Interesting premise but not entirely realistic

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2002)

The movie kept me guessing up to the end as to what decision would be made. American POW's had an amazing escape rate from Nazi stalags/prisons, but plot seems a little forced. The Nazi Colonel was not a stupid man and it is doubtful that he would overlook the necessity of keeping close track of his many, volatile prisoners. A comment was made that it was "highly improbable" that Lt. Hart & the Nazi Colonel would have both gone to Yale. Check the history records. Many of Germany's top Nazi officers and numerous Japanese officers attended prestigious colleges in the U.S. prior to World War II. So it wasn't all unusual to find an American POW and a Nazi Colonel both being alumus of Yale or any other major U.S. college. Several of the future Nazi officers studied military history at Yale, Princeton, etc. Of course they failed in a number of cases to learn that American military both with/without college educations can be quite resourceful when facing with imprisonment. At the height of the war, had the Colonel been so stupid to lose several prisoners, etc. as this one did, the notorious SS would have shown up and likely have executed him on the spot or he would have been sent to war's front line. I think the willlingness of the Nazi Colonel to go along with farce of a trial was simply a ploy to annoy the American Colonel. They acted like two overgrown boys trying to best each other except they were playing with human lives. Neither one really cared about what might happen to Lt. Hart or any of the other men.