You might want to whistle this film's iconic theme as you read this.
Base on true events during the Second World War, The Great Escape is about a group of British and American soldiers who have been sent to a prisoner of war camp in Germany called Stalag Luft III. The Germans believe it to be escape-proof and want the prisoners to divert their attention to anything other than escaping. However, these prisoners have made numerous escape attempts previously. Squadron Leader Bartlett (Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park)), known as "Big X", comes up with an escape plan, which involves digging 3 separate tunnels, called "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry", under the fence. The number of people he wants to escape - 250. This involves the likes of Sedgewick (James Coburn (The Magnificent Seven and Monsters Inc.)), "The Manufacturer"; Hendley (James Garner), "The Scrounger"; Blythe (Donald Pleasence (You Only Live Twice and Halloween)), "The Forger" and Danny (Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven and Once Upon A Time In The West)), a "Tunnel King". Also trying to escape from the camp, though more frequently that the others is an American officer called Hilts (Steve McQueen (The Magnificent Seven and Bullitt)). He is repeatedly caught and spends most of his time in the "cooler", hence he is "The Cooler King".
The film lasts 172 minutes and it does feel that long. After 100 minutes, they actually get round to the night of their escape. Maybe that just reflects the length of time that they spent in the camp. I don't mind long films as long as they have an engaging story. The Lord of the Rings films are engaging and have a plot; 2001: A Space Odyssey is engaging and has a plot; Titanic isn't and doesn't. Like I said before, it is based on true events, though the characters are fictitious or amalgams of several real characters. It was adapted from the book by Paul Brickhill, who was an actual prisoner in Stalag Luft III. One of the film's technical advisers, Wally Floody, was the real-life "Tunnel King".
It is a war film, yet there are some comedic elements to it. However, some of these are the sorts of things that would genuinely happen in a prisoner of war camp. One of my favourite sequences is when the three Americans take all the potatoes in the camp and turn them into moonshine to celebrate the 4th of July. It was those kinds of things during the war which would keep up the spirit of the POWs. To cover the sounds of digging, many of the prisoners, bizarrely, sing Christmas carols. Surely you would think something strange was happening if you heard people singing O Come All Ye Faithful in Spring. There is also the issue of hiding 50 tonnes of dirt on the site. I'll let you work out how they do it before seeing it.
It was an allstar cast at the time. Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn had all worked together in The Magnificent Seven. Out of all the members of the cast, the best performance is that of McQueen, in a role that was completely fictitious. He requested perhaps the most iconic sequence from the film and performed most of the stunts accompanying it himself. He was "The King of Cool", perhaps the coolest person of all time. Most of the other cast members had previous military experience. James Garner served in the Korean War and Donald Pleasence was an RAF pilot in the
One of the joys of the film is the relationship between Blythe and Hendley. They start by sharing a room in one of the huts and Hendley acquires for Colin all he needs such as the necessary ID papers for him to forge and also a camera. However, Blythe develops progressive myopia and Bartlett questions whether he should go or not. However, Hendley decides that Blythe is safe if he goes with him. They do seem like an unlikely couple of friends.
This film has such a status that there are references to it/connections in Inglourious Basterds, The Shawshank Redemption and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There have also been spoofs of it in TV programmes, such as 'Allo 'Allo! which had an episode called The Great Un-Escape, in which they try to get rid of the British Airmen by tunnelling into a prisoner of war camp. Even The Simpsons have spoofed and the Aardman film Chicken Run is exactly the same, but with chicken...obviously. It is clear that this film is aimed primarily at a male audience. That doesn't mean that women won't like it, but it has everything that a man would want from a film.
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