One of the greats of its genre

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2018)

World War Two rages on and in the occupied Poland a new prison camp has been built. A camp unlike anything that has been seen before. A camp to house all the worst jailbreakers the war has seen. But when such a group of clever and resourceful men are put together, what else can they do but attempt to escape.
The film is based on true events, a true camp, and while there are some historical mishaps - not to mention outright tampering - it's still for the most part a rather accurate portrayal. The biggest change to the narrative is the addition of a couple of American prisoners, while in real life almost all of the prisoners were citizens of the Commonwealth. Quite honestly I didn't let it bother me.
There's a lot of characters, but the film is of such quality that you learn all of their names and characters almost instantly. Perhaps the first few minutes you'll be a bit lost and then it's like you've known these men all your life. It helps that they all have their assigned, individual roles to help in the escape. There are forgers, scavengers, lookouts, misleaders, diggers and of course Richard Attenborough's Roger Bartlett as the Big X, the leader of the whole thing.
The film has a lot of charm and is an excellent example of its genre. Especially because for once the film doesn't have to explain why we should root for the jailbreaker. Prisoners in a Nazi prison are automatically sympathetic.
If I have a problem with the film, it would have to be with the final act. Without giving away too much, the film is based on true events and it sticks to those events. I can't blame it for that and it would have been an insult to change the events, but a part of me still wishes that the happy-go-lucky charm of the first acts could have been preserved.
Oh well, such is life. And it's still a great film. Well worth a watch.