RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

BA_Harrison Continuing my quest to re-watch every film I saw during my Christmas holidays as a youth, I now arrive at The Great Escape, a staple of festive scheduling on UK television for many years. From the rousing Elmer Bernstein score, which blares out over the opening titles, to the emotional ending, this is the perfect film to digest a turkey dinner over, a 172 minute star-studded true story of incredible heroism guaranteed to stir the blood (unless you're German) and thoroughly deserving of the adjective 'Great'. A testament to the indomitable spirit of man, the film tells of how the inmates of a German WWII Prisoner of War camp planned and executed a daring escape, digging three tunnels, which they dubbed Tom, Dick and Harry. After months of careful planning, this bold bid for freedom resulted in over seventy prisoners successfully fleeing the camp. Only a handful ultimately made it to freedom, but the sheer ingenuity and bravery involved was staggering (despite seeming far-fetched, the events that occur on-screen are apparently accurate). Superb direction from John Sturges and a brilliant cast ensure that the viewer genuinely cares for the colourful characters, which only goes to make their post-escape exploits all the more nail-biting.Highly recommended, even if, like me, you're not a big war film fan.

disastrousdallas The Great Escape is Dare i say it possibly one of the greatest if not the greatest movie ever made.to properly review this film i need to go in depth on the cast and CharactersSteve McQueen plays Virgil Hilts a US Air force captain and leading man of the story, nicknamed the cooler king for spending most of the film in said building, McQueen brings the cocky nature of the Character to life and goes down as one of the most iconic.James Garner plays Robert Hendly, one of the three Americans in the camp and the only Character of the RAF eagle squadron, Garner brings the smoothness to the role that a scrounger would have and by the end of the film you love the character.Richard Attenbrough Plays Roger Bartlett the most faithful of the adapted characters from the true story, Known as the big X and based off the real life Big X Roger Bushel, Attenbroughs performance does the role justice.James Donald plays Ramsey the Senior British Officer, being the second most faithful of the Characters and based off of real life figure Herbert Massey and is wonderful as the leader of the escape party.Charles Bronson plays Danny Valinski, one of two Tunnel Kings, whilst many might say that he over acts in the tunnel scenes in which he breaks down i chalk that up to wonderful acting and a real life fear of Bronson, as his character unravels you begin to learn what he has sacrificed over the course of the war.Donald Pleasence plays Colin Blythe, i will admit he was a major factor in me deciding to watch this film having fallen in love with his portrayal of Sam Loomis in the Halloween saga, whilst in those films he was rough, this film showed another angle to his acting skills playing the soft spoken forger who whilst looking innocent is one of the cunning masterminds of the escape.James Coburn plays Sedgwick, whilst a great actor and a great character i had a hard time buying that the character was Australian the accent was off and the other numerous attempts to show him as Australian felt show horned in but the character added some nice light humour when needed.Hannes Messemer plays Von Luger, Whilst many people look at the whole German Army of WWII with disgust Messemers portrayal of Von Luger is one of the best in the films and shows another side to the German army that is rarely portrayed in today's films, showing that of an high ranking officer who doesn't always appear to agree with the views of his superiors or his underlings and his possible disagreement with the Nazi regime.David McCallum plays Ashley Pitt, not much can be said about his role as he's mainly relegated to the background but is noticeable in every scene he's in and wonderfully written as the character knowingly sacrifices himself for the needs of his superiors, like Plesence he is soft spoken and wonderful to watch.Gordon Jackson plays MacDonald, one of the leading forces of the escape Jackson portrays a man who doesn't agree with the war and is more focused on wanting to get everyone out of the camp no matter the cost, whilst not as soft spoken as the likes of Plesence or McCallum he is a joy to watch.Johny Leyton plays Willie, the second Tunnel King i will say that whoever said that singers can't act is quite mistaken, in fact i was taken a back to realize that he was a singer and this was his first film role, the character is kind and looks out for the panicked Danny towards the end of the film and is wonderfully played throughout.Nigel Stock plays Cavendish, whilst a great actor this is where i take a small disliking to the character is named the surveyor but is shown to be in adequate of doing so and is never seen doing the job and is then relegated to security for the remainder of the film and is played for comic relief, something the film didn't really need except for the bed collapsing scene which was based off of a true story, the character could have been combined with that or Sorans played by William Russell and there wouldn't be any difference although in a personal preference i would preferred Russell in the role.The story is faithful to the true escape with the post escape being added solely for the film but with an escape sequence that had me pausing almost every minute because of the sheer suspense that was killing me wondering who was going to escape, i honestly found myself enjoying this film every minute, I would recommend this movie for how wonderful it is as a timeless classic.

denis888 Wait. comedy? This is a war movie. Yes, it is supposed to be. It is not. What was planned as a serious, deep, psychological wartime escape drama, in reality turned into a raw, unbaked, half-cooked slapstick with awful character development, with awful performances, especially those from McQueen and Bronson, need one mention terribly laughable and horribly unserious delivery. The whole thing seems like a lame amateurish school play with absolutely irregular moves and wrong lines. I never, but never believed a single thing they said or did. The whole film just smacks of a cheap second-rate low-budget effort of a mediocre dubious merit. There is no merit, as even actors betray a playful unseriousness of what they say or do. Does the movie ever seem to be tragic or decent? Nay, even the killing spree seems to be staged or simply poor. Poor - this is the word. Every little detail in this film is poor or false.

Emmanuel_S The Great Escape is one of those films that you could watch time and time again and still love even more with each viewing. Imagine a movie where you would put all the greatest movie stars of their Era in. That's exactly what they did here! The Great Escape is, in my mind, the greatest War movie of all Time. Add to the stellar cast, a score by Legendary Hollywood composer Elmer Bernstein and there you have one of the greatest War movie themes of all Time. A theme with a tune so catchy, so memorable that you might find yourself humming and whistling it as you go through your day. The Great Escape is basically the story of POW during War time in their Nazi detention camp. And what are, not just POW but the best POW, up to in their enemy detention camp? They plan their escape. An escape so ingenious that it involves digging three tunnels at the same time underneath and through their camp to the wood outside. In the main role we have Hollywood Legend, Steve McQueen as Lieutenant Virgil Hilts, a hot shot American pilot who has only one idea in his head, escaping! One of the most interesting scene for me was at the end, when Hilts, recaptured again, is about to be put back in his cell inside the cooler. There you have a German guard ready to put our hero, who incidentally is the personification of the perfect Aryan (according to Hitler), blue eyed and blond hairs, into his cell. As the guard closes the door and walks away from Hilts'cell, he hears the noise of Hilts' baseball bouncing off the walls, back and forth into Hilts' baseball glove. He pauses for an instant as if to ponder whether what he is doing to the embodiment of the perfect German specimen is wrong. He lowers his head, then walks away with his head held down as if to convey that he realizes that what he is doing is indeed wrong and that he could never break Hilts' strong spirit. I highly recommend this all time Classic for all, a masterpiece!