The Great Escape (1963) User Reviews

A genuine timeless classic.

[KEVMC · 9/10 · 28 December 2003]

During World War Two the Germans build a new prison camp, Stalag Luft III, for the express purpose of housing many of their most troublesome captured Allied airmen. However, all this serves to do is to pool the resources of some of the most ingenious escape artists in captivity and fill them with a resolve to engineer a mass breakout from the camp.

Based largely on real events, this film has assumed classic status over the years and its easy to understand why. Quite simply, it excells in many departments. Director John Sturges was at the height of his creative powers and he keeps a firm grip on the proceedings. Although the film runs close to three hours it never feels sluggish, while at the same time winding up the tension gradually and developing the characters. The production design is first rate, to the point where Donald Pleasance (who had been a P.O.W.) felt quite intimidated by the vast set on his arrival. Daniel Fapp's beautiful photography shows this and the picturesque German locations off to full effect. Put these virtues together with a good script, inspired casting and a classic score by Elmer Bernstein, and you have an object lesson in how to create an intelligent and exciting big budget adventure film.

On the subject of the cast; Much is made of Steve McQueen's role. While I am a huge McQueen fan, I feel that some of the other performances are equal to, if not better than his. Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Donald Pleasance, Charles Bronson and Gordon Jackson are all excellent. Good too are James Coburn, James Donald, David McCallum and Hannes Messemer as the sympathetic Commandant.

This is one of those films that I can happily watch time and time again. In September of this year a new print was screened at the NFT in London as part of an 'Attenborough at 80' season. It was a pleasure to see this on the big screen at last. For the most part the print was in very good condition. The DVD was one of the first that I ever bought some three and a half years ago, and I watched its inevitable Christmas screening on BBC2 last night. I just never tire of it. In these days of brainless, poorly executed action fodder, its a joy to behold something that hits its targets so precisely.

A vast, multi-star war epic with great score by Elmer Bernstein...

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 9/10 · 18 July 2001]

'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...

Fantastic Movie

[brett-76260 · 9/10 · 15 December 2019]

They will never make movies like this again... If You haven't seen this before go hit the play button. This has a fantastic cast, great story and just an all around entertaining flick. Sit back and enjoy a few cold ones while you watch this classic WWII movie. Easily one of the best war movies ever made...

If you're going to critique the history, then know the history.

[FABabe · 31 January 2003]

I find it difficult to believe that some reviewers' negative reactions to this film are based on their (misguided) beliefs that none of this could possibly have happened. Comments like these make it crystal clear that what some people don't know about history is appalling. If you are going to judge a film based on historical fact, it helps if you know what it is.

It is well-documented what amazing technical feats the POW's were able to accomplish in the stalags. There was even an entire section of the British Secret Service dedicated to coming up with all sorts of clever ways to send these captured men the tools they needed to facilitate their escape attempts, i.e., sandwiching maps between the split sides of a record album (yes, the Germans allowed the prisoners to have records in the camps) or compasses in pens. At Colditz Castle, one of the more forbidding stalags, (actually an offlag since is was for officers only), many, many tunnels were dug and disguises created. One man actually created a German sergeant's uniform totally from scratch, donned a moustache and created an overall impersonation so realistic, it fooled two out of three sets of sentries. Some of the POW's built and concealed an entire glider that would have carried two men off the roof and over the wall! The only reason it didn't fly was because the prison was liberated before they got the chance! The Colditz experience is well documented. There are many books written about that particular prison complete with photographs, including one by a German officer confirming these amazing escapes and attempts. The reviewers who doubt what can be done when necessity is truly the mother of invention should look for them and learn something.

As for the prisoners not being in jumpsuits, as suggested by one reviewer as one reason to question the authenticity of the film? Ludicrous, POW's wore what they were captured in. The German military (different from the Gestapo and the SS) considered them soldiers and allowed them to keep their badges of rank.

As for the film itself, it is long, but absorbing. There are historical flaws (as there are in all movies), but several of the former POW's participated in the filming process, keeping it, for the most part, very authentic. As for the emphasis on Americans, it's true they were not among the escapees per se, but several did assist in the effort before they were transferred out, as mentioned by a previous reviewer. However, you must remember that the movie was made for an American audience in 1963, long before international distribution revenue became so important to a studio's bottom line. They needed American stars who would appeal to an American audience. Who knows, perhaps if they were to remake it today, the cast would be all British and German, but I doubt it (see "Hart's War" where not only the plot, but all the British and Canadian characters that were in the book, disappeared).

All in all, "The Great Escape" is an entertaining movie telling a fascinating story of what ordinary men can achieve in adverse circumstances. It's well worth the time.

