One of the All-Time Greats

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2012)

Great Escape, The (1963)
**** (out of 4)
One of the greatest films ever made deals with some POWs as they attempt to dig a tunnel underground and escape from a German camp. With the all-star cast, the terrific story and some masterful direction there's no question that this here deserves its high reputation and there's also no doubt that it's one of the greatest adventure films ever made. I think a lot of the credit must go to director John Sturges and I say this because even though the movie runs 170-minutes it actually feels like just a few minutes. It's rather amazing to see how short this movie actually feel and one of the things that I loved the most is how Sturges manages to keep the film moving at such a fast pace that you can't help but forget you're watching a movie. It almost feels as if you're actually there among these men and the way Sturges tells the story is much like a composer would come up with a score. There's just a certainly poetic flow to the movie that it really feels unlike anything else that I can think of. Of course, it doesn't hurt when you have a cast that includes excellent work from Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasence and James Coburn just to name a few. This is one of those films where every actor perfectly fits their part and this goes from the top to those with just a few lines in the picture. Another major plus is the way the director manages to build the suspense once the escape and the aftermath happens. Most people forget but after the escape we still have an hour worth of film left and many times directors would let the suspense fall after the big event but that doesn't happen here. The music score by Elmer Bernstein is among one of the greatest and most recognizable that you're ever going to hear and the cinematography from Daniel L. Fapp is equally impressive. THE GREAT ESCAPE is the type of movie that I'd say is timeless because it's subject matter is just something that's never going to die or get old.