The Great Escape
Reviews
John Chard
Not just great, simply magnificent more like! "Wait a minute, you aren't seriously suggesting that if I get thru the wire and case everything out there, and don't get picked up, to turn myself in and get thrown in the cooler for a couple of months so you can get the information you need" Smart, witty and directed with adroit hands by John Sturges, The Great Escape is standing the test of time as a joyous multi cast family favourite. Based on the real accounts of allied soldiers escaping en mass from a German POW camp back in 1942, the film is involving from start to finish, due in the main to the wonderful array of characters on show. We follow them from the moment they arrive at the camp right through to the stunning climax, and it is with great joy I say that none of the cast lets the side down, they all do great work for the astute and undervalued Sturges. A number of great set pieces align with Elmer Bernstein's fabulous score to never let the blood settle, and in among the cheeky slices of humour is palpable tension to make this simply one of the best films of its type, in fact one of the best films ever. Sturges and his writers, James Clavell & W.R. Burnett, adapt from the book written by Paul Brickhill, someone who speaks from experience having been one of the prisoners of super POW camp Stalag Luft III, which of course is what The Great Escape is born from. Sturges was fascinated by the story and after trying without fail for over a decade to get it onto the screen, he finally succeeded. The success three years earlier of his star ensemble Western, The Magnificent Seven, enabled Sturges to realise his vision, the result of which is still enthralling new generations with each passing year. The cast is made up of notable thespians and iconic heroes. Steve McQueen (enticing the American audience in one feels), Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Donald, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn, James Garner, David McCallum, John Leyton and Gordon Jackson. Which of course is a pretty tidy roll call, but the input and impact of Hannes Messemer as the Camp Commandant, Colonel Von Luger should not be understated. His scenes have a real humanistic quality that shows a softer side of Germany to the one ruled by a certain despot (the finale here offering up the counter opposite of the war), the writers smartly, and rightly, not tarring a nation with the same old brush. A wonderful involving movie that puts characteristic heart in bed with the action and suspense laden plot. 10/10
GenerationofSwine
I can't watch this any more. It's a fun movie, one that my dad made me watch as a kid. One that I loved... .... and then Eddie Izzard killed it for me. Now whenever I try to watch it all I do is think about his stand-up bit. I think it was from his "Dressed to Kill," maybe "Circle," but whichever it was, that is how you know you're hysterical, when you forever utterly ruin a classic movie because your routine surpasses the film you're making fun of. Anyway, Izzard had a point, so it's fair I can't not think of him whenever I watch it. He turned Steve McQueen's character into a joke and I love him for it. But, if you haven't seen the stand-up, it's a fun movie. It's not as good as Stalag 13, but it's more of an action film and one that, well, Izzard had a point but it's still a fun movie.
CinemaSerf
Got to be the definition of an all star (albeit all male) cast in this gripping demonstration of just how inventive and ingenious people can be when incarcerated and facing a bleak (if any) future. Each character in this WWII POW drama brings something different to this ensemble of style and imagination. Richard Attenborough stars as the proverbial pain in the ass to his Nazi guards having repeatedly escaped before, and he puts together his "X" organisation to work every scheme imaginable to get people out of this supposedly escape proof "Super-Stalag ". Steve McQueen forms an unlikely alliance with Angus "the Mole" Lennie; James "the scrounge" Garner with the expert, tea-drinking, forger Donald Pleasance whose eyesight is failing rapidly; Charles Bronson and James Coburn and a whole raft of seasoned British actors bring this whole enterprise to life in a gritty, sometimes amusing, but ultimately determined way. Hannes Messemer "The Kommandant" also deserves mention as he seems to still cling to some of the basic tenets of human decency as he tries to stop the Gestapo from implementing their more drastic solutions. Elmer Bernstein tops the whole thing off with a cracking score. It is long, certainly, but at least we can be certain we get out at the end...
Movie Recommendation
The Magnificent Seven1960-10-12An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.More...
Bullitt1968-10-17Senator Walter Chalmers is aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross with the help of testimony from the criminal's hothead brother Johnny, who is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt. When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses. This thriller includes one of the most famous car chases ever filmed.More...
Where Eagles Dare1968-12-04World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.More...
Judgment at Nuremberg1961-12-18In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.More...
Papillon1973-12-16A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.More...
Still Life2013-11-28A council case worker looks for the relatives of those found dead and alone.More...
The Dirty Dozen1967-06-1512 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.More...
The Guns of Navarone1961-04-27A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.More...
A Fistful of Dollars1964-09-12The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.More...
His Girl Friday1940-01-18Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.More...
A Bridge Too Far1977-06-15The story of Operation Market Garden—a failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.More...
Escape from Sobibor1987-04-12The true story of WWII's notorious Sobibor Nazi death camp, where a courageous inmate orchestrates and leads the escape of over 300 prisoners.More...
Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed2013-10-31Spain, 1966. An English teacher who travels to Almería when he hears that John Lennon is making a film there befriends with a 16-year-old boy who has run away from home and a young girl who also seems to be running away from something.More...
Seduced and Abandoned1964-01-30The film presents the tale of Agnese Ascalone, daughter of prominent miner Vincenzo Ascalone, and takes place in a small town in Sicily. Agnese is seduced by her sister Matilde's fiancé, and has a tryst with him for which she confesses and tries to repent, only to be discovered by her mother and father.More...
