tlc75372
Joined Sep 2000
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Reviews16
tlc75372's rating
Never saw it or heard of it but stumbled upon it on YouTube. Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Jack Webb, Eddie Albert, Gary Cooper, John McIntyre, Jane Greer, Ed Begley and more. Amazing collection of 50's Hollywood and future movie and TV stars. A lighthearted movie in a US Navy setting, it's not consequential, but I found it entertaining with all the old stars. Many continued on well known TV serials and as leading men and extras movies for years afterward. Brought back lots of memories as a kid from the late 50's and early 60's. Some continuing well into the 80's like Bronson and Marvin. Great trip down memory lane.
The fundamental storyline is great and held much promise. The first episode starts great and you think this is going to be really good, but turns into an odd affair while you hang on wondering if things will get back on track. Each episode reveals a little more of the mystery, but unfortunately each episode add-on subplot appears contrived and uncoordinated. The acting is a bit sketchy, but Joan, Greta Scacchi, acting skills are head and shoulders above everyone else. Jack, Brian Brown, is his typical wooden self but it seems to work. Add it all up, it's fine for casual viewing but that's about it. Really unfortunate as it had real potential, a first rate storyline, decent lead characters, but lacks creativity to keep the storyline going. Blame the writers. The industry can better than this.
The Great Escape is not the best movie, the best war movie or the most accurate. Its the most entertaining. I saw it when it came out any many times thereafter. It's a movie Hollywood was meant to make.
In it's own way, by entertaining us, it enables some emotion or understanding of WWII so we can comprehend what happened. Our fathers and grandfathers could have been there, it was a matter of chance. Had they, we're sure that's how they would have acted. That's how we would have wanted them to be and some were.
All the character are portrayed larger than life, just as we envision they must have been regardless of who they actually were or which prison camp. Ordinary people, but to us extraordinary. Each character is presented to reinforce impressions we already have in our mind.
Although the movie is ultimately about terrible events and the grim fate awaiting some of the escapees, we are comforted by the thought that men like them actually existed. We take great pleasure in their discipline, maturity, unity and self reliance, exhilaration in their escape, panic in their arrest, shock and horror in their demise.
We want to watch it over again to relive those feeling. We are being entertained by the high drama of events as we become part of them. Seldom does Hollywood get the right combination of mood, story, actors and direction.
From another point of view, Saving Private Ryan is a far better movie in virtually every way, but I have only seen it once and have desire or need to see it again. It is one of the great movies, incredibly accurate and realistic, but does not make me feel the same way as The Great Escape. I cringe.
Saving Private Ryan is about how we fought, gritty, bloody, morally and emotionally chaotic, kill or be killed. The Great Escape is about why we fought. No prisoner in The Great Escape even had a weapon. War without weapons, a story only Hollywood could properly tell. When we think of Hilts, the Forger, the Scrounger and all the rest, we instinctively know they are the good guys. We're rooting for them. We always will.
In it's own way, by entertaining us, it enables some emotion or understanding of WWII so we can comprehend what happened. Our fathers and grandfathers could have been there, it was a matter of chance. Had they, we're sure that's how they would have acted. That's how we would have wanted them to be and some were.
All the character are portrayed larger than life, just as we envision they must have been regardless of who they actually were or which prison camp. Ordinary people, but to us extraordinary. Each character is presented to reinforce impressions we already have in our mind.
Although the movie is ultimately about terrible events and the grim fate awaiting some of the escapees, we are comforted by the thought that men like them actually existed. We take great pleasure in their discipline, maturity, unity and self reliance, exhilaration in their escape, panic in their arrest, shock and horror in their demise.
We want to watch it over again to relive those feeling. We are being entertained by the high drama of events as we become part of them. Seldom does Hollywood get the right combination of mood, story, actors and direction.
From another point of view, Saving Private Ryan is a far better movie in virtually every way, but I have only seen it once and have desire or need to see it again. It is one of the great movies, incredibly accurate and realistic, but does not make me feel the same way as The Great Escape. I cringe.
Saving Private Ryan is about how we fought, gritty, bloody, morally and emotionally chaotic, kill or be killed. The Great Escape is about why we fought. No prisoner in The Great Escape even had a weapon. War without weapons, a story only Hollywood could properly tell. When we think of Hilts, the Forger, the Scrounger and all the rest, we instinctively know they are the good guys. We're rooting for them. We always will.