The Best War Movie Sound Track EVER

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2014)

I consider the decade of 1960's and a few years on either side, the Golden Age of the epic World War II movies. This era gave us Bridge over the River Kwai, Patton, Tora Tora Tora, The Battle of the Bulge (say what you will). There were some great scores that came from these gems but the sound track of the Great Escape is the one that pops in my mind (and maybe this is just me) when I'm doing something that may be of epic proportions. I think one of the things that makes this era so great is that many of the actors and production people involved were WWII or military vets themselves. Period vehicles and locations were still around in good supply as well. As our greatest generation passes so does the greatest generation of the World War II movie. I ended up watching these movies usually on TV as a kid and if they were on a weeknight I didn't always get to see the end. I remember watching this most likely as a two parter of Saturday Night at the Movies. This was an NBC show that would feature first rate movies within a few years of their theatrical release. This was before the days of home video. It memory serves me correctly the first part came on Saturday night with the second part the following Monday night. On Monday night when they started the movie I was able to record the opening score with a very primitive tape recorder and I've been hooked ever since. This movie has to be seen to be believed. The star power put together for this movie is incredible. I've seen a documentary on this that puts the whole movie in an even more epic light. Steve McQueen's motorcycle chase is in my opinion one of the top five chases ever put to film. McQueen's chase in Bullitt is another one. But back to the sound track, some of the most memorable are of course the opening convoy scene,the McQueen chase (one day he's going to make it, I just know it) James Garner and Donald Pleasance in their airplane escape (very sad at the end) and James Coburn in the rowboat.