Great Escape
Surprising in its historical accuracy and groundbreaking as one of the first true action epics in 1963, director John Sturges tells the story of the Naziâs foolhardy plan to house all of the Allied forcesâ most profound escape artists in one facility with some real power and fervor. Right off the bat, the soldiers make several escape attempts within the first 5 minutes of arrival, and one of them (Steve McQueen) quickly finds himself put in isolation, giving him the title of the âCooler Kingâ. But it isnât until the arrival of Bartlett (Richard Attenborough), a British operative posing as a military officer, that a truly grand plan is put into place, utilizing the skills of 250 soldiers in captivity: That is truly the lure of the film, and the reason it remains so popular to this day, is the sight of all these guys working together towards a common goal, which is to build three super tunnels to bring about their escape and force the German military to double their efforts within their own country to recapture them in the midst of World War II. Sadly, some characters are not given as much to do as others, but all the featured players are uniformly good: McQueenâs Hilts is smartass and defiant, using much of his time to plan his own solo escape outside of the otherâs intentions, and usually getting caught whilst distracting the guards from the real plan; James Garner does an okay job as âThe Scroungerâ, always coming up the needed things people ask for; Attenborough as the brilliant mastermind of the plan (and the only one to have been beaten and tortured by the Gestapo prior to arrival) brings a quiet dignity to a man who pretty much knows heâs marked and will never make it but continues on nonetheless; Charles Bronson as the Lithuanian tunnel digger continued to build his legend here, and his fate seems fitting since he did most of the work; Donald Pleasence as âThe Forgerâ successfully engages the audience with a touching turn as a guy who helps as much as he can despite going blind; and James Coburn badly mangles his characterâs Australian accent, but his presence alone is enough to make him arguably the coolest character in the flick. At times, itâs hard to believe just how incredibly naĂŻve the German soldiers are, and many instances make it seem as if the escape plan just moves along way too easily (including one guard who fails to notice a escaping prisoner laying down no more than five feet away from him). After the main characters escape and spread out all over Germany, the story certainly brings great tension and excitement (including an urban legend cameo by an extra who looks just like a young Harrison Ford), but this viewer found himself surprisingly unmoved by the final moments, as enjoyable as the whole enterprise was leading up there, perhaps because of McQueenâs gratuitous motorcycle chase scene (which he reportedly demanded in order to appear more masculine) but which regardless still contributed to his iconic status. Overall, perhaps the greatest prison break movie of all time, even if it still has a few shortcomingsâŚ
8/10