The Great Escape

    The Great Escape
    1963

    Synopsis

    The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

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    Cast

    • Steve McQueenHilts 'The Cooler King'
    • James GarnerHendley 'The Scrounger'
    • Richard AttenboroughBartlett 'Big X'
    • James DonaldRamsey 'The SBO'
    • Charles BronsonDanny 'Tunnel King'
    • Donald PleasenceBlythe 'The Forger'
    • James CoburnSedgwick 'Manufacturer'
    • Hannes MessemerVon Luger 'The Kommandant'
    • David McCallumAshley-Pitt 'Dispersal'
    • Gordon JacksonMacDonald 'Intelligence'

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Empire

      The final act of The Great Escape is a masterfully sustained piece of action and tension as the various escapees struggle for freedom via train, bicycle, motorbike, row boat and hitchhiking. The Great Escape should always be seen. It reminds us of a history that is all too quickly forgotten.
    • 100

      The A.V. Club

      McQueen speeding across the German countryside and leaping over the first of two barbed-wire fences leading into Switzerland may be the film's most iconic and enduring image. Dubious or not, it's a triumph of sorts that a tale that ends in war crimes could have such a rousing conclusion.
    • 100

      TV Guide Magazine

      Expertly directed and written with an infectious undercurrent of wry humor, this classic WWII POW escape yarn features an all-star cast of hardened Allied prisoners who the Germans have thrown together in a special escape-proof camp.
    • 100

      Austin Chronicle

      One of the all-time great action movies, The Great Escape also features an all-star international cast. The first half of the movie sets up all the various characters who have to drop their prickly differences and unite to outwit their German captors. Steve McQueen as the Cooler King is a genuine classic.
    • 100

      Time

      With accurate casting, a swift screenplay, and authentic German settings, Producer-Director John Sturges has created classic cinema of action. There is no sermonizing, no soul probing, no sex. The Great Escape is simply great escapism.
    • 90

      Variety

      Producer-director John Sturges has fashioned a motion picture that entertains, captivates, thrills and stirs.
    • 88

      Slant Magazine

      The Great Escape is that rare war film that doesn’t fully indulge in assumed nationalism, save for the fact that everyone speaks English. Sturges never touches on the essential hollowness and cruel pageantry of war, but he does the next best thing by depicting an international effort where victory, no matter how short-lived, depends on the cooperation of myriad talents, rather than the gruff can-do attitude of an unbreakable chosen one.
    • 75

      Chicago Reader

      Way too flabby at 168 minutes, but once this 1963 feature gets going it's good, solid stuff, directed with an unusual lack of rhetoric by John Sturges.

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