One of the all time great war movies

Rating: 10/10 (19 April 2010)

I cannot dislike The Great Escape, with its great cast, anthem-like music score and of course its attention to detail. The film is brilliantly shot with beautiful cinematography, and of course the music score is great, very iconic. It may be a little annoying to some people, as the theme is repeated over and over again, but there is something triumphant about it so I find it hard not to like it. The script is great, but it is the cast and the attention to detail that sticks in the mind. This escape yarn has everything from collapsing tunnels, probing searchlights to the classic movie image of Hilts attempting to escape to freedom on a motorbike. And then there are the characters, for example we have Donald Pleasence's timid forger, James Garner's smooth-talking scrounger and most obviously Steve McQueen's super cool Captain Virgil Hilts. Garner, Pleasence, James Coburn, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson fit their parts perfectly, but for me it is McQueen's movie. Overall, The Great Escape is quite simply great, one of the all time great war movies. 10/10 Bethany Cox