Action-Packed Adventure From Start To Finish

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2002)

A fascinating account of a massive escape by Allied prisoners of war from a German prison camp during World War II. The audience is drawn into the story right from the beginning, as we learn that all the "rotten eggs" the Germans have captured (the prisoners who have made repeated escape attempts) are being moved together into one prison. Question: how will they manage to pull this off when, given the kind of prisoners they are, the Germans must be watching every move?
Great performances, especially from Richard Attenborough as Bartlett ("Big X") who is in charge of the escape attempt, Steve McQueen as Hilts, who continually draws the wrath of his captors and is repeatedly sentenced to the cooler, and James Garner as Hendley, who scrounges the needed materials any way he can. The movie featured an interesting performance from Charles Bronson as the Polish prisoner Danny. I never quite understood Danny. He spent days on end underground helping to dig the tunnel, then was afraid to escape through it because he was claustrophobic? Did I miss something here? That one didn't make sense to me.
The only fault I really found with the movie was the portrayal of life in a German prison camp. The whole thing just seemed too comfortable. I found it difficult to believe that the Nazis treated their prisoners as well as seemed to be the case here. True, the movie does infer that the camp Kommandant - Von Luger, played by Hannes Messemer - was not exactly a fanatical Nazi. I enjoyed the scene where the Gestapo and SS officers who visited him had to drag a rather half-hearted "Heil Hitler" from him. Still, conditions in this camp just seemed too good - almost a "Hogan's Heroes" vision of life in a German POW camp.
That aside, this was an excellent movie, and I would give it an 8/10.