Great Escape,Great movie

[bas-21 · 10/10 · 25 December 2005]

This must be my favorite movie of all times. Having seen it for the first time,in I guess 1987,a BBC Christmas broadcast,I was captivated by this brilliant piece of work. In the years after,I probably have seen it a "million" times,owning it on VHS and DVD,and still watching,whenever it is broadcast,in the original language. Why is it so great? This is a movie that keeps you locked to the screen,because it has everything a great movie should have. A great story,a good length,tension,it is a WW2 movie and the actors give top performances.Not just Steve McQueen,although his performance is brilliant,but also James Garner,James Coburn,Richard Attenborough,Charles Bronson and in this film,one of the greatest roles Donald Pleasance,playing the forger. It isn't historically accurate,please read the book by Paul Brickhill,but that doesn't matter a bit. This film gives you an image of POW camp,the prisoners and their guards,the Germans are also played brilliantly by German actors. I will not repeat the story here,but I can tell you,this film will capture you,all the characters are portrayed brilliantly by the actors. There is excitement,humor,tension,drama and emotion. See it,you will not regret it.

"We Intend To Watch This Basket Very Closely."

[bkoganbing · 10/10 · 17 September 2006]

The Great Escape tells the amazing story of a whole bunch of allied prisoners who accomplish a mass breakout during World War II, some of whom actually did make it to freedom and the allied armed forces once again. The film is so good that you do not mind the fact that some American players were tossed into the story as the real story was one accomplished by the British.

To insure that the American movie public would be buying tickets, several American players got into The Great Escape. Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and a pair of American TV cowboys just breaking into big screen star status, James Garner and Steve McQueen were put in the film. Director John Sturges had worked with McQueen, Coburn, and Bronson in his last film The Magnificent Seven. Sturges does a grand job in never letting his audiences attention flag for one minute in this almost three hour length film.

What the Nazis have done in this film is to build a brand new prison camp and have put all the perennial escape artists in this one. Of course by doing so a whole lot of talented escape artists in one place.

And the organized effort is led by Richard Attenborough. Without going overboard into a whole lot of flag waving, Sturges and Attenborough give us the portrayal of a deeply patriotic man who if he can't back into the fight himself, is going to do what he can from a POW camp to bedevil the people making war on his country. He leads the mass escape attempt with an almost corporate efficiency.

The opposite of course is Steve McQueen. I've always thought of Captain Virgil Hills as the ultimate Steve McQueen role of individualism. He and flight officer Angus Lennie are going to get out, no matter what, on their own or with the group. Angus Lennie is the former jockey now RAF flight officer and his death amidst a Fourth of July party that McQueen, Garner, and Jud Taylor have is one of the most moving scenes ever put on film. McQueen decides to play for the team after that.

The Great Escape allowed McQueen to indulge in one of his hobbies of motorcycling. His race through the German country side on a stolen Nazi uniform and motorcycle is a spectacular one, aided and abetted by Elmer Bernstein's magnificent film score.

James Garner bonds with Donald Pleasance in the film. Garner is an American in the RAF Eagle Squadron, Americans who couldn't wait for their own country to get into the war who enlisted in the RAF. A lot of Garner's TV character of Bret Maverick is in his role as Hendley the scrounger/con artist.

Pleasance is his room mate, the shy bird watcher who does the work of forging documents for the escaping prisoners. He's going blind as it turns out, my guess would be from untreated glaucoma. It's nice to see Donald Pleasance for once as a nice guy on the screen. His death due in part to his incipient blindness is also a moving one.

Charles Bronson is also another foreign volunteer for the RAF, from Poland as befitting Bronson who is of Polish origin. He's the tunnel digger who suffers from claustrophobia and his scenes are primarily with British teen idol John Leyton. This was another of a long series of great character roles for Bronson on his way to stardom.

James Coburn shows that like Robert Mitchum, he too had a good ear for accents. His Aussie speech pattern is as good as Mitchum's was in The Sundowners.

The Germans here are also portrayed three dimensionally. Robert Graf is the not too bright corporal who isn't exactly happy to be at war, but is grateful he ain't serving in Russia. He gets unmercifully conned by Garner. Hannes Messemer is the commandant of the POW camp, an officer in the Luftwaffe. The prisoners are nearly all RAF officers and enlisted men and the Luftwaffe is in charge of the camp. Messemer is as fearful of the S.S. and the Gestapo as his prisoners are. He's also as very conscious of the atrocities those worthy organizations are capable of and my favorite scene in the film is him having to tell of one to the Senior British officer in the camp, James Donald. Messemer is conscious also of his failure to watch the basket of rotten eggs put in his charge very closely.

The Great Escape does the one essential thing for a movie to do, it moves. Even in just the scenes of planning and preparation you are aware of movement. I mentioned Elmer Bernstein's film score. It's one of Bernstein's best, maybe one of the best known of any film in cinema history.

