Kick-ass escape movie

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2005)

Accomplished cast in engrossing story of major break-out from German prison camp in World War II. Based on true-life story of Roger Bushell (Roger Bartlett in the movie), with some extra thrills and characters thrown in ala Hollywood. The book by Brickhill is as good as, if not better than, the movie; the book was followed by a sequel where Brickhill tried to track down the perpetrators of the post-escape massacre (some of whom, if I recall, had vanished behind the Iron Curtain). Ignore the comment above - this escape drew so many resources and caused so much disruption in Nazi Germany that Hitler personally ordered all the escapees shot, so "how many people completed their escape" misses the point. Relatively fast pace of film and thoroughly fine acting make up for long running time. Worth watching just for the scenes involving McQueen (reportedly a handful on the set), a real-life motorcyclist who performed his own stunts and some of the Germans' as well. A solid 10, deservedly in the IMDb top 100 with a powerful Elmer Bernstein score.