Great Escape

Its real good. real cool. the motobike bit is the best bit. That and the moonshine.

A finely crafted war movie about the largest mass escape from a German P.O.W. camp during WWII. May suffer slightly from too many stars but part of the fun is seeing all that proven talent doing a fine job without being too selfish. Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenboro, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn to name just a few. The movie starts off with a pretty good bang than drops down to the hard work of preparing and co-ordinating a great escape. A relatively lengthy film, it is hard to find a place in the movie that is too slow. Meant to be viewed on the really big, wide screens of the era, it suffers a little from being seen on a home screen. Very catchy score.

One of my all time favorite movies. I know that one day I'll be watching it and Steve McQueen will make it over that damn fence.

Under-estimated by critics at the time of its release, The Great Escape has proven over the years to be a true classic, entertaining the newer generations as well as the old. It's simply great adventure, with landmark roles for most of its stars. Although it's Steve Mcqueen with his legendary bravura and motorcyle adventures who has raised the most attention, my personal favourite is James Garner with his under-stated, tongue-in-cheek performance as the scrounger who gathers all the essential materials for the escape and builds an unlikely friendship with his very English room mate, Donald Pleasance (tea without milk is so uncivilized). However, the rest of the cast are all perfect in their roles as well.

After watching this empowering film you will probably catch yourself whistling to Elmer Bernstein's theme to the movie.

Directed by John Sturges, The Great Escape (1963) is an epic story based on the true Allied escape from a Nazi prisoner of war during WWII. For the uninitiated, the director and screenwriters based the main characters on a combination of real life soldiers whose different talents helped the success of the escape. The major talent for the movie included Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and Donald Pleasence. The producers originally received some criticism for using American actors and implying that American prisoners also escaped (as the Americans were moved prior to the actual escape); however, historians and the surviving escapes have defended this, citing the efforts of the Americans to the eventual success of the escape. An interesting part of the film is how the screenwriters differentiated between the S.S. and the Luftwafa, the latter in charge of the German prisons. It was the former who carried out the execution... Read more

One of the best, most entertaining and most underrated films ever!

Instantly my favourite film,aged 12,and still a supremely entertaining World War 2 adventure;superlative cast and array of characters,spectacular scenery,tantalising suspense,memorable music,thrilling action..The stuff of legend.Perfect for a carefree wallow- put simply,great escapism!

One of the best war genre movies of all time. It has big name stars like Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, James Garner and many more. It also has great action, dialogue, and suspense. It;s over 2 hours long, but never boring. You get caught up in the characters and there personal lives as well as the general plot. Definitely a must see for the whole family.

The best film of the sixties, and maybe all time.

what a film, they simply do not make films like this anymore. what we need is more films with all star casts like this one, I know that you are going to say what about "sneakers" which did have a lot of stars in it but when you watch that film once more you and you see how many stars are in it it sticks in your mind! anyway what we need is a film when everybody you see on screen is or was a star! go for it hollywood

One of my personal favorites. Steve Mcqueen is a god!! The acting is great, the story is great, and the music is great.Everything is fantastic! It's filled with action and has a cool motorcycle chase scene. What else do you need?

as a young person conditioned by today's flashy eye-candy movie-making, i really have to up my patience in order to appreciate most of the classics. even when i do that, a lot of them still strike me as having a little too much hype built around them. but this movie truly impressed me. besides the fact that it managed to keep my attention, it wasn't too feel-good or ambiguous, nor was it presented too matter-of-factly. it also showed the scale of nazi brutality without too much gore.