The Great Escape is one of those films you can watch dozens of times and never tire of. It's a wonderful film, a real tribute to the best in mankind under some of the worst circumstances.

The Great Movie

[boblipton · 10/10 · 13 January 2022]

The Germans, "with madness in their method" have taken every captured flier who has made repeated attempts to escape and put them in a POW camp which they have devised to be inescapable. Under the supervision of Richard Attenborough, they immediately begin to dig tunnels to break out 250 men.

There are anhistorical elements here. There were four tunnels dug, not the three in the movie; the date of the escape was changed; most notably, several American flyers took part in the breakout. While Americans did take part in the planning and construction, they had been moved to a different camp by the time of the event. This was an American film, and director John Sturges had been trying to get this project off the ground for the better part of a decade before he and the Mirisches got United Artists to foot the bill, so James Garner, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson (as a Pole) got major roles. UA also wanted a shorter running time, and some women, which Sturges was able to resist.

It's a great, gripping blend of suspense and thrills, with some pawky humor thrown in, and a canny shift in camerawork. The first two-thirds, with its closed-in spaces sustains an element of oppression, culminating with the breakout, at night in the confined space of the tunnel. This is followed by brightly lit and open vistas as the escapees make their ways towards freedom. Because Sturges had directed THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, the remake of Kurosawa's THE SEVEN SAMURAI, I thought for many years this dichotomy was taken from Kurosawa's HIGH AND LOW. However, the latter picture was released four months after Sturges'.

170 minutes is a very long time for a feature film, and this was undoubtedly released in a road show version with an intermission. The natural place for a break would be right after the Germans discover the primary tunnel. Nowadays, when I watch this, I can take a break whenever I like. Even knowing how it comes out, it's a struggle to stop the movie at any point.

Not just great, simply magnificent more like!

[hitchcockthelegend · 10/10 · 4 March 2008]

"Wait a minute, you aren't seriously suggesting that if I get thru the wire and case everything out there, and don't get picked up, to turn myself in and get thrown in the cooler for a couple of months so you can get the information you need"

Smart, witty and directed with adroit hands by John Sturges, The Great Escape is standing the test of time as a joyous multi cast family favourite. Based on the real accounts of allied soldiers escaping en mass from a German POW camp back in 1942, the film is involving from start to finish, due in the main to the wonderful array of characters on show. We follow them from the moment they arrive at the camp right through to the stunning climax, and it is with great joy I say that none of the cast lets the side down, they all do great work for the astute and undervalued Sturges. A number of great set pieces align with Elmer Bernstein's fabulous score to never let the blood settle, and in among the cheeky slices of humour is palpable tension to make this simply one of the best films of its type, in fact one of the best films ever.

Sturges and his writers, James Clavell & W.R. Burnett, adapt from the book written by Paul Brickhill, someone who speaks from experience having been one of the prisoners of super POW camp Stalag Luft III, which of course is what The Great Escape is born from. Sturges was fascinated by the story and after trying without fail for over a decade to get it onto the screen, he finally succeeded. The success three years earlier of his star ensemble Western, The Magnificent Seven, enabled Sturges to realise his vision, the result of which is still enthralling new generations with each passing year.

The cast is made up of notable thespians and iconic heroes. Steve McQueen (enticing the American audience in one feels), Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Donald, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn, James Garner, David McCallum, John Leyton and Gordon Jackson. Which of course is a pretty tidy roll call, but the input and impact of Hannes Messemer as the Camp Commandant, Colonel Von Luger should not be understated. His scenes have a real humanistic quality that shows a softer side of Germany to the one ruled by a certain despot (the finale here offering up the counter opposite of the war), the writers smartly, and rightly, not tarring a nation with the same old brush.

A wonderful involving movie that puts characteristic heart in bed with the action and suspense laden plot. 10/10

Excellent...but the history teacher in me could have hoped for just a bit more...

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 27 December 2011]

I am a tough audience for historical films. As a retired history teacher, I often notice when details are wrong--and I am not the sort of person you'd like to go to such a movie with, as I will invariably complain about the historical license the filmmakers took in regard to the facts. Now I sometimes realize that there are times when changing the facts a bit might not be such a bad thing--but too often, the writers just don't seem to care if they get it right. Because of this, I generally love "The Great Escape" as it IS based on a real mass escape and the characters are often based on these actual men. BUT, what I struggle with is the studio's insistence that Americans be included in the cast--though in the actual escape this was NOT the case. What makes it worse is that two of these Americans (Steve McQueen and James Garner) were among the leads in the film--making the event seem like it was planned and executed thanks to the good 'ol USA. Now I love my country, but I love the truth even more and it made me feel bad that the Brits and their Commonwealth members somehow got the short end of this. But, on the other hand, the film does do a very job otherwise when it comes to portraying this period in history.

