Charismatic cast in a stylish and elegant story

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2020)

"The Great Escape" is a 1963 war adventure drama directed by John Sturges starring Steve McQueen and James Garner. Just like I am a sucker for space dramas and westerns, there is also another subgenre I like to visit from time to time: prison break movies. Even though I haven't seen the TV show of the exact same name, I still can claim that I have seen enough to consider myself a fan of the genre. From Stallone's pseudo intelligent fun flick "Escape Plan" to Eastwood's all time classic "Escape From Alcatraz" I have seen most of them, but only after getting deeper into the 1960s and making enquiries about a cinematic era that now belongs to one of my favourites, I stumbled over this essential entry as well. Since Frank Bullitt himself stars in the leading role, I could not wait to check it out, but since the film amounts to almost three hours of runtime, I haven't had the time to give it watch earlier. Now that the pandemic still incapacitates any form of social life, and I am stuck at home I thought it was finally time to get down to it and see McQueen and his fellows trying to escape. It was probably the best idea I have had in the past few weeks, because even with this epic duration I wasn't bored once while watching it. Also, you know you are watching an iconic film when you recognize the main theme even if you haven't seen the film ever before, but several homages and parodies. It immediately got me in the mood for what was about to come and what came then was simply splendid. Director Sturges managed to assemble one of the most charismatic and at the same time talented casts I have ever seen in a film. Aside from McQueen you got James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasence and even a surprisingly convincing Charles Bronson. Those are only the biggest names and it doesn't change the fact that every single actor, from leading role to small supporting role was absolutely charismatic and authentic in their own unique way. Since the film is based on spectacular true events that took place in a detention camp somewhere in Germany and the fact that I am German myself, I was simply impressed by the extreme authenticity this film offered. Not only was the setting atmospheric and true to the story (it was actually shot on location in southern Germany), it was such a delight to see that they casted actual compatriots in the respective roles. What many from outside of my country probably aren't able to evaluate is how brilliant the pronunciation of every single actor was. Of course, it was easy for the German native speakers to deal with their mother tongue, but it was impressive how all the anglophone actors proved their certain skill. For example, I never thought I would see how a young John Hammond diverts suspicion from himself by fluently phrasing that he is not an Englishman ("Ich bin kein Engländer!"). The other way round, it was not less impressive how the Germans proved their skills in the English language and the fact that they all of course had a distinctive accent made it even more suave. No, this film doesn't lack credibility in the slightest and it is only one small aspect of the greatness that unfolds in the following hours. Aside from this, it was extremely fascinating to see how the film establishes its characters. Even though I was mildly confused by the fact that McQueen's Hilts is in the cooler most of the time and plays only a small but significant role (hence the nickname "The Cooler King", I guess), I think it was quite an achievement how this film handled so many different characters and made me sympathize with every single one of them nevertheless. Every one of them got his bit of spotlight in the process and I loved to see them planning their next big escape. To the last man, every single one had an individual personality and played an important role in this ultimate master plan. Let's put it this way, they all lived up to their nicknames. What did the Luftwaffe expect from putting the best and most infamous jailbreakers together in one prison? Appropriate behaviour? Hardly likely. Of course, they do what they do best and begin planning already on the day they arrive. Considering how they elaborate a strategy you can see that they don't do it for the first time. The most outstanding aspect about the whole plan though is how highly sophisticated it is. From start to finish its elaborated and calculates any form of hazard and advantage. It is this extreme dedication, this extraordinarily high love for detail in both the plan and the screenplay that depicts it that make this film so incredibly entertaining. It is remarkably well paced and allows the viewer to dig into the story and the characters without letting it become too boring. Furthermore, it fortunately features enough hazards and dangers that threaten the execution of the plan so that it never loses its tension and doesn't proceed too easily. While it spends the first two hours on depicting the elaboration and execution of the plan, the last third shows how the lucky few escapees try to deal with the last steps of their flight, outside of prison walls and barbed wire. Believe it or not, in this final act the individual fates differ extremely from case to case and with the Gestapo and SS on their heels it even creates some extremely intense scenarios full of suspense. The work of several weeks might be shattered in the matter of seconds and the characters do their absolute best to not get caught and the enemy is so close to busting them several times. The scenarios cannot be any more differently packing. For instance, while the situation of Bartlett and Mac is more of a stealth mission, Hilts literally goes full throttle and involuntarily embarks on a reckless motorcycle pursuit over green meadows (and border fences). Thus, the film offers an extreme range of emotional scenes in the end, going from suspenseful and quiet sequences to action packed and loud scenes over the whole course. On top of that, it also includes some instances of subtle humour and even a few seriously sad moments in the end. Is this film perfect then? Close to, but if there is one thing, I am not hundred percent satisfied with, it has got to be the general handling of the prisoners by the German soldiers. The leadership lacked this specific authority and brutality and the lightness it shows was a little weird to see. I mean, you have dozens of the most infamous breakaways cooped up in one camp and their leader officially stated that his men are trying to escape on every cost. Considering this, the security precautions were ridiculously low and the routine inspections fairly rare. Just like they wanted them to try to escape in some way. Well, but that's only criticism at the highest stage, as it still worked out that way and didn't disturb the narration in any way. All in all, this film is an authentic and atmospheric entry to the genre and knows to entertain in many ways, thanks to one of the most charismatic and talented casts, an ingeniously written screenplay and plot and a moody cinematography and an iconic score and main theme. It delivers a historically accurate and massive fun for fans of the genre and offers a lot of brilliant ideas to keep your attention during its fairly extreme run time. I personally haven't felt bored once and it flied by without letting it become any less entertaining. It is grippingly narrated, stylish and elegant and probably the ultimate prison break movie if not the greatest escape film of all time. Splendid!