Star Rating: 3Length of Movie: 172 minutes
Director: John Sturges
Cast: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, Angus Lennie, Nigel Stock, RobertGraf, & Jud Taylor.
Oscar Nomination: Ferris Webster (Editing)
If you were to escape from an American and British prison of war, how would you travel? By foot, by bicycle, by motorcycle, by train, by plane, by row boat?
The Great Escape is based off of a true story. They changed the names and location of the escape. In 1944, (the original escape) was of 76 Allied soldiers fthat escaped from Stalag Luft III, a German prison that operated during WWII. The men dug three tunnels (nicknamed “Tom,” “Dick,” and “Harry”) 30 feet beneath the surface of the prison with the plan of tunneling past the main fence and surfacing in the nearby forest.
The prisoners gathered a collection of suits and passports, so they would pass as civilians outside in the real world. The men would lay down on a board and be dragged through the tunnels. Unfortunately, when they made the initial hole to the surface, the tunnel had come up short of the forest, and the men were in clear sight of the guards. 76 men still managed to escape, but the 77th was spotted and the tunnel was shut down.
Hilts (Steve McQueen) who's laying on his stomach in the picture above, holding the rope was the first to go out of the hole and moved safely to the woods. He was watching the guards and signaled by pulling the rope to when they were free to escape.
The first hour was SO BORING! It wasn't until the actual escape did it get interesting. Push on through. It does get exciting, and James Garner is handsome!!!
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