I could review the film at length, but there are countless other reviews on this movie already. The bottom line is that the film has exceptional acting, really fine dialog and is well made throughout--and is clearly one of the best war films can find. Well worth seeing and a film that easily justifies its nearly three hour running time.

Behind the Wire

[richardchatten · 10/10 · 31 December 2021]

Exactly fifty years ago this month I first saw this on BBC1 with the never to be repeated news that it was "the first ever screening on British television".

The fact that it's deservedly become a classic obscures the fact that (SPOILER COMING:) director John Sturges was adamant about retaining the ending of John Brickhill's 1956 bestseller, which for several years made it an impossible pitch until he enjoyed a huge hit with 'The Magnificent Seven' and was finally able to interest the money men by reuniting three of The Seven.

To keep costs down it was shot in Europe, and the authentic German locations - and the largely British supporting cast - simply made the result even more distinctive.

A great aventure, but a bad war movie

[Criticalstaff · 6/10 · 9 February 2021]

I have mixed feelings on this movie. It is a movie that appeals to me, it has a lot of things that I should like. Yet, I was utterly bored during the first half of this film, and by the time the setting changes and the action becomes more diverse, by the time it got interesting, I was disengaged emotionally.

This movie's failure is structural. It is not the fault of the actors, it is not a bad story, it is not the cinematography or the music, rather it is the overall quality of these elements together that gives an underwhelming result. This movie is whatever the antonym of synergy is. If synergy is 1+1=3 then this movie is 1+1=1. The movie has nothing to offer other than a surface-level presentation. It is without any depth. It is devoid of depth. It is an illusion. When it shows Steve McQueen on a bike, that's what it is: Steve McQueen on a bike. There is no meaning, no signification, no symbolism, no reason. There is barely any tension or stakes.

The film premise is a prisoner camp during WW2. Yet, surprisingly the movie is not a prison break movie. The atmosphere in the prison is barely inconvenient. They are well treated, they eat well, they are allowed to drink and get turnt. Almost all of the major characters have little schemes and when they are caught there is virtually no punishment or retribution. They repeatedly hatch these plans to get out, but there is no real tension, each issue or problem is immediately resolved with little cost or sacrifice and the attitude of the prisoners is so upbeat and confident that it deflates the drama that could have been. There is one character who is psychologically affected, and dies from it. And, it does give the main cast an opportunity for introspection, but it way too brief. McQueen is sent to the cooler repeatedly: it affects him in no way. However, that sequence is so jarringly different in tone with the rest of the movie that you are left puzzled when the movie switches back to the naïve prison shenanigans.

Yet, the film is not a war movie either. It completely ignores any historical event, or any context. Granted, the bad guys are Germans and the good guys are British and American, but none of this has any implication whatsoever. The only thing that is unmistakably WW2 is when the SS are involved, but it is only abruptly and at the end. Instead, by the last act, you understand that it is an adventure film, and that all the tension and excitement will be delivered there. Once outside the camp, the movie's structure does not work against it anymore, and each vignette and separate adventure becomes unique and interesting.

This movie is a testament of old Hollywood filmmaking. It did not really matter what the story was about, what mattered was the poster and how many people you could trick into buying a ticket. The actors were the characters and the setting was the story.

Absolutely Awesome!!!

[aquaman-7 · 10/10 · 28 September 2004]

The Great Escape is a classic war movie with plenty happening in it. It just so happens that it is my all time favourite having seen it 60 times since it first was released. Steve McQueen , as Hilts, was the driving force behind this movie. He seemed to tie everything together between the American and British prisoners especially in the scene where they were celebrating the 4th of July with the drums and good ole fashioned American moonshine. The Great Escape contains one of the most famous movie scenes of all times when McQueen has half of the German army chasing after him while riding his motorcycle trying to jump the barb wire fence to get to Switzerland. All in all, The Great Escape had a cast of actors that was so strong that it was a wonder they got this movie made in the first place with all of the egos involved. James Garner, Charles Bronson, Angus Lennie, James Coburn, etc.were absolutely awesome.

40 Minutes Too Long

[VikingBurialService · 7/10 · 10 February 2022]

Perfect, until it got to the last quarter. The movie sets up this dramatic question of "Will they escape the prison Camp?" The first 75% of the movie is great, in that it shows the prisoners trying to do that. But that question gets answered when a subset of the prisoners does escape. The last 25% suddenly jumps to the various escapades of the prisoners trying to get out of Germany. It feels like a 5-minute epilogue - drawn out to 45 minutes. The whole tone of the movie shifts, with the Nazis becoming crueler, and most of the prisoners failing. It feels like the screenwriters decided to take on the final part so they could film in cool setting and add cool stunts.

