The greatest piece of Escapism Cinema has to offer!

Rating: 10/10 (6 April 1999)

I first enjoyed this classic war film in 1970 aged 11 when it was screened in 16mm at my all boys Boarding school. We had film shows once every 2 weeks and the most popular were always of the patriotic kind like Zulu or The Guns of Navarone but when The Great Escape came along I was hooked and the entire school was in uproar and cheering when Steve Mcqueen hurls his motorbike over the barbed wire ( The single most memorable and exciting scene from any film ever!!). Being involved in the film industry I was very excited back in 1995 as part of the VE day celebrations to give a special screening of The Great Escape at a Big Screen Cinema and have as a special guest speaker a former prisoner at Stalag Luft 111 in 1943 and involved in the actual escape plans, Mr Alan E. Bryatt. As a piece of entertainment he agreed that the film was excellent and in many ways quite accurate (although the actual escape took place in snowbound conditions!) The Great Escape has been enormously influential to filmakers everywhere and I believe that many scenes and characters from this film will be etched in the minds of filmlovers forever!