The Great Escape is one of the all-time great movies.

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2013)

Based on a true story from WW2 "The Great Escape" is in just about everyone's list of favourite movies. Taken purely as escapist entertainment (if you will pardon an obvious pun), it is a very tough act to follow & the decision taken by its producers to fill it chock full of top-of-the-range film stars certainly paid off in spades. Steve McQueen will always be remembered for his iconic motor-cycle stunt-riding later in the film but there were many other memorable moments in the film. Trying to pick holes in this movie is churlish but I found it difficult to buy that Charles Bronson (tunnel king Danny) could suffer a serious attack of claustrophobia during the actual escape, even though i do understand it was done for dramatic effect. Genial James Garner (scrounger) always seemed to enhance anything he was ever involved in & was, as ever, great. Same goes for Richard Attenborough (big "x" the organiser), James Coburn (manufacturer), David McCallum (soil dispersal) & Donald Pleasance (forger). German actor Hannes Messemer was also great in his role as Von Luger the camp commandant. I must have seen this film at least 20 or 30 times (probably more than any other) but I still love it. Mention should be made, also, of Elmer Bernstein's iconic theme music which was used for England's World Cup campaign by football fans but I cannot remember which one, (maybe 1998).