Hogan Never Had It So Good

[qormi · 5/10 · 18 September 2008]

This film had a stellar cast, and most of them delivered. The score was unusually cheerful and eerie, too. A strange combination. In reality, allied POW's in German detention camps were treated with contempt and without mercy. What we have in this film, however, are a bunch of guys who act like they belong in a country club. The country club/summer camp they reside in is a fun place, except you'll get shot if they catch you climbing the fence. That's it - no mention of the terrible brutality these guys actually endured or the fact that they were given barely enough food to live on. No mention of the atrocities regularly visited upon them by their Nazi captors, including beatings, executions, and forced marches. Instead, we get gentlemanly or comical Germans who seem to actually care what the POW's think of them.

James Garner's character seems to epitomize the relaxed country club type who seems to be on vacation. He never takes off his turtleneck, which, no doubt, would cause the average person to perspire and stink after awhile. Steve McQueen, as usual, was the coolest guy in the room, but why would the Nazis allow him to have a baseball and glove to keep himself amused while in solitary confinement? Why didn't they just shoot him or beat the hell out of him after he was captured? Instead, they treated him like a naughty school boy. Richard Attenborough turned in a fine performance, but in reality, the Nazis would have never allowed him to take such a leadership role among the other prisoners. They would have singled him out and broken him instead of giving him respect.

The film had many powerful moments: the motorcycle chase, the fatal error on the bus, the massacre, the shooting of the fence climber....these were all extremely well done. The film ultimately failed, though, because it did a disservice to the men who actually lived through this by failing to convey the wretched conditions of a German POW camp.

The film had many moments where you had to suspend reality for such banal situations. Why in the world would the Nazis have ever allowed the Americans to hold a 4th of July celebration that include a parade, a picnic, and free-flowing vodka? Why would they allow a still on the premises to make homemade vodka from potatoes? Where did the Americans find a large American flag and why were they allowed to run it up a flagpole? Where did they find the smaller 13-star flag to wave around? Wasn't it out of character for Hilts to suddenly become a master flutist, blowing out a flawless rendition of "Yankee Doodle"? Colonel Klink would never have allowed Hogan and the boys such privileges! I'm surprised the Nazi guards didn't bake them cookies! What about when Hilts took out the planks from the bunkbeds (all of them) to use to reinforce the tunnel? The beds were now unusable, but the Germans didn't seem to notice all the guys sleeping on the floor, I guess. I could go on and on about these lapses in reality and this is why I wouldn't recommend this film for anyone over the age of 11.

Add to this the 1960's film making habit of over illuminating all indoor scenes to the point where it seems like the actors need to wear sunglasses, and you have a very poor rendering of a POW camp. Was I the only one who noticed that the interactions and dialogue of these impeccably dressed and well-groomed men seemed like the goings-on in an upscale gay social club?

GREAT MOVIE: MORE HISTORICALLY ACCURATE THAN SOME REALIZE...

[warrior_sarah · 11 January 2004]

This is a great movie which much more historically accurate than it is often given credit for. So many who say otherwise are ill-informed and obviously don't know much about the actual history of that actual escape. The depiction of what happened to the recaptured prisoners in the movie of THE GREAT ESCAPE is reasonably accurate as detailed on the historyinfilm site...specifically on the "Reprisal" page; along with being detailed in the various published accounts.

Hitler ultimately calmed down after being reasoned with by Goering, Feldmarschall Keitel, Maj-Gen Graevenitz and Maj-Gen Westhoff, and dictated that more than half the prisoners be shot and cremated. So, as depicted in the film, several of those recaptured were not executed and were indeed returned to confinement. In fact, even those executed were not "shot on the spot" for the most part, but were actually executed later after being turned over to the Gestapo; most being shot while being allowed to relieve themselves, under the guise of "trying to escape".

Furthermore, there are many accounts as to how much more humane the environment was within the camp (which even had a popular and very successful theatre, featuring prisoners who would later be name performers) than many other POW camps...and certainly nothing like the harsh conditions associated with the Concentration or Extermination camps.

To quote one source:

"It must be made clear that the German Luftwaffe [the German Air Force], who were responsible for Air Force prisoners of war, maintained a degree of professional respect for fellow flyers, and the general attitude of the camp security officers and guards should not be confused with the SS or Gestapo. The Luftwaffe treated the POWs well, despite an erratic and inconsistent supply of food.

Prisoners were handled quite fairly within the Geneva Convention, and the Kommandant, Oberst (Colonel) Friedrich-Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau, was a professional and honourable soldier who won the respect of the senior prisoners."

