Movie Review: The Great Escape (1963)

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Title: The Great Escape
Year: 1963
Director: John Sturges
Screenplay: James Clavell, W. R. Burnett, based on the book by Paul Brickhill
With: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Donald, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, Angus Lennie, Nigel Stock, Robert Graf.
Duration: 172 min.
Grade: 9/10

What other war movie is there that isn't about battles and attacks and so on? And the first one that came to mind was The Great Escape (1963). First of all: if you haven't seen this movie yet, what are you doing reading this? Find it now and take a look. I'm not saying this because of possible spoilers, but because it's an unmissable movie. It has drama, suspense, action, one of the greatest cast and based on real events.

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The Nazis, who at this point in the war are fed up with the escape attempts of some allied prisoners -which not only cause them discomfort but also distract their men-, decide to gather all the escapists in the same prison camp, the Stalag Luft III, run by the Luftwaffe. As Commander Von Luger (Hannes Messemer) says, it's about "putting all your bad eggs in one basket."

Which is basically the same mistake that the villains on duty made by locking the A-Team in a shed full of iron scraps and explosives and one or two old trucks. These are veteran escapists, after all: at the beginning of the movie we're told Hilts has 17 escape attempts, and Danny is later shown to start his 17th tunnel. However, the idea here is to have them under control and be distracted by reading, farming or playing cricket. Of course these people don't sit still and start preparing the biggest breakout in history...

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If one looks at the poster of the film, it seems that the guys had escaped without a plan, like someone leaving the field after a game. It is not so, friends: it is an escape through a tunnel. In addition, the preparation includes making clothes, falsifying documents and other intelligence tasks, including how to dig the tunnels without the Nazis noticing until it is too late.

And it is a massive escape: the Big X (Richard Attenborough), who is the one who coordinates the whole thing, wants to get at least 250 prisoners out at once. Each of them with false papers, civilian clothes, a booklet with train schedules and a few provisions for the trip.

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To avoid mishaps, they decide to dig not one but three tunnels, which they call Tom, Dick and Harry. With few exceptions, each character has a role: Hendley (James Garner) is the one in charge of getting what is necessary, however difficult it may be, Danny (Charles Bronson) and Willie (John Leyton) are the diggers, Sedgwick (James Coburn) is the one who manufactures the implements, Blythe (Donald Pleasence) is the forger of documents, and the list goes on.

There's one card out of the deck, and it's Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen), an American pilot who persists in his escape attempts, causing camp security to tighten and harming those attempting the escape en masse. Hilts eventually decides to collaborate with the conspirators and gets them vital information for the escape.

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The film recounts the preparations and the adventures that precede the main escape, and then follows the characters and shows us how it ended for them, that is, if it went well or badly. What's interesting is how he takes enough time to show us what each one is like without slowing down the pace of the movie. Sometimes an image or a couple of lines of dialogue is enough. The cast, as I said, is a luxury, and is made up mostly of British actors. Mainly.

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Although at least two of the main characters are Americans (Handley and Hilts), Americans had no part in the actual escape. The prison camp was occupied almost entirely by RAF personnel. They weren't necessarily all British: Danny is Polish, Sedgwick is Australian, and there is also at least one Canadian. But the Americans have a leading role in this film that is not consistent with reality. Even Danny and Sedgwick are played by American actors.

Second, at least one character is actually an amalgamation of three or more real characters: Virgil Hilts never existed, and is made from pilots David Jones, John Dortch Lewis, and Bill Ash, if not any more. Third, there are entire sequences that are pure imagination: the best known is Steve McQueen and the motorcycle that jumps the fence. Not only did the character never exist, but the motorcycle thing didn't happen either.

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In short, you have to take what the movie shows with a grain of salt, as they say. The important thing is that, in general, turning a blind eye a little to the various artistic licenses, it can be said that yes, the escape did happen, although it was not like that. The performances are good, the pace doesn't falter, and The Great Escape's almost three hours will end up being a worthwhile investment of your time.

It won't be the best movie ever, but every time I catch it on TV, I watch it, whether it's 10 minutes left or just starting. Pure entertainment and also well done.