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The Great Escape

John Sturges

  • June 20, 1963 (1963-06-20) (London)
  • July 4, 1963 (1963-07-04) (United States)

172 minutes

United States

  • English
  • German
  • French

$3.8 million[1]

$11.7 million

Based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 non-fiction book of the same name, the film depicts a heavily fictionalized version of the mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from German POW camp Stalag Luft III during the Second World War. The film made numerous compromises for its commercial appeal, including its portrayal of American prisoners' involvement in the escape.


The Great Escape was made by The Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges. The film had its Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 20 June 1963.[3] The Great Escape received critical acclaim and emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of the year, winning McQueen the award for Best Actor at the Moscow International Film Festival,[4] and is considered a classic.[5] The film is also noted for its motorcycle chase and jump scene, which is considered one of the best stunts ever performed.[6][7][8]

Plot[edit]

In 1943, a group of Allied POWs who have repeatedly escaped from camps across the Third Reich are moved to a new camp under the command of Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger. He warns British Group Captain Ramsey—the highest-ranked POW officer and their de facto leader—that any man who escapes will be shot. Privately von Luger opposes such measures, but the Gestapo, tired of the disruption caused by breakouts elsewhere, has threatened to intervene if the Luftwaffe cannot stop them for good.


Several prisoners ignore the threat and attempt to escape on the first day, but none make it past the fence. USAAF Captain Hilts, a notoriously prolific escapee, notices a blind spot at the fence and purposefully gets caught before the guards can realize his discovery. Sentenced to solitary isolation (“the cooler”[9]), he befriends RAF Flying Officer Ives, who is also eager to escape.


RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett re-establishes "the X Organisation", the escape-planning committee at their former camp, with Ramsey's tacit approval. He argues that their best way to help the Allied forces is to break out an unprecedented 250 men simultaneously, forcing the Germans to divert significant manpower away from the front.


The POWs begin working on three tunnels: "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry". Hendley secures vital objects on the black market, and forms a bond with expert forger Blythe. Sedgwick makes picks and air bellows, Welinski and Dickes oversee the digging, MacDonald gathers intelligence, Griffith sews civilian disguises, and Ashley-Pitt devises a method of hiding the excavated dirt. Digging noise is masked by a choir, led by Cavendish, who also surveys the tunnels' routes. Aware that Hilts is planning to jump the fence, Bartlett asks him to scout out the surrounding area and then allow himself to be recaptured so he can draw maps for the X Organisation. Hilts refuses out of pride.


When "Tom" nears completion first, Bartlett orders "Dick" and "Harry" sealed off. Hilts, Hendley, and Goff brew potato moonshine with a homemade still and celebrate the Fourth of July with the camp, but the guards accidentally find "Tom" mid-party. A despondent Ives snaps, frantically climbs the fence, and is shot dead. Hilts, shaken, agrees to Bartlett's proposal.


Bartlett orders "Harry" reopened. When the tunnel partially collapses, Welinski breaks down and confides to Dickes that he is claustrophobic. He tries to climb the fence like Ives, but Dickes manages to calm him down and prevent him being shot. Blythe finds he is going blind due to progressive myopia, and Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's eyes during the escape.


The prisoners complete "Harry", but on the night of the escape they break to the surface and find themselves 20 feet short of the forest, and still within sight of the guards. Guided by Hilts tugging on a rope as a signal—and aided by a fortuitous air raid blackout—dozens of men flee before Cavendish slips and makes a noise. An impatient Griffith surfaces while a guard investigates and is captured, ending the breakout.


The 76 escapees flee throughout Europe. Welinski and Dickes row to a port and board a ship for Sweden, while Sedgwick cycles to France, where the Resistance smuggles him to Spain. The rest are unsuccessful: Cavendish hitches a ride on a truck, but is turned in by the driver. Hilts steals a motorcycle and heads for the German-Swiss border, chased by soldiers, but after jumping one line of tank barriers his bike is shot and he is recaptured. Hendley and Blythe steal a Luftwaffe training plane to fly to Switzerland, but crash when the engine fails; Blythe is shot and Hendley recaptured. At a railway station, Kuhn, a Gestapo guard from the camp, helps search among the disembarking passengers for escapees; Ashley-Pitt kills him to prevent him recognizing Bartlett, and is then also shot dead. However, Bartlett and MacDonald are still caught when another Gestapo officer tricks MacDonald into speaking English while boarding a bus.


Fifty of the men, including Bartlett and MacDonald, are loaded into trucks, taken to a field, and shot dead on Hitler's direct orders. Hendley, hearing the news on his return to the camp with the survivors, asks Ramsey if the escape was worth it. Von Luger, ashamed by the murders, is relieved of command by the Gestapo and driven away to an uncertain fate, but as he leaves, he tells Hilts that it looks like the American will be the one who gets to see Berlin first. Hilts is sent to the cooler, where he begins planning his next escape.

Production[edit]

Writing[edit]

In 1963, the Mirisch brothers worked with United Artists to adapt Paul Brickhill's 1950 book The Great Escape. Brickhill had been a very minor member of the X Organisation at Stalag Luft III, who acted as one of the "stooges" who monitored German movements in the camp. The story had been adapted as a live TV production, screened by NBC as an episode of The Philco Television Playhouse on January 27, 1951.[10] The live broadcast was praised for engineering an ingenious set design for the live broadcast, including creating the illusion of tunnels.[11] The film's screenplay was adapted by James Clavell, W. R. Burnett and Walter Newman.

