A Exceptional Film About Teamwork

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2012)

The Great Escape is based on the true story of a group of Allied prisoners of war who managed to escape from an allegedly impenetrable Nazi prison camp during World War II.It features Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough together with James Donald,Charles Bronson,Donald Pleasence and James Coburn. The film is based on the book of the same title by Paul Brickhill, a non-fiction account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. The characters are composites of real men. It was produced and directed by John Sturges.
The Nazis gather all their most devious and troublesome POWs and place them at a new prison camp, which was designed to be impervious to escapes. Immediately, the prisoners develop a scheme where they will leave the camp by building three separate escape tunnels.The British soldier who masterminds the whole plan, and who commands his motley squad that includes a Polish trench-digging expert,an American with a talent for theft, a masterful forger, and an American rebel through the construction of the tunnels and, eventually, their escape.
A stirring example of courage and the indomitable human spirit, for many John Sturges's The Great Escape is both the definitive World War II drama and the nonpareil prison escape movie. Featuring an unequaled ensemble cast in a rivetingly authentic true-life scenario set to Elmer Bernstein's admirable music, this picture is both a template for subsequent action-adventure movies and one of the last glories of Golden Age Hollywood. Reunited with the director who made him a star in The Magnificent Seven,McQueen gives a career-defining performance as the laconic Hilts, the baseball-loving, motorbike-riding "Cooler King." The rest of the make the most of their meaty roles.This is an epic adventure film that runs nearly three hours that provides exciting action sequences which had never been seen before in Hollywood productions as it provides an exceptional story about teamwork.