The Great Escape

This John Sturges classic is over 40 years old now and while the production values (e.g., lack of big explosions and long sad pull shots) show it, there are only a handful of war movies which come close to it for overall impact. The Great Escape is a big sprawling story and has lots of recognizable stars, many of them young and who used this as a launch pad.

By the early ’60s most Americans had transitioned to seeing Germany as our ally against the Soviet Union and so for the most part the enemy characters are not villainous or evil, more committed to their cause and victory. Stalag 17, produced a decade earlier, is a decent comparison for the change in portrayal of Nazis.

Plot basics: Late in WWII the Nazis decide to bring together in a single, heavily guarded and secured place the Allied prisoners who’ve been the most persistent in escaping from other camps. Not necessarily the best strategy though because these prisoners have been tasked with allowing themselves to be recaptured after escapes to draw resources inside the homeland and putting all of them together means they have all the specialists required to break out even from the purpose-built stockade. This time, though, the Allied soldiers intend to make their departure from hospitality permanent.

There are so many good performances in this movie. Standouts for me include: Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Donald Pleasance. Hannes Messemer (the camp commandant), James Donald, and Harry Riebauer (no doubt the model for Sgt. Schulze on Hogan’s Heroes). Also getting important early exposure are James Coburn, Charles Bronson, David McCallum and Gordon Jackson. The interplay between Garner and Pleasance during their part of the escape is particularly touching and human and not expected in a war flick.

The screenplay, full of smart dialogue, was written by Hollywood veteran W.R. Burnett (Edward G. Robinson starrer Little Caeser, noir classic This Gun for Hire, and multi-Oscar nominee The Asphalt Jungle) and James Clavell from Paul Brickhill’s book. Clavell covered similar territory in his terrific novel King Rat, the movie version of which gave George Segal one of his first major parts, before gaining fame from his novels Shogun and Tai-Pan. Surpise for me looking at Clavell’s IMDB listing is that he also wrote the screenplay of English racial tension drama To Sir, With Love.

highly recommended