Finally, virtually all the major engineering aspects in regards to the tunnels and the initial escape in the film are as they were actually acheived in the real escape.

It would behoove some to learn a little more actual history or do a little simple research before shooting from the hip with supposed "knowledge" of reality. THE GREAT ESCAPE certainly takes liberties in tone and character portrayal, but not in the key elements that are disparaged out of sneering ignorance.

BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is also a great film, but took even greater liberties with the technical details of the events described than THE GREAT ESCAPE did....and offering up VON RYAN'S EXPRESS as a more realistic alternative is simply delusional and ridiculous.

A Great Escape

[joel cohen · 10/10 · 27 June 2001]

I saw this movie for the first time as a nine year old boy on a big screen in the Bronx. I'm now in my 40's. I have seen it many times since but not on the big screen. It was meant for the big screen! It's on my top five list along with The Sand Pebbles. It's a great movie about hope and freedom and man's responsibility to his fellow man. These men are all near saints; James Garner insisting on Donald Plesence making the escape, Charles Bronson fighting his claustrophobia. Steve McQueen is the star among the stars, not merely because of his motorcycle skills but for his attempt to save a life and for bringing the game of "off the wall" to the masses. :-)

The greatest of escapes.

[Peach-2 · 10/10 · 15 December 1998]

The Great Escape is THE prison escape movie. The film is rich with characters and the direction by John Sturges is great. Steve McQueen is the man and the rest of the cast are terrific. This movie is heroic and shows the bravery of men in the second world war. I escape into this movie whenever I feel really down, it's a great spirit lifter and one of the greatest films of all time.

Quick Reviews!!

[malkane316 · 10/10 · 16 November 2004]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!

Exciting, funny, tragic, with a massive cast who all perform brilliantly, providing many memorable moments, The Great Escape as everyone knows tells the story of the attempted escape of allied troops from German imprisonment. The characters are all well drawn, both Allies and Nazis, and each has a distinct personality, though McQueen's stands out. Even though only a few escape this is still a story of hope to rival The Shawshank Redemption. Memorable scenes are obvious: Steve's biking, Pleasance's tragic end, the celebrations which end in death, the 'get out and stretch your legs' scene, and the train station scene. With beautiful cinematography and a rousing score, this is a favourite for many people-it's shown here every Christmas. Interesting in that this is one of the few films i can think of which has no female character of note. 9 out of 10

Awesome warlike movie with memorable images and outstanding acting by well-known faces

[ma-cortes · 8/10 · 1 November 2010]

This is a splendid film about a daring breakout from inescapable Nazi concentration camp , Stalag Luft North , with all star cast and magnificently realized by John Sturges . It's partially based on facts adapted by James Clavell and W.R. Burnett from a bestselling written by Paul Brickhill . The continuous escapes have caused the Nazi staff ordered 'putting all the rotten eggs in one basket' as the prisoners are reunited into a special concentration camp . It deals with hard preparatives of a diverse group formed by rebel air officers and soldiers mounting a dangerous getaway from a barbed-wired and strongly controlled camp . The most part of the film concerns on the elaborated process of secretly digging an underground tunnel and the last one deals with spectacular breakout and effort the approx. 70 escaped prisoners throughout Germany trying to make their bid to freedom , including an impressive motorcycle pursuit in charge of iconic Steve McQueen for one of the best action sequences in years .

This exciting story contains thrills, intrigue, tension, excitement galore, entertainment and lots of fun . Suspenseful WWII epic packs exceptional plethora of prestigious actors incarnating the motley group of POWs , giving good acting and support , as a sensational Steve McQueen whose character , ¨The Cooler King¨ , remains today as attractive iconography ; Charles Bronson as digging expert but suffering claustrophobia ; Donald Pleasance as professional on forge documents but blind , James Coburn as roguish Australian and of course Richard Attenborough as Air Force Squadron leader who plans the massive breakout , furthermore , James Garner as American officer , the British Gordon Jackson and David McCallum, among others . Colorful, atmospheric cinematography shot in Bavaria,Germany, by Daniel Fapp and perfectly remastered . Excellent production design and art direction with evocative sets by Fernando Carrere. Rousing and lively soundtrack , nowadays a classic score, by Elmer Bernstein . This blockbuster is followed by inferior TV sequel with Christopher Reeve, Judd Hirsch , Ian McShane and directed Jud Taylor who played to Goff in the original version . The motion picture is magnificently directed By John Sturges , author of various classic Western as ¨Escape from Fort Bravo, Gunfight at the OK Corral, The law and Jake Wade, Magnificent seven¨ and also realized another nice wartime film as ¨ The eagle has landed ¨ . Rating : Two thumbs up , essential and indispensable watching , a real must see.

