It's lesson in "human" history, not in history itself....

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2019)

Got to be the definition of an all star (albeit all male) cast in this gripping demonstration of just how inventive and ingenious people can be when incarcerated and facing a bleak (if any) future. Each character in this WWII POW drama brings something different to this ensemble of style and imagination. Richard Attenborough stars as the proverbial pain in the ass to his Nazi guards having repeatedly escaped before, and he puts together his "X" organisation to work every scheme imaginable to get people out of this supposedly escape proof "Super-Stalag ". Steve McQueen forms an unlikely alliance with Angus "the Mole" Lennie; James "the scrounge" Garner with the expert, tea-drinking, forger Donald Pleasance whose eyesight is failing rapidly; Charles Bronson and James Coburn and a whole raft of seasoned British actors bring this whole enterprise to life in a gritty, sometimes amusing, but ultimately determined way. Hannes Messemer "The Kommandant" also deserves mention as he seems to still cling to some of the basic tenets of human decency as he tries to stop the Gestapo from implementing their more drastic solutions. Elmer Bernstein tops the whole thing off with a cracking score. It is long, certainly, but at least we can be certain we get out at the end...