Loved it!

Rating: 9/10 (27 July 2009)

There was a lot of characters. That usually makes things super-confusing for me. Most movies with a cast like this introduce characters and either kill them off shortly after, or leave them as minor footnotes.
I was shocked at how successful the characters were done.
The movie takes place at a P.O.W camp deep in Germany. It's a new high-security camp that's ran by the German Army/Luftwaffe. The warden of this camp is a very likable guy. He's really set on the idea of 'sitting out' the whole war and just housing/taking care of these men. The movie quickly points out that this guy isn't a huge fan of Hitler or the Nazi party. He sympathizes with his prisoners and is very good to them. The rules and inspections he enforces are only to maintain order. It becomes very apparent that he doesn't want the prisoners to escape for the only reason that he fears for their well-being. If the SS were to pick them up, who knows where they would end up.
Upon entering this POW camp, for a allied serviceman, you are given a task depending on your set of skills. These tasks (or jobs) that you do are part of this never-ending escape machine. It's the duty of most of these guys to at least try and escape.
There's a notable relationship between one of the scroungers (gets hard to get items into the camp) and a forger (creates false IDs for escaping P.O.Ws). The forger spends so much time looking through a magnifying glass that he ruins his vision. When the "Great Escape" is in it's final phases, he's told that he would endanger the operation if he wasn't able to see. The scrounger stands up for him, and offers to be his guide - regardless of how dangerous it could turn out.
There's more examples I won't get into, but all of them are a great example of brotherly love and comradery.
It was perfectly paced, and you actually gave a damn about the characters.
Steve McQueen as "Hilt" is quite possibly the coolest/most suave character I've seen in a movie. I was cheering the whole time he was tearing ass through Germany on that motorcycle.
The music was a bit stereotypical for an older WW2 movie. I'd like to see a more dramatic soundtrack. That's the same complaint I had with The Bridge On The River Kwai.
Now that I think about it, these are very similar movies.
I liked The Great Escape better.
"Great" flick. You won't have the desire to "Escape" your living room while this movie is playing.