The best concentration camp parody ever with "Stalag 17".

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 1999)

In 1953, the Academy award winner for best actor was William Holden in "Stalag 17" which was the story of a German concentration camp for Americans and was made to look ridiculous. In 1963, the best actor Oscar went to Sidney Poitiers for "Lilies of the field" and this is totally all right by me. However, I came to notice that "The great escape" didn't get any nominations either for acting, directing, or even best picture. And this movie is ranked #81 on our IMDb voting list whereas the 1963 winner for best picture, "Tom Jones", isn't even there. Maybe "Tom Jones" deserved the best picture that year, but "The great escape" should definitely have had at least a nomination.
Captain Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) winds up in a German prison camp where he doesn't know anyone. But there isn't only him in that camp. A few days after he arrives at the camp, a well-known English Captain, Bartlett (Richarrd Attenborough), arrives as well and decides to take matters into his own hands by preparing escape plans for at least 250 of the prisoners in the camp. Naturally, a job like this one requires a lot of help. So he gets Hendley "The Scrounger" (James Garner), Danny Velinski "Tunnel King" (Charles Bronson), Colin Blythe "The Forger" (Donald Pleasance), and Sedgwick "Manufacturer" (James Coburn) to team up with him to make this one the biggest escape from a concentration camp ever. This one has to be THE great escape.
At first, Hilts declines Bartlett's proposition to join his group claiming that he is going to escape much earlier than the rest of the group. But after he screws up and is sent to "The cooler", he decides to join up with Bartlett as soon as he is released from "The cooler" and when he does, the Germans begin wishing these men never entered this concentration camp in their whole life. But even though these men are pros at this kind of work, the Germans are able to find out about a few of their plans but to keep myself from spoiling anything, I won't tell you anymore about the movie itself.
Director John Sturges has indeed directed some very god movies including the great "The magnificent seven", but he truly outdid himself in "The great escape". The movie offers suspense, action, and some good laughs as well and keeps you wondering what will happen to the main characters until you do see what does happen. Steve McQueen gives one of his best performances and Attenborough is excellent as well. Some of the best scenes of the movie are when you see the Americans preparing their escape and all the work and trouble they have to go through to get it done. It's definitely the greatest escape I've ever seen.