What a movie! 10/10

[The_Wood · 10/10 · 16 March 2002]

The Great Escape should be a movie every one has seen. It's the definitive P.O.W. movie -- and all other films in the genre fail to compare. It should be noted that this isn't just a Steve McQueen movie (although he is bound to be everyone's favorite character), but this is an ensemble piece with great performances by Richard Attenborough, James Garner, James Coburn, Donald Pleasence, and Charles Bronson. Wonderful build-up, great middle, and a terrific ending. This film is classic.

One of the best scores of all time.

Heroes underground.

[Anonymous_Maxine · 10/10 · 24 April 2005]

I imagine it was the lengthy running time that kept me for so many years from seeing The Great Escape, although that doesn't explain why I haven't seen hordes of other movies. But I've been going back and watching all the old classics and The Great Escape is one of the best ones I've seen so far. The movie is not only wildly entertaining throughout it's nearly three hour duration, but shows some actors who went on to become famous for other roles in decades and generations to come. Granted, I am speaking from the perspective of a different generation of moviegoers, which is why I know Charles Bronson more from Death Wish than this film, or James Coburn from films like Payback and Affliction, Donald Pleasance as Dr. Sam Loomis and Richard Attenborough as John Hammond from the Jurassic Park films.

I think the thing I loved the most about the movie was how open everyone was about their plans to escape. Not that they tried to escape out in the open, but they made no effort to hide the fact that they were analyzing their surroundings, trying to find a way to get out. As we soon learn, it is their sworn duty as captured officers to consistently try to escape and, failing that, to make life as confusing and frustrating as humanly possible for their captors.

The story involves a lot of British officers being held captive by the Germans, at a prison where all of the most consistent escapers have been compiled for special supervision. When the prisoners arrive at the beginning of the movie, many of them, including Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) walk into the gates and then immediately walk to the fences around the outsides of the compound, looking up and down the length of the fences, studying where the guard towers are, looking in broad daylight for ways to escape.

What follows is a brilliant competition between the proud British officers being held captive and the Germans guarding them, as the British make every attempt to escape and receive minimal punishment when they're caught. 20 days in the cooler for a failed escape attempt (doubled from only 10 for mouthing off) is pretty light compared to what I would have expected POWs to have suffered at the hands of the Nazis in World War II.

Because the escapes are only hidden during their preparations, there are portions of The Great Escape that play almost like a sports movie more than a war film, because of the atmosphere of competition and, among other things, there is so much comic relief, One of my favorite scenes is the one where they first begin digging under the floor in their bunker. Danny Velinski (Bronson) is under the floor digging away when the Germans march in for a surprise inspection, and he jumps out, they put the cover back on the hole and smear clay around it and then pour water into it, one guy starts mopping the floor, everyone else goes back to playing cards or milling about, and Velinski hops in the shower, and the suspicious officers come in and demand to know what they're each doing. The guy mopping explains that he's mopping, Velinski says he needed a wash, and Louis Sedgwick (Coburn), says about Velinski, "I'm watching him. I'm a lifeguard!"

It's also a great scene when Hilts (McQueen) tells Bartlett (Attenborough) and the other officer his plan for escape. Steve McQueen is the star of the movie but spends most of it pretty much out of the loop. He was in the cooler when the plans for the great escape were first hatched, so when he finally got out most of the camp was involved in planning this epic breakout, and Hilts comes up to Bartlett and one other officer and gleefully tells them about his and Ives' nutty plan to burrow three feet down and dig straight out, sticking metal tubes through the ground to the surface so they can breathe. Bartlett and the other officer leave both of them out of the plans for the time being, for reasons that are explained later in the film.

The movie is expertly written, with outstanding dialogue and even better performances and direction that I like to think is still inspiring filmmakers throughout the world. I learned from another reviewer on the IMDb that the music is almost competing within itself, with different instruments representing the British and the Germans, so I was watching for it when I watched the movie. Not only is the different music representative of the two opposing sides, but it does it within scenes and even within individual shots. Consider, for example, the scene where Hilts and Ives are first brought into the cooler. The music is almost reacting to what is going on on screen, like it's trying to describe where each character is within the frame. That is true film-making brilliance.

The movie ends with a massive setback, a tremendous downturn in tone, but does so without turning into a tragedy or overshadowing everything else that has gone on before that and, most importantly, while remaining true to the real life story. It displays the pride and determination of British military as well as was done in The Bridge on the River Kwai, and that is a major accomplishment.

Bravo.

