The great escape9/3/2023 In lesser hands than John Sturges', it would have been a rush to get those guys out of the prison and probably would have far fewer characters to follow. I love that this is a long and slow movie that steadily builds. It’s one of those few movies like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly where it doesn’t matter how far into the film it is, if I see it’s on TV I have to watch it. Regardless, I was stuck on the floor the whole way through. It helped that this was one of the rare times he hooked up our high-end stereo speakers to give us a really BIG theater sound experience. My dad persisted and soon enough I was enraptured sitting on the floor of our living room with my slice of pizza staring up at our massively gigantic big screen 32” Sony Trinitron XBR TV. I have no idea why, but I thought it was going to be a musical because it was old. I saw the big plastic box it came in and I couldn’t be less interested in it. This was one of those days when my dad brought this home from the rental shop on a Friday night. That's when a sober study of ingenuity and steely wills morphs into an exciting, suspenseful action flick capped by a thrilling motorcycle chase through the German countryside."įor myself, The Great Escape represents one of those amazing memorable first-time viewing experiences where every detail is etched permanently in my brain. The film's first half meticulously - and sometimes tediously - details the planning and complex execution of the dangerous plot, but the pace picks up considerably once a handful of men bust out of the camp and literally run for their lives. Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn, and David McCallum lead the motley band of "rotten eggs" who dig an elaborate network of tunnels in an ambitious attempt to liberate 250 British, American, and Australian soldiers. This absorbing portrait of gumption and grit may not depict events exactly the way they happened (as the producers claim in the prologue), but it's authentic enough to instill deep respect and admiration for the courageous, unselfish soldiers willing to risk everything for freedom. Hefty in scope, bloated in length, yet still intimate and affecting, director John Sturges' ambitious 1963 epic about a stubborn group of Allied prisoners who devise a daring and daunting break from a German stalag remains an impressive mix of action, spectacle, male bonding, and wartime suspense more than a half century after its initial release. "There have been dozens of World War II movies that focus on POWs, but the granddaddy of them all is without a doubt The Great Escape.
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