The Great Escape | |
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original movie poster by Frank McCarthy |
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Directed by | John Sturges |
Produced by | John Sturges |
Written by | Book: Paul Brickhill Screenplay: James Clavell W.R. Burnett Walter Newman (uncredited) |
Starring | Steve McQueen James Garner Richard Attenborough James Donald Charles Bronson Donald Pleasence James Coburn |
Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
Cinematography | Daniel L. Fapp |
Editing by | Ferris Webster |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date(s) | 4 July 1963 |
Running time | 172 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4,000,000 |
Gross revenue | $5,500,000 (US) |
The Great Escape is a 1963 film made by MGM Studios and produced and directed by John Sturges. Based on a novel by Paul Brickhill, it tells the real-life story of an attempt by Allied prisoners of war to execute a mass escape from a German POW camp during World War II. Brickhill had been a prisoner of the camp with his friend George Harsh and would later base the book on their memories of the experience. The film stars many well-known actors of the time, including Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Gordon Jackson, and David McCallum.
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Upset by the soldiers and resources wasted in recapturing escaped Allied prisoners of war (POWs), the German High Command concentrates the most-determined and successful of these prisoners to a new, high-security prisoner of war camp that the commandant, Colonel von Luger (Hannes Messemer), proclaims escape-proof.
The film opens as the Gestapo deliver to the camp the most dangerous prisoner of all, "Big X", Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborough), warning him that he will be shot should he ever again escape. Locked up with "every escape artist in Germany", Bartlett immediately plans the greatest escape attempted—a tunnel system for exfiltrating 250 prisoners of war.
Teams of men are organised to survey, dig, hide soil, manufacture civilian clothing, forge documents, provide security and distractions, and procure contraband materials. The prisoners work on three escape tunnels ("Tom", "Dick", and "Harry") simultaneously. The worst of the work noise is covered from the men choir singing, and dirt from the tunnels is concealed in the mens' trousers and emptied in the gardens. Flight Lieutenant Hendley (James Garner), "the scrounger", finds ingeniously devious ways to get whatever the others need, from a camera to identity cards. Australian Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick (James Coburn), "the manufacturer", makes many of the tools they need, such as picks for digging and bellows for pumping breathable air into the tunnels. Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski (Charles Bronson), "the tunnel king", is in charge of digging, despite having a fear of dark enclosed spaces. Forgery is handled by Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe (Donald Pleasence), who is sent nearly blind from the highly intricate work by candlelight (progressive myopia); Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's guide in the escape.
Meanwhile, USAAF Captain Virgil Hilts, "The Cooler King", irritates the guards with frequent escapes and irreverent behaviour. His first escape attempt, conceived whilst in the cooler, is a short tunnel with RAF Flying Officer Archibald Ives (Angus Lennie); they are caught and returned to the cooler.
While the three Americans in camp (Hendley, Hilts, and Goff) are celebrating American Independence Day with the other (mainly British) POWs, the guards discover tunnel "Tom". The depressed Ives snaps, and in a futile attempt to escape, climbs the barbed wire fence in full view of the tower guards. Hilts notices and runs to stop him, but is too late as Ives is machine-gunned dead on the wire. The prisoners abandon the second tunnel and put all their efforts into completing the third.
Bartlett persuades Hilts to reconnoiter the immediate vicinity of the PoW camp during one of his escapes, then allow his recapture, allowing the cartographers to create guide maps of the local area, including the nearest town and railway station.
The last part of the tunnel is completed on the night of the escape, but is found to be twenty feet short of the woods that would provide cover. Nevertheless, seventy-six men escape before one is finally spotted coming out of the tunnel.
After various attempts to reach neutral Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain, almost all of the escaped PoWs are recaptured or killed: Hendley and Blythe steal a trainer aeroplane, intending to fly over the Swiss border; the engine fails and they are forced to crash-land en route. Soldiers arrive at the crash site, shooting Blythe dead while Hendley surrenders. Flight Lieutenant Cavendish (Nigel Stock), having hitched a lift in a truck, is captured at a checkpoint, discovering another fellow PoW, Haynes, captured in his German soldier disguise.
