Producer/director John Sturges had wanted to make "The Great Escape" for some years. But he had met resistance from the studios, partly because of the necessary budget, but mostly because the film's story had a downbeat ending. However, after the commercial success of Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), United Artists agreed to the project.
"The Great Escape" was adapted from the book by Paul Brickhill. It told the story of a massive escape from a prisoner of war camp in Germany during world war II. The prisoners were highly organized and disciplined, digging several tunnels that led out of the camp. They also forged papers and made civilian clothing, the better to make their way through Germany to freedom.
Naturally, the movie made some changes to the story. Some were for dramatic purposes, such as putting Steve McQueen on a motorcycle, and giving Charles Bronson a panic attack in the tunnels. Other changes were made to help the audience identify with the characters. The role of American POWs was emphasized, somewhat at the expense of British Commonwealth prisoners.
The story has the Germans putting the POWs with the most escape attempts into a single, high security prison camp. It is run by the Luftwaffe rather than the Gestapo, implying that the prisoners are treated less harshly. Indeed, life is boring but not unpleasant in the prison camp; a great contrast to the Asian hellholes depicted in "The Bridge On the River Kwai".
Bartlett (Richard Attenborough) is the Englishman who organizes the great escape. Every prisoner has a role in the master plan, even if it is only singing loudly to cover the noise of others building the tunnels. Hendley (James Garner) is 'the scrounger', a thief who obtains papers and supplies. Blythe (Donald Pleasence) is 'the forger', who has become nearly blind. Velinski (Charles Bronson) is a Polish 'tunnel king', a master at digging underground trenches. Hilts (Steve McQueen) is 'the cooler king', so named for his endless failed escape attempts. Sedgwick (James Coburn) is 'the manufacturer', Ives (Angus Lennie) is 'the mole', and so on. The plan is for all 250 prisoners to escape.
Sturges reunited several of the main players (McQueen, Coburn, Bronson) from "The Magnificent Seven". Both films also had music composed by Elmer Bernstein. McQueen and Attenborough would shortly star in another historical epic, "The Sand Pebbles" (1966).
Early in the film, the prisoners show much insubordination to their German captors. McQueen, in particular, boasts about escaping and seeing Berlin. Sometimes the Germans commanding the camp seem less like Nazis and more like frustrated headmasters. "The Great Escape" is the missing link between Billy Wilder's "Stalag 17" and the sitcom "Hogan's Heroes", by which time the prisoners are running the camp.
The escape presents good suspense, and the co-operation between the prisoners is inspirational. There is some melodrama, however, for example Bronson's claustrophobia, Pleasance's myopia, and Lennie's attempt to scale the barbed wire.
The greatest POW film is probably "The Grand Illusion" (1937), a French film based on an escape from a German camp during WWI. "The Great Escape" has a more contemporary parallel in "The Longest Day" (1962), an even bigger production that also attempted to portray a true WWII story. (60/100)
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