Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quite possibly the most perfect audience picture ever made, 28 Nov 2008
The Great Escape may be nearly three hours long, but it moves like clockwork and holds its audience completely. There is always something happening, often with much wit and sometimes touching sentiment that avoids mawkishness. There is one remarkably bad piece of construction, following a genuinely moving death scene with McQueen's motorbike jump, but otherwise the film is perfectly constructed. Elmer Bernstein's score is one of his best, and with considerably more range and variety than you remember adds much to the proceedings.
If it seems a bit dubious making an entertainment out of one of the grimmest episodes of WW2 - 50 of the recaptured prisoners of the genuine mass escape from a German prisoner of war camp were murdered - the darker elements are not ignored, but despite being very effectively handled do tend to get swamped by the sheer exuberance of the film. It now seems particularly curious to that the impossible motorbike jump, while still a great moment, seems so much more underplayed and credible than the increasingly spectacular and cartoonish CGi action sequences of modern action films.
The cast are all outstanding. In Steve McQueen's `Cooler King' we can see the origins of Indiana Jones, the hero as eternal loser. Garner's wonderfully resourceful scrounger and his touching friendship with Donald Pleasance's near-blind forger make perhaps an even bigger impression. Bronson too is very appealing, with all the dry humour and warmth that two decades of working with Michael Winner has managed to knock out of him still intact. However, it must be said that Coburn's Aussie arc-scent is enough to make you grateful he hardly said anything in The Magnificent Seven.
The film is just brimming with familiar faces, from the stars to British war movie stalwart Gordon Jackson and the equally omnipresent Karl Otto Alberty ("Your German is very good. I hear also your French. Your hands - UP!"). Don't remember him? He fought in the 'Battle of the Bulge,' planned the 'Battle of Britain' and had a memorable showdown with Clint Eastwood as a tank commander in Kelly's Heroes. Only Sam Kydd is missing. With so much to enjoy and remember, The Great Escape is quite possibly the most perfect audience movie ever made.
This World Cup edition - tying in with the England team's adoption of the film's theme music in their failed 2002/2006 attempts to take the cup - is one of the more bizarre attempts to repackage the film to get you to buy it again . Aside from a couple of football promos, the features are identical to the other 2-disc releases: audio commentary by Steven J. Rubin (whose fine half hour documentary on the original single-disc release hasn't been carried over to this UK edition), James Garner, James Coburn, Donald Pleasance, Jud Taylor, David McCallum, Robert Relyea, Fernando Carrere, Hilly Elkins, Bud Ekins and John Sturges, documentaries A Man Called Jones - The Real Virgil Hilts, The Great Escape - Heroes Underground and 50-minute documentary The Great Escape - The Untold Story with additional interviews (unfortunately lacking a play all option so you have to restart each chapter), trivia track, stills galleries and theatrical trailer.
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Is this a comedy???, 21 Jan 2009
I am going against the tide here by saying that this movie is over-rated childish nonsense. Regarding this famous WW2 movie featuring a dozen movie stars the picture and sound are first class, however the film itself is hugely over-rated. The music is annoyingly brilliant, but once the opening credits are over the plot flaws become apparent.
This dumb flick is in my opinion like a prequel to "Hogan's Heroes." The Allied POWs are plucky, cocky and handsome. The German soldiers who guard them are bumbling oafs. At the end of the movie the German guns come out and many of the POWs are slaughtered. Nothing seems to actually happen in the 2 hours 45 minutes. There is lots of moralising about values, and how good the Allies are and how rotten the Germans are. There is plenty of egotistical, over-the-top acting by the all-star cast. Although this is a film about courage, the director takes a childish approach (leavened with humour) to allow the plot to kick in (the escape).
The Great Escape is a rather mundane three hour escape movie. It is cliched and it is dumb; for example how on earth are the Germans going to allow Steve McQueen to enter a prison camp with a cool leather jacket and a baseball glove (and ball). Do you think the Germans allowed the prisoners to walk around a prison camp drinking coffee and smoking cigarttes all day waitning for postal packages sent from the wife in sunny old USA. Anyone bother to notice how McQueen (his worst performance) emerges from solitary confinement with a fantastic tan?
All the good guys are locked up in a Prison Camp in Germany and they instantly become best mates and come up with a plan to escape (funnily enough). There is a mish-mash of Nationalities in the Camp ranging from English, Russian, American, Australian and Scottish. Sterotypical heaven here as the English play the stiff upper lip; the Americans play it strong and silent, and the Scottish man dreams of drinking whiskey and dancing with his girlfriend in Kirkaldy or Fife or someplace....
Anyhoo, One part of the movie that reduced it's quality was the unnecessary comic relief throughout the movie. Almost from the start, many POW's act like they are on vacation and not a prison camp. I don't think real-life POWs would have acted like that. In the same vein, the German officers appeared fools and clowns, who not only tolerated much insolence but didn't seem to have a clue at all.
Do yourself a favour, switch your brain on and watch a proper escape movie - Escape from Alcatraz. Papillion is another great escape movie starring Steve McQueen. Res ipsa loquitur.
Gonzo Clarke.
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