It Is Our Duty As Officers To Escape

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2003)

The Great Escape is a carefully and crisply directed movie from John Sturges.
*******************MILD SPOILERS AHEAD********************************
Prisoners of war during World War II who have been causing the Nazi's trouble by repeated attempts to escape find themselves thrown together in one special detention camp. The philosophy the prisoners live by is that it is their duty as officers to try to escape in order to detract the enemy from fighting the war and divert as much of the enemy's resources as possible. Some of the prisoners of war are from various Allied countries and they work together on a bold undertaking of building an underground tunnel in order for 250 men to escape all at one time.
The movie sets in the detention camp incorporate marvelous period detail and the movie locations include some lustrous views of the European countryside. The Great Escape's musical score by Elmer Bernstein is fantastic.
The movie is interesting to watch throughout its 172 minutes and shows near genius by the director's strong and suspenseful finish. The performances of Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson and Donald Pleasance are particularly memorable. In my humble opinion, the performances of Steve McQueen and James Garner were OK but not as strong nor as realistic as the film deserved. Steve McQueen's reported insistence on being the hero of the film by having his character's part rewritten to be the hero marred the realism of the film a bit.
All in all, the Great Escape is a great World War II movie. I give it 90.5/100. It's one of the better World War II movies made. Twelve O'Clock High with Gregory Peck, however, has it beat as my favorite World War II movie with Guadalcanal Diary not far behind.