through the fiber of every man sworn to serve the Allied forces. We owe these men a debt we can never repay, but always respect. It takes courage to put your own well being second behind the cause. Unfortunately we have seldom triumphed in glory since that time. This war made sense while successors seemed steeped in politics. Something a normal person has a hard time understanding. Let's just hope that global war was put to rest with this one. We can look back on the Great Escape with admiration and gratitude. But we can never repay what was sacrificed by these men.

'The Great Escape' had the advantage of a fine source, and a fine script... Each actor realizes his potential in a very detailed manner, giving a feeling lost in the actual cinema...

Sturges is careful with the pace in the first half, allowing the escape plans develop slowly... Humor, excitement and human drama are wonderfully blended, and smartly underscored by Elmer Bernstein's memorable background music...

The film opens with several truckloads of Allied officers, mostly pilots, being transferred to a new German maximum-security prison camp at Sagan...

The Camp 'Kommandant', Von Luger (Hannes Messemer), tells Captain Ramsey (James Donald), 'We have, in effect, put all our rotten eggs in one basket, and we intend to watch this basket carefully.'

But since all the British and American officers in his charge are men who have made several attempts to escape from other prison camps, Von Luger knows his words are meaningless...

The master planner is 'Big X,' Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborough), who has just endured three months of Gestapo/SS torture, and plans to strike back, getting as many men as possible out of the camp, in order to 'harass, confuse and confound the enemy' behind the lines...

He announces a terrific plan for a mass break-out of 250 men and schemes three simultaneous tunnels Tom, Dick, and Harry...

The plan, so precise, proceeds in an orderly fashion, with a great deal of attention placed on caution and ruse to deflect German attentions... The captives involve themselves in much surface activity, which masks the underground work...

Hilts (Steve McQuenn), the 'Cooler King,' leads the Germans on a memorable motorcycle chase through back roads and across the fields right up to the Swiss frontier...

Hendley (James Garner), the 'Scrounger' is a charming thief whose particular gift is the misappropriation of all the required supplies for an escape...

Blythe (Donald Pleasance) has the talents of a 'Forger', and makes visas and passports... He suggests in one scene: ' Tea without milk is so uncivilized.'

Danny Velinski (Charles Bronson) is the experienced Polish-American 'Tunnel-King.'

Louis Sedgwick (James Coburn) is the 'Manufacturer' of bellows-operated ventilation...

Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum) is the 'Dispersal' with his ingenious methods of getting rid of the dirt generated by the tunneling activities...

Andy McDonald (Gordon Jackson ) is 'Intelligence,' the officer who develops a fantastic security system to protect the compounds from the German "Ferrets."

Archibald Ives (Angus Lennie) is the 'Mole,' whose fragile mind has been taxed by several years in the camps, repeated failed escape attempts, and time in the cooler...

Dennis Cavendish (Nigel Stock) is the 'Surveyor' who miscalculates the distance to the trees...

Guard Werner (Robert Graf) is the 'Ferret' who affirms to Hendley: 'I could tell you stories about my teeth that would make your hair stand on end.'

'The Great Escape' is a pretty good motion picture where the toll of freedom is precious, and the movie's ending provokes deep and serious meditation... It graphically shows what enterprising men can accomplish under the most unusual circumstances... It has a great cast, and is beautifully made...

The Great Escape was a decent movie. However, it did not live upto my expectations.

The storyline was fine, action was decent and suitable and characters played their parts well. The movie also detailed the escape plot well and went into considerable depth.

One part of the movie that reduced it's quality was the unnecessary comic relief throughout the movie. Almost from the start, many POW's act like they are on vacation and not a prison camp. I don't think real-life POWs would have acted like that. In the same vein, the German officers appeared fools and clowns, who not only tolerated much insolence but didn't seem to have a clue at all.

The cast alone makes this one of the great films of all time. The acting is superb, the characters are portrayed as likeable and keep you cheering for their cause. It is, perhaps, Steve McQueen's greatest film right up to and including the best motorcycle footage ever at the end. Charles Bronson is never better. The action/drama is intense and builds quickly to a brilliant and moving finish. Every movie affecionado will want this one for the memorable characters.

This flick is like a prequel to "Hogan's Heroes." The Allied POWs are plucky, cocky and handsome. The German soldiers who guard them are bumbling oafs. At the end of the movie the German guns come out and many of the POWs are slaughtered.

Disgusting.