A POW camp more comfortable than many 3 star motels.

Rating: 5/10 (30 August 2002)

Even conceding the fact that this POW camp was run by the Luftwaffe and not the SS this has got to be the silliest representation of a POW camp ever put to film and I include "Hogan's Heroes" in this statement. At least "Hogan's Heroes" admitted it was a comedy. After viewing the Germans represented in this piece of malarkey I am surprised World War II lasted 6 months. I remember wondering when I first saw this as a teenager why the Germans would allow a person in solitary confinement to have games to play. Now I know 39 years later; they wouldn't. Considering how heroic the actual events really were it is shame to see them made to look so cartoonish in this vehicle for Steve McQueen. Good thing for him the German's didn't know what was being planned in all those private POW rooms available to those crazy flyboy prisoners. I noticed on the DVD box someone called it the greatest World War II movie ever made. If it is then I guess the WW II veterans I talked to were really embellishing how tough it was. I am not completely panning this movie because it is fun to see some very good performers in their younger years (I gave it 5 out of 10). However, having seen this movie in 1964 and in 2002 I can't say it has aged well at all. I suspected it was a sanitized piece of propaganda in 1964 and am quite sure of it now.