One Movie That Should NEVER be Remade!!

Rating: 10/10 (16 September 2007)

How could any movie maker even CONSIDER doing a remake of this all-time classic? It would be as great a travesty as some musical group thinking they could record a better version of "All Along the Watchtower" than Jimi Hendrix!! Just look at how awful the remake of Rollerball was! This is one of those movies that stands the test of time as it is, and just can't be outmatched. How could any present-day actor top the cool performance of Steve McQueen? Or match the intensity of Sir Richard Attenborough? Or the quiet desperation of Donald Pleasence, who actually WAS a POW? Or the cockiness of James Garner, who used his experience as a scrounger in Korea to make his performance more realistic? Or the ingenuity of David McCallum? Or the realism of Charles Bronson, who, with his Polish descent, makes his portrayal of a Polish, (NOT Russian), flier so true to life? Or match Angus Lennie's portrayal of a man being pushed over the edge of insanity by long confinement? Or match the combination of coolness, ingenuity, and frustration of James Coburn, who actually did a convincing Aussie accent. Pay attention to the scene where he shows Big X, (Attenborough), his ingenious air pump and air ducts. Watch his face when, right after Big X tells him "good job", he tells him to "Have it installed by tonight." That's great acting! Why can't Hollywood realize that we're getting fed up with an endless stream of remakes that just don't hold a candle to the originals? There are so many stories from WWII that haven't been brought to the big screen. *RANT* What's wrong with some of these people who complain that the conditions in the camp aren't realistic? WERE YOU THERE? It is a well documented fact that the Germans, especially the Luftwaffe, were very careful to follow the rules laid down by the Geneva Convention in their treatment of British, French, and American POWs. It's also a fact that Luftwaffe officers felt a kinship with other fliers that transcended wartime enmity. For instance, when Douglas Bader, (the man who was famous for flying with two prosthetic legs), was shot down and captured, he lost one of them bailing out. General Adolph Galland, who was in command of the fighter arm of the Luftwaffe, notified the British of his damaged leg and offered them safe passage to drop off a replacement. They also became friends after the war. (Read Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader DSO, DFC. by Paul Brickhill and The First and the Last: Germany's Fighter Force in WWII by Adolph Galland) So the depiction of the treatment of the prisoners in the movie WAS accurate! To my knowledge, the ONLY Luftwaffe officer to be tried for war crimes was that fat fool Hermann Goring, and it wasn't for anything he did as commander of the Luftwaffe. Putting him in charge of the Luftwaffe had to be one of the biggest blunders Hitler committed! As for the guard's seeming ineptness, I guess you weren't paying attention when Big X told the POWs to set up a system of watchers to signal whenever a guard or a ferret got close enough to see or hear anything. Or to all the scenes showing all the diversions the prisoners used to distract the guards. It's also factual that the Germans allowed prisoners to keep their uniforms and badges of rank. This was intended to make escape more difficult, for one thing, and the Germans had enough problems with shortage of resources for another. *END OF RANT* All in all, watching this movie will be one of the most enjoyable 2 hours and 52 minutes you'll ever spend. There's just NO WAY anybody could ever do a better remake of it, and it would be as big a blunder as the one I mentioned above to even try! 10/10