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

The Great Escape grossed $11.7 million at the box office,[57] after a budget of $4 million.[58] It became one of the highest-grossing films of 1963, despite heavy competition. In the years since its release, its audience has broadened, cementing its status as a cinema classic.[5] It was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival, where McQueen won the Silver Prize for Best Actor.[59]

Critical response[edit]

Contemporary reviews for the film were mostly positive. In 1963, The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "But for much longer than is artful or essential, The Great Escape grinds out its tormenting story without a peek beneath the surface of any man, without a real sense of human involvement. It's a strictly mechanical adventure with make-believe men."[60] British film critic Leslie Halliwell described it as "pretty good but overlong POW adventure with a tragic ending".[61] The Time magazine reviewer wrote in 1963: "The use of color photography is unnecessary and jarring, but little else is wrong with this film. With accurate casting, a swift screenplay, and authentic German settings, Producer-Director John Sturges has created classic cinema of action. There is no sermonizing, no soul probing, no sex. The Great Escape is simply great escapism".[62]

Modern appraisals[edit]

The Great Escape continues to receive acclaim from modern critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 53 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "With its impeccably slow-building story and a cast for the ages, The Great Escape is an all-time action classic."[63]


In a 2006 poll in the United Kingdom, regarding the family film that television viewers would most want to see on Christmas Day, The Great Escape came in third, and was first among the choices of male viewers.[64] In an article for the British Film Institute, "10 great prisoner of war films", updated in August 2018, Samuel Wigley wrote that watching films like The Great Escape and the 1955 British film The Colditz Story, "for all their moments of terror and tragedy, is to delight in captivity in times of war as a wonderful game for boys, an endless Houdini challenge to slip through the enemy's fingers. Often based on true stories of escape, they have the viewer marvelling at the ingenuity and seemingly unbreakable spirit of imprisoned soldiers." He described The Great Escape as "the epitome of the war-is-fun action film", which became "a fixture of family TV viewing".[65]

Sequel[edit]

A fictional, made-for-television sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, was released in 1988, with Christopher Reeve, and directed by Jud Taylor (who played 2nd Lt. Goff in the 1963 film).[68] The film is not a true sequel, as it dramatizes the escape itself just as the original film does, although mostly using the real names of the individuals involved (whereas the original film fictionalized them and used composite characters). It depicts the search for the culprits responsible for the murder of the 50 Allied officers. Donald Pleasence appears in a supporting role as a member of the SS.[69]

(1986) was released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and DOS platforms, and shares a title and similar plot to the movie. The game follows an unnamed prisoner of war who has been interned in a POW camp somewhere in northern Germany in 1942.

The Great Escape

(2003) was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. The plotline follows that of the film, except there are also levels featuring some of the characters' first captures and early escape attempts, as well as a changed ending.

The Great Escape

The film is mentioned and heavily referenced in .

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

The films , Reservoir Dogs, the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, Top Secret!, Charlie's Angels, The Tao of Steve, and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Inglorious Basterds all contain references or homages to the film.[69]

Chicken Run

, The Simpsons, Hogan's Heroes, Nash Bridges, Seinfeld, Get Smart, Fugget About It, Archer, Goodness Gracious Me, Shaun the Sheep, and Red Dwarf have all parodied or paid homage to the film.[69]

Monty Python's Flying Circus

The show, Sister Boniface Mysteries referenced the film in Season 2, Episode 5 ‘St. George’s Defence’.

BritBox

Bernstein's Great Escape theme tune has been taken up by the , a small brass band who have played in the crowd at England football team matches since 1996.[70] They released an arrangement of the theme as a single for the 1998 FIFA World Cup and a newer version for UEFA Euro 2000.[71]

Pukka Pies England Band

Both the movie and prison camp were portrayed in the show titled “The Grand Tour”, on Amazon Prime.

The advertising agency takes its name from the three tunnels in the film.[72]

Tom, Dick & Harry Creative Co.

List of American films of 1963

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Andrews, Allen (1976). Exemplary Justice. London: Harrap.  978-0-245-52775-3. Details the manhunt by the Royal Air Force's special investigations unit after the war to find and bring to trial the perpetrators of the "Sagan murders".

ISBN

Barris, Ted (2013). The Great Escape: A Canadian Story. Toronto: Thomas Allen.  978-1-77102-272-9.

ISBN

(1950). The Great Escape. New York: Norton.

Brickhill, Paul

(1990). The Longest Tunnel. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-1-55584-033-4.

Burgess, Alan

(2020). MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30023-320-9.

Fry, Helen

Hehner, Barbara (2004). . Toronto: Harper Trophy Canada.

The Tunnel King: The True Story of Wally Floody and the Great Escape

Hevesi, Dennis (April 22, 2012). "Alex Cassie of 'Great Escape' Dies at 95". . p. 20.

The New York Times

(1946). Tre kom tilbake [Three returned]. Norway: Gyldendal. Memoir by the surviving Norwegian escapee.

Müller, Jens

Smith, Sydney (1968). 'Wings' Day. London: Pan Books.  978-0-330-02494-5. Story of Wing Commander Harry "Wings" Day.

ISBN

Vance, Jonathan F. (2000). A Gallant Company: The True Story of the Man of "The Great Escape". New York: I Books.  978-0-7394-4242-5.

ISBN

at IMDb

The Great Escape

at the TCM Movie Database

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at AllMovie

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at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

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at Box Office Mojo

The Great Escape

Archived January 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (See 30:23–34:47 of video.)

James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show

New publication with private photos of the shooting & documents of 2nd unit cameraman Walter Riml

Photos of the filming

The Great Escape locations

Rob Davis web site on the Great Escape

at Rotten Tomatoes

The Great Escape