Coal Miner's Daughter1980-03-07Biography of Loretta Lynn, a country and western singer that came from poverty to fame.More...
Andaz Apna Apna1994-04-11Two slackers competing for the affections of an heiress inadvertently become her protectors from an evil criminal.More...
Hud1963-05-28Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."More...
He Was a Quiet Man2007-11-23An unhinged office worker who planned to go on a shooting spree at his workplace struggles with his newfound status as a hero after he ends up stopping a shooting spree instead.More...
Mackenna's Gold1969-03-18A bandit kidnaps a Marshal who has seen a map showing a gold vein on Indian lands, but other groups are looking for it too, while the Apache try to keep the secret location undisturbed.More...
The Night of the Shooting Stars1982-09-16The Night of San Lorenzo, the night of the shooting stars, is the night when dreams come true in Italian folklore. In 1944, a group of Italians flee their town after hearing rumours that the Nazis plan to blow it up and that the Americans are about to arrive to liberate them.More...
Similar Movies
The Peanut Butter Fal...
2019-08-09A down-on-his-luck crab fisherman embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome to a professional wrestling school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived for the past two and a half years.El Sett
2025-12-10Ailing from a sickness that threatens to silence her forever, Umm Kalthoum, the greatest Egyptian singer the world has ever known, takes to the stage one final time for her most important performance yet, one with the potential to heal a nation broken by the shadow of a great defeat. As she slowly steps onto the stage to deafening chants and applause, fearful for her health and country, a legend finds herself walking down memory lane, reminiscing on her humble beginnings and the seven decade journey of triumphs, failures, defying social conventions, and loves lost that followed.Danger Close: The Bat...
2019-08-08Vietnam War, 1966. Australia and New Zealand send troops to support the United States and South Vietnamese in their fight against the communist North. Soldiers are very young men, recruits and volunteers who have never been involved in a combat. On August 18th, members of Delta Company will face the true horror of a ruthless battle among the trees of a rubber plantation called Long Tân. They are barely a hundred. The enemy is a human wave ready to destroy them.Juna
2018-03-20A dream shows Juna that she has only one last day to live. Ignorantly she initiated the process itself. The attempt to avert her fate failed. A story about the problem of artificial life.Buya Hamka: Vol. III
No data for this movieDepicts Hamka's childhood in Maninjau, West Sumatra, where he showed a great interest in tradition and literature, despite neglecting his education at the pesantren and often clashing with his father. After his mother divorced his father, Hamka went to Mecca to learn about organization, the hajj manasik system, and to pursue his life's greatest mission, building Islam in Indonesia. However, Hamka still struggled with his father and met Siti Raham, an extraordinary woman who became his greatest inspiration in life.It Happened on July 2...
1955-06-18A dramatic reconstruction of the July 1944 attempt by German Army Officers to assassinate Hitler with a bomb and end the war before Germany was totally destroyed.Daisies
1966-12-30Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.I Was Here
2008-09-12Living alone in an Estonian slum and unable to afford basic needs, a top high school student reluctantly enters the drug game to make ends meet.Mr. Nice
2010-10-07Biopic about 1970s Welsh marijuana trafficker Howard Marks, whose inventive smuggling schemes made him a huge success in the drug trade, as well as leading to dealings with both the IRA and British Intelligence. Based on Marks' biography with the same title.Intimate Confessions ...
1972-07-0918-year-old Ainu is kidnapped and sold to a brothel. Her good looks and wild personality make her very popular with the lustful clients, but also draw the lesbian attentions of brothel madam Chun Yi. Chun Yi teaches Ainu the ways of lust and the ways of kung fu, and Ainu becomes more and more similar to her captor. But rage at her treatment is still burning inside her.The Turn of the Screw...
1999-12-26A governess put in charge of two young children begins to see the ghost of her dead predecessor.Still We Believe: The...
2004-05-09A look at the Boston Red Sox's 2003 season, from Spring Training to their meeting with the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, and the team's relationship with their fans.Wish You Were Here
1987-07-24In a staid English seaside town after the Second World War, young Lynda grows up with her widowed father and younger sister. Rebellious Lynda has been swearing constantly from an early age. At sixteen, she becomes more exhibitionist and seeks out sexual encounters challenging the prevailing lower-middle class attitudes to sex.They Caught the Ferry...
1948-05-12A man and a woman on a motorcycle arrive with a ferry to Assens. They want to catch the next ferry in Nyborg, on the other side of the island, but this ferry will leave in three quarters of an hour and the ferry berth is 70 km away.Madeleine
1950-02-16Madeleine's middle-class family cannot understand why she puts off marrying a respectable young man, as they know nothing about her long-term affair with a Frenchman.Memoir Seorang Guru
2024-05-30Teacher Suman is adamant in not allowing his daughter Kamariah to follow in his footsteps as the field did not bring him blessings.Fast-Walking
1982-05-11A dirty corrections officer gets involved in a murder plot involving one of the inmates.Taira Clan Saga
1955-09-21Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.The Time to Live and ...
1985-08-03An autobiographical film based on Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's memories of his youth growing up in Taiwan after emigrating from mainland China.A Glimpse of Hell
2001-03-18A Navy officer tries to set the record straight after the Navy blames a 1989 explosion aboard the USS Iowa on a homosexual affair between two sailors.