THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) ****

Although I've seen this film at least ten times, I finally got to see it on the big screen last week, while I was in Florida. It certainly did not disappoint.

This is a wonderful film based on the true story of the largest escape from a German POW camp in World War Two. The story comes straight from Paul Brickhill's book of the same name, THE GREAT ESCAPE. The film is loaded with stars, was shot in scenic Bavarian locations, boasts excellent cinematography, and is accompanied by the late Elmer Bernstein's memorable score.

The story: Allied prisoners devise a mass escape from Luft Stalag III near Sagan, not too distant from Breslau, Germany (in an area in present postwar Poland). It is a Herculean undertaking in that the Kriegies dig three tunnels simultaniously complete with electric lighting, hand-powered trolly system, and forced ventilation. All of this takes place 30 feet under the heels of vigilant German Luftwaffe guards. Despite numerous setbacks and constant German interference, more than seventy Allied flyers escape captivity with three eventually making their way to freedom.

The movie also has a tragic side. Fifty recaptured prisoners were executed.

The escape tied up German manpower as the military districts throughout Germany were mobilized to round up the escapees. Though not portrayed in the movie, Hitler originally ordered that all recaptured POWs would be shot. Luftwaffe Chief and Reichsmarshal Herman Goering intervened and the quota was reduced to 50. The movie condenses this tragic event to a solitary remote pasture. In Brickhill's book the executions took place at several different locations.

THE GREAT ESCAPE has some great elements. The tunnel scenes are claustrophobic. No matter how many times I watch the film, I still empathize with the prisoners as some of their efforts are discovered by the Germans. At the latter part of the movie we follow the separate groups of escaped prisoners and their adventures in fleeing their captors. Each time I see the movie I still hope that these guys make it to freedom.

Time to also bring the film into historical perspective. The movie does a great job in conveying the spirit of POWs and their brilliant escape. However, also realize that this blockbuster had to be marketable to a wide audience.

The dirt, grime, overcrowding, and unshaven faces are missing from this portrayal of life in a Stalag. Movies like STALAG 17 and HART'S WAR were closer to the mark. The Sagan P.O.W. compound is brand new fresh cut pine and the Kriegie inmates are immaculately dressed and clean shaven. For convenience, the compound set was carved from a wooded lot adjacent to the Munich movie studio where the interior sets were being filmed.

In order to sell the movie in the United States, Americans had to play a role in the film. In real life, American flyers were involved in the early tunnel escavation, but were moved -- lot, stock, and barrel -- to an adjacent compound long before tunnels were anywhere close to the wire. History was slightly twisted and some of the roles stretched to keep some Yanks involved in the escape. As such, James Garner was an Eagle Squadron officer while James Coburn played the part of an Australian and Charles Bronson a Pole.

Steve McQueen was definitely the hook to draw an American audience -- and he knew it. By the time THE GREAT ESCAPE came along, Steve McQueen already had a reputation for being a difficult actor. Traditionally, McQueen's roles have always been that of an anti-social loner. His part is no different in THE GREAT ESCAPE both on and off screen. At one point, McQueen went AWOL from filming and threatened to abandon the production entirely. When his costars caught up with him, McQueen stated that he wanted to be the "hero" of the movie. However, in a film chock full of movie stars and story where only three flyers make it to safety, there was little room for a solitary hero.

To sooth McQueen's ruffled ego, he was offered a contrived motorcycle chase scene. The motorcycle sequence is typically McQueen as he insisted in playing both pursued and the pursuer in German uniform. McQueen even had his motorcyle buddy flown in from the States to double for him in the barbed war motorcycle jump sequence.

Okay, so some of the individual escape vignettes are more sensational than in real life. How long would anyone watch a film with escaped prisoners peeking around corners or hiding behind trees? There are enough truthful moments to sustain the story. For example, the theft and subsequent crash of the German airplane did actually happen, albeit without the assault on the German sentry.

I first saw this film on CBS as a two-part movie in the 1970s. At the time, I was not much of a POW movie fan (I was still a teenager). HOGAN'S HEROES was about all I experienced in terms of World War Two POW escapes. Immediately after watching THE GREAT ESCAPE I borrowed the Paul Brickhill's book from the library. Soon after I was reading other POW escape books such as KRIEGIE and THE WOODEN HORSE. THE GREAT ESCAPE started it all.

Over the years there have been several attempts at retelling THE GREAT ESCAPE both in book and movie form. In the 1980s a televison movie premiered titled THE GREAT ESCAPE: THE TRUE STORY. Unfortunately it was a pitiful attempt to update the 1960s original. About the only thing it had going for it was the fact that it more accurately portrayed the execution of the selected 50 officers and the postwar hunt for the war criminals responsible. Likewise there have been several books published that only serve to prove that Brickhill's researched account is better.