The Great Escape (1963)

Not just great, simply magnificent more like!

"Wait a minute, you aren't seriously suggesting that if I get thru the wire and case everything out there, and don't get picked up, to turn myself in and get thrown in the cooler for a couple of months so you can get the information you need"

Smart, witty and directed with adroit hands by John Sturges, The Great Escape is standing the test of time as a joyous multi cast family favourite. Based on the real accounts of allied soldiers escaping en mass from a German POW camp back in 1942, the film is involving from start to finish, due in the main to the wonderful array of characters on show. We follow them from the moment they arrive at the camp right through to the stunning climax, and it is with great joy I say that none of the cast lets the side down, they all do great work for the astute and undervalued Sturges. A number of great set pieces align with Elmer Bernstein's fabulous score to never let the blood settle, and in among the cheeky slices of humour is palpable tension to make this simply one of the best films of its type, in fact one of the best films ever.

Sturges and his writers, James Clavell & W.R. Burnett, adapt from the book written by Paul Brickhill, someone who speaks from experience having been one of the prisoners of super POW camp Stalag Luft III, which of course is what The Great Escape is born from. Sturges was fascinated by the story and after trying without fail for over a decade to get it onto the screen, he finally succeeded. The success three years earlier of his star ensemble Western, The Magnificent Seven, enabled Sturges to realise his vision, the result of which is still enthralling new generations with each passing year.

The cast is made up of notable thespians and iconic heroes. Steve McQueen (enticing the American audience in one feels), Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Donald, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn, James Garner, David McCallum, John Leyton and Gordon Jackson. Which of course is a pretty tidy roll call, but the input and impact of Hannes Messemer as the Camp Commandant, Colonel Von Luger should not be understated. His scenes have a real humanistic quality that shows a softer side of Germany to the one ruled by a certain despot (the finale here offering up the counter opposite of the war), the writers smartly, and rightly, not tarring a nation with the same old brush.

A wonderful involving movie that puts characteristic heart in bed with the action and suspense laden plot. 10/10

I can't watch this any more. It's a fun movie, one that my dad made me watch as a kid. One that I loved...

.... and then Eddie Izzard killed it for me. Now whenever I try to watch it all I do is think about his stand-up bit. I think it was from his "Dressed to Kill," maybe "Circle," but whichever it was, that is how you know you're hysterical, when you forever utterly ruin a classic movie because your routine surpasses the film you're making fun of.

Anyway, Izzard had a point, so it's fair I can't not think of him whenever I watch it. He turned Steve McQueen's character into a joke and I love him for it.

But, if you haven't seen the stand-up, it's a fun movie. It's not as good as Stalag 13, but it's more of an action film and one that, well, Izzard had a point but it's still a fun movie.

Got to be the definition of an all star (albeit all male) cast in this gripping demonstration of just how inventive and ingenious people can be when incarcerated and facing a bleak (if any) future. Each character in this WWII POW drama brings something different to this ensemble of style and imagination. Richard Attenborough stars as the proverbial pain in the ass to his Nazi guards having repeatedly escaped before, and he puts together his "X" organisation to work every scheme imaginable to get people out of this supposedly escape proof "Super-Stalag ". Steve McQueen forms an unlikely alliance with Angus "the Mole" Lennie; James "the scrounge" Garner with the expert, tea-drinking, forger Donald Pleasance whose eyesight is failing rapidly; Charles Bronson and James Coburn and a whole raft of seasoned British actors bring this whole enterprise to life in a gritty, sometimes amusing, but ultimately determined way. Hannes Messemer "The Kommandant" also deserves mention as he seems to still cling to some of the basic tenets of human decency as he tries to stop the Gestapo from implementing their more drastic solutions. Elmer Bernstein tops the whole thing off with a cracking score. It is long, certainly, but at least we can be certain we get out at the end...