McQueen's Attire

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 2004)

One thing that puzzles me about McQueen's attire in "The Great Escape". How come he's the only one who doesn't wear any uniform? And his clothing is more like the 1960s with his tight white pants and sweat shirt. And he seemed more intent at playing a cool 1960s rebellious character than the 1940s officer he was supposed to be. Didn't the director have any control over him at all? Or was Steve McQueen only interested in his image? He looked totally out of place even amongst the other Americans in the camp. I accept the fact that as it was a Hollywood production there would be a fair number of US actors in it. According to a recent documentary on British TV, only 3 Americans were incarcerated in the POW camp - the remainder being British, Australians and the other Commonwealth countries, Poles, French and Dutch.