The Great Escape came out in 1963.\u00a0 It\u2019s based on an actual World War II large scale escape by British Commonwealth soldiers from a German POW camp during World War II.\u00a0 Some American actors were added in to increase the interest for American audiences but for the most part the details of the story are true.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an all-star cast including Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson and James Coburn.\u00a0 On the British side there\u2019s Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasence and a bunch of Brits I never heard of.<\/p>\n
The plan is to build a tunnel out of the camp and provide clothes and identification papers for 250 men to scatter over the countryside and escape out of Germany.\u00a0 Each of the men has a particular skill; tunnellers, scroungers of supplies, document forgers, tailors, etc.\u00a0 The ingenuity they use to perform this seemingly impossible series of operations is remarkable.\u00a0 They begin building three tunnels (Tom, Dick and Harry) and accumulating their supplies.\u00a0 There are setbacks and delays.\u00a0 The first tunnel is discovered and one of the men despairs and is shot down rushing the fence in broad daylight.\u00a0 Stress builds up and some of the men crack.\u00a0 Finally, the escape is run and disaster occurs.\u00a0 Seventy-six men get out of the camp and we follow them as they attempt the escape from Germany.\u00a0 Some make it, some are caught and some are killed.<\/p>\n
It is an amazing story.\u00a0 Even if it were just fiction it would be entertaining.\u00a0 But knowing it actually happened is mind-boggling.\u00a0 And the movie is well done.\u00a0 The plot and dialog are good and sometimes quite compelling.\u00a0 The actors are sympathetic characters and even some of the Germans come across as interesting humans.<\/p>\n
If you like war stories and especially if you like history this is a movie you might want to see.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Great Escape came out in 1963.\u00a0 It\u2019s based on an actual World War II large scale escape by British Commonwealth soldiers from a German<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[1654,2017,2620,2619,2621,2618],"class_list":["post-11767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-charles-bronson","tag-james-coburn","tag-james-garner","tag-steve-mcqueen","tag-the-great-escape","tag-world-war-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n