30 TO ZERO in the 9th INNING.

[vitaleralphlouis · 6/10 · 25 November 2006]

When we first saw this movie in 1963 at Washington DC's RKO KEITH'S THEATRE, all 1,850 seats were filled and there were several hundred standees, no doubt in violation of the fire codes. I've never seen such a full movie-house. I was fully taken in by the star studded cast, the patriotic true story, the starring score by Elmer Bernstein, and the wonderful cinematography of the European landscape. I could not understand the Luke-warm reviews in Washington's four newspapers. 43 years later I can see the reviewers were right. This was a mediocre movie designed simply as a popular entertainment.

Where John Sturges and James Clavel went wrong was stacking the deck so totally in favor of the American prisoners and against their German captors, the film has all the suspense of a 30 to zero ball game. While the Americans plot and execute the escape, at no time do the Germans lift a finger to prevent it. Everything goes smoothly according to plan. Anything and everything the prisoners need is simply found with no great effort amongst the prison grounds. How silly! Even when the Germans stumble upon the tunnel entrance under the stove, their only reaction is to look down the hole. No disciplinary action follows, not even yelling.

In 1963, Hollywood hadn't yet learned to hate America. This was NOT a rotten revisionist history travesty such as Jerry Bruckheimer's PEARL HARBOR or Steven Spielberg's PRIVATE RYAN. The filmmaker's hearts were in the right place. But the 50 men to whom the film is dedicated truly were deserving of a good film being made in their honor. More a kid-flick than a serious drama, this picture does not deserve inclusion in the top 250 --- or 2,000.

Still fantastic stuff, almost 60 years later

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 9/10 · 23 April 2022]

Such a classic. It's been over 10 years since I first watched this, and returning to it tonight, I think I liked it even more.

You could argue this is THE prison escape movie. Even if it's not the best prison movie ever, the fact that it's almost 100% about setting up and executing the escape for almost three hours means it's hard to imagine something with a similar premise being much better.

It's well-paced for its length, and it's a good sign that all the set-up is just as good as the pay-offs in the second half. You could argue the last hour drags a little, but it also contains many of the film's most memorable scenes (yes I know the movie's nearly 60 years old, but I'm still going to be vague in case anyone who reads this hasn't seen it 😅)

Goes without saying but Steve McQueen is incredibly cool, but it's a testament to how great the rest of the cast is that McQueen's character can spend so much time in solitary confinement and the movie still moves well and entertains without him.

Closest thing to a flaw, if I had to pick one? Prison looks almost a little too fun here because of how likeable the characters are. They're all cool and funny, and in a way, that makes this prison camp look less hellish than it could be. I definitely understand why they want to escape, but it doesn't capture the horrors of prison life as much as other prison movies.

That being said, there are a few heavy scenes in the movie that do serve as reminders of how terrible the war was as a whole, and how ruthless the German army could be. So the atmosphere being relaxed at times in the first half is a pretty minor complaint.

So: great acting, great pacing, great music, exciting scenes, and plenty of suspense... it all adds up to a great time, and it's aged brilliantly for a movie of its age. It stands as both an essential WW2 film and an essential prison movie.

Why so long?

[adamsandel · 7/10 · 1 April 2021]

There is no reason on God's green earth why this needed to be 3 hours long - except that really long widescreen movies were all the rage at the time.

It takes a really long time to get going, then there's 20 minutes of heart-stopping suspense, and then it keeps going. And going.

It could have been a tight, exciting two hours. But it's not.

Silly Hollywood fluff

[Gary-133 · 3/10 · 15 August 1999]

A silly, silly movie. I rented it based upon the rave reviews on this site, and only sat through until the end so I could add my own review. I love war movies, but this thing was a combination of "Hogan's Heroes" and "Gilligan's Island". I should have known by the goofy little theme song in the beginning that it was just a piece of Hollywood fluff, circa 1963. I find it truly hard to believe that others have rated it highly.

My main problem with the film is that everybody and everything is a Hollywood cliche or stereotype. The camp guards spend the movie ignorantly staring into space while the escape plan magically develops before them, and the Commandant is downright sympathetic to the plight of his prisoners. And why were they trying to escape, anyways? I lost track of the number of scenes showing clean, healthy, well fed, well groomed "prisoners" sitting around smoking pipes in their sweaters, fer cryin' out loud! And the camp itself looked like an upscale hunting lodge during a comfortable summer. Imagine a 3 hour Nazi prison movie without one single unpleasant scene! This movie is nothing less than an insult to anyone that managed to survive a Nazi camp, and the millions that didn't. Heck, I look worse after a good night's sleep than these "prisoners" did after 20 days in solitary. I always wondered where the idea came from to make a TV sit-com about a WWII German P.O.W. camp (Hogan's Heroes). After seeing this completely unbelievable waste of time I now know. If you want a good WWII movie rent "Patton" or "Saving Private Ryan". This thing is just a bad comedy. I would give it a "3" out of "10". Maybe they should have added a laugh track.