Hardly the great escape!

Rating: 7/10 (11 October 2002)

The Great Escape is a film that everybody raves about and looks back at with rose tinted glasses . Having seen this for the first time in 20 years i think this is a good film but maybe overrated simply for the fact the ,one , it is way too long at 2 hours and 45 minutes and secondly there are so many silly moments they could never have happened for real. ***** SPOILER ALERT******** It looked like a holiday camp to me with all the prisoners mixing with each other at any times they wanted. They could treat the guards with distane and could get hold of anything they wanted.Why get shot escaping, just stay there and enjoy it until the war is over. Why put all the top RAF escape's in one camp? Surely you would split them up.The Comandant and guards looked like the most inept German soldiers i have ever seen in a war film. Why call the film the Great Escape ? It was hardly great. only 25 escaped and 50 were shot dead! James Coburn's accent was laughable too. Having said all that the film is still ok but mainly down to the musical score by Elmer Bernstien. The music makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up because it is so rousing. Only one other musical score is better than the Great Escape and that is the one for The Magnificent Seven and that is Elmer Bernstien's work too. Steve Mqueen has an aura about him too that not many actors have ever possesed and it is such a shame that he died when he did. 7 out of 10.