The Great Escape Movie Review
Great and classic. Could there be two more overused words in the English language today?
So misused in fact, their real meaning has indeed become meaningless. I mean, 'great' hamburgers? 'Classic' rock? Surely not!
One picture that both words sit more than comfortably in describing is the subject of this What You Missed entry, the 1963 'classic', The Great Escape.
Based on the very real story of escape-prone Allied POWs in Nazi Germany during World War II, The Great Escape is surely an ornament to the noble art of filmmaking.
Embued with a class and cinematic style that is rare today, and combined with, a screenplay to die for, dialogue as exquisitely tight as a Macchu Piccu granite wall, and an array of well-developed characters - all portrayed by the best of the acting fraternity of the time - The Great Escape is a movie for all ages, and for THE ages.
The opening credits roll, accompanied by Elmer Bernstein's glorious theme - the equal, if not superior, of all movie themes - and it becomes clear something massive is occurring.
It is a mass transit of troop carriers, a convoy, motoring through the expansive rolling pastures of Germany, that soon arrives at a sparkling new Luft Stalag III - or airmen's Prison Camp.
It seems that this particular horde of inmates have applied themselves with great success to the art of escape, so much so that the Nazi's have grown tired of the resources and man-power required to keep them behind barbed-wire. The new camp represents the latest in German technology, training, thought, and has been specially built to hold all of the Reich's bad eggs, in the one basket, so-to-speak.
Enter the forebodingly titled 'X', British Officer, Roger Bartlett, the mastermind behind the organized chaos. To the joy of the prisoners, X arrives not long after they have settled in, with a personal escort from the Gestapo. He is clearly told, in a manner only the Nazi's could, that should he escape again, he "vill be shot!"
Upholding every officer's duty to attempt escape, and be reunited with his partners in crime, Bartlett, played witheringly well by Richard Attenborough in his first American movie - the 'Sir' was added a bit later - reassembles 'the organization'. His plan is to take their escape efforts to another level, and make the Nazis rue the day they put the cream of the POW crop together. A mass break out becomes the objective, via a tunnelling enterprise, through three tunnels, very appropriately, and British-ly(?), named Tom, Dick, and Harry.
The scene now set, it is a sheer pleasure and privilege to sit back and watch the action unfold at an almost dizzying pace. Dizzying because, like the Harlem Gospel Choir's 17-part harmonies, The Great Escape chugs along with about 17 different plot lines.
Aside from the underlying escape operation plot line, we have the lovably quirky Hilts, played adroitly, by Steve McQueen. The typically irreverent, authority-challenging American, who has a strong will, even stronger resolve to escape when he sees fit, and stronger yet again, his acquaintance with the 'Cooler'. Teamed with little Scot, Ives, the two are the perfect foil for the low-key grand escape plan.
Then we have James Garner, brilliant as the scrounger, in his dual plot lines with Blythe the myopic forger (Donald Pleasance), and Werner ‘The Ferrett’, a German guard with a heart. Of course, we could not leave out Charles Bronson as Danny, the Polish 'Tunnel King', and his poorly timed bout of the tunnel fever, or James Coburn as the irreverent, likeable larrikin Aussie, and 'manufacturer', plus a host of other leading British cast members.
And that is just the appetizer. Despite it's almost 3-hour duration, there is not as much as a single flat spot in this screen triumph. Filled with twisting turns, and plenty of tension, whether it's your first, or fiftieth time, The Great Escape will not disappoint.
Suitable for all ages, but best enjoyed by those who will understand the story - maybe from ages 8 upwards - The Great Escape is genuine entertainment. Great movie. Great message. Great fun.
By Brett Stringer
