An almost great film

Rating: 8/10 (9 March 1999)

The Great Escape has all the elements needed for a great Hollywood film, but it falls short of perfection. The acting, direction, photography, and especially the music are all compelling, but the script comes up short. It is very difficult to believe that prisoners of war would constantly be so cavalier about everything. The film creates a bunch of fun but ultimately trivial characters that inhabit an all-too-unreal prison camp. While they cover slightly different ground, Grand Illusion and Stalag 17 both are superior films for presenting a more balanced view of prison life. In spite of the poor script and silly characterizations, the film does have many merits. The European locations are wonderful and look fantastic. The score is riveting. And the cast provides an informative glimpse into Hollywood, 1963. This is one of the last great studio action films. Soon, films that some of the stars of this film are in, like Bullit and Death Wish, would replace the WWII film as the action/adventure standard. The world was moving forward, away from the patriotism and myth that surrounded the second war. The great legacy of this film is that it provides one last look back into that lost world and shows why it was so compelling to Americans. Soon after the film's release, JFK would be dead and Vietnam would be reality. The Great Escape could not have been made in 1969.