Bartlett, and Mac (Gordon Jackson), are recognised at a railroad station by a Gestapo agent, but manage to slip away after fellow PoW Eric Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum) sacrifices himself by killing the Gestapo agent and letting himself be chased and killed by soldiers. Bartlett and Mac attempt to board a bus in the town, but Mac is tricked into revealing his nationality with the same trick he had warned Haynes about before the escape — a German speaks to him in English and he responds in his native tongue. They both flee but Mac is caught shortly after; Bartlett having escaped over rooftops. However, after Bartlett fools some pursuing Gestapo, he is recognised by his previous captors. Lastly, Hilts attempts to jump the barbed wire Swiss-German border fence with a stolen Wehrmacht motorcycle but his petrol tank is hit and he becomes entangled in the wire.
Only three evade capture and make it to safety. Velinski and Flight Lieutenant Willy Dickes (the tunnel kings) steal a rowboat and proceed downriver to the Baltic coast, where they successfully board a Swedish merchant ship. Sedgewick hides in a boxcar and makes it all the way to France, and while resting in a café the local Resistance stages a drive-by shooting of some German officers. After realising he is an Allied PoW, the Resistance enlist the help of a guide to get Sedgewick into Spain.
As for the others, 48 of the re-captured PoWs, including Bartlett, Mac, Cavendish and Haynes, are shot dead execution-style after they are told to get out of the truck transporting them and "stretch their legs" in a field - this brings the total of those shot dead to 50 (including Ashley-Pitt and Blythe). Meanwhile, Hendley and Sorren and a small group of others are returned to the stalag. The Senior British Officer, Grp Cpt Ramsey (James Donald) hears of the massacre of the 50 dead from von Luger, who has been relieved of command and is swiftly driven away to face the consequences of failing to stop the breakout.
Hilts is brought back alone to the camp, and subsequently to the cooler. His fellow American officer Goff throws him his baseball and glove as he walks into solitary confinement. As the guard locks him in his cell and walks away, he hears the familiar sound of Hilts bouncing his baseball against the cell walls. The film ends with this scene under the caption "This picture is dedicated to the 50."
Actor | Role(s) |
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Steve McQueen | Capt Virgil Hilts "The Cooler King" |
James Garner | Flt Lt Anthony Hendley "The Scrounger" |
Richard Attenborough | Sqn Ldr Roger Bartlett "Big X" |
James Donald | Gp Capt Ramsey "The SBO" |
Charles Bronson | Flt Lt Danny Velinski "Tunnel King" |
Donald Pleasence | Flt Lt Colin Blythe "The Forger" |
James Coburn | Fg Off Louis Sedgwick "The Manufacturer" |
Hannes Messemer | Col von Luger "The Kommandant" |
David McCallum | Lt Cmdr Eric Ashley-Pitt "Dispersal" |
Gordon Jackson | Flt Lt Sandy MacDonald "Intelligence" |
John Leyton | Flt Lt William Dickes "Tunnel King" |
Angus Lennie | Fg Off Archibald Ives "The Mole" |
Nigel Stock | Fl Lt Denys Cavendish "The Surveyor" |
Robert Graf | Werner 'The Ferret' |
Jud Taylor | Goff |
Though the film is considered a classic, it was largely ignored at the 1963 Academy Awards. Ferris Webster's editing received the only nomination, though he lost to Harold F. Kress for How the West Was Won. Upon its theatrical release in 1963, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther was disdainful of it: "But for much longer than is artful or essential, "The Great Escape" grinds out its tormenting story without a peek beneath the surface of any man, without a real sense of human involvement. It's a strictly mechanical adventure with make-believe men."[1] British film critic Leslie Halliwell described it as "pretty good but overlong POW adventure with a tragic ending".[2]
Many elements of the film are factual, but the events and characters are condensed. See The Great Escape (film) fact versus fiction for comparisons between the film and the real-life events.
A highly fictionalized, made-for-television sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, appeared many years later. It starred Christopher Reeve with Donald Pleasence as an SS villain.
The Bollywood film Deewar: Let's Bring Our Heroes Back is based loosely on the same plot, although it involves a prisoner's (Amitabh Bachchan) son (Akshay Khanna) aiding the escape from within.
Several video games were based on the movie, including one in 1986, and one in 2003, which explained more previous escapes of the main prisoners in previous camps and followed the film's main storyline, but altered the prisoner's fates.
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