Watch The Great Escape For Free

Purely Joyful Movie!

Beautiful, moving film.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The great escape Six-hundred American and English officers worked together for a year to plan and execute the escape of a nazi prisoners'camp in 1944, the biggest ever attempted in militar history. This great picture tells that real history with a great cast of actors as the instigators of the escape: the main British organizer is Richard Attenborough; the expert on tinnels is Charles Bronson; the role of especialist in forging documents belongs to Donald Pleasence; the one in charge of the supplies is played by James Garner and finally, the guy who comes up with the brilliant ideas is for Steve Mcqueen. Bases on a real story, The Great Escape is a masterwork by director John Sturges (The magnificient seven), the scripwriters James Clavell and W.R. Burnett, and the composer, Elmer Bernstein, whose score adjusts like a glove to the film's ever increasing tension.So much for the summary of the movie. Let's get stuck into it, shall we?. It's one of those adventures films like Master and Comander and The Treasure Island that somehow take place inside a concentration camp in Germany. Steve Mcqueen stands out above the rest of the characters because of his almost poetic determination to get out as well as his heroe-like attitude. His stunts (I'd like to believe he did them himself) with the motorcycle towards the end of the picture blew my mind away, making me to jump off my seat and shout out loud: you're gonna make it! Eventually he doesn't. That's not the point though: the point is he managed to prove, to keep up hope when there was none!

I have to say, I understand that James Coburn is supposed to be the token Australian. This is despite the book being written by an Australian, Paul Brickhill. His Australian Accent has to be the worst in History...! That is saying a lot, because I do not know how it is difficult, for American Actors have such difficult with our accent, when it is easy for Aussies to play Americans!

Wait. comedy? This is a war movie. Yes, it is supposed to be. It is not. What was planned as a serious, deep, psychological wartime escape drama, in reality turned into a raw, unbaked, half-cooked slapstick with awful character development, with awful performances, especially those from McQueen and Bronson, need one mention terribly laughable and horribly unserious delivery. The whole thing seems like a lame amateurish school play with absolutely irregular moves and wrong lines. I never, but never believed a single thing they said or did. The whole film just smacks of a cheap second-rate low-budget effort of a mediocre dubious merit. There is no merit, as even actors betray a playful unseriousness of what they say or do. Does the movie ever seem to be tragic or decent? Nay, even the killing spree seems to be staged or simply poor. Poor - this is the word. Every little detail in this film is poor or false.

The Great Escape is one of those films that you could watch time and time again and still love even more with each viewing. Imagine a movie where you would put all the greatest movie stars of their Era in. That's exactly what they did here! The Great Escape is, in my mind, the greatest War movie of all Time. Add to the stellar cast, a score by Legendary Hollywood composer Elmer Bernstein and there you have one of the greatest War movie themes of all Time. A theme with a tune so catchy, so memorable that you might find yourself humming and whistling it as you go through your day. The Great Escape is basically the story of POW during War time in their Nazi detention camp. And what are, not just POW but the best POW, up to in their enemy detention camp? They plan their escape. An escape so ingenious that it involves digging three tunnels at the same time underneath and through their camp to the wood outside. In the main role we have Hollywood Legend, Steve McQueen as Lieutenant Virgil Hilts, a hot shot American pilot who has only one idea in his head, escaping! One of the most interesting scene for me was at the end, when Hilts, recaptured again, is about to be put back in his cell inside the cooler. There you have a German guard ready to put our hero, who incidentally is the personification of the perfect Aryan (according to Hitler), blue eyed and blond hairs, into his cell. As the guard closes the door and walks away from Hilts'cell, he hears the noise of Hilts' baseball bouncing off the walls, back and forth into Hilts' baseball glove. He pauses for an instant as if to ponder whether what he is doing to the embodiment of the perfect German specimen is wrong. He lowers his head, then walks away with his head held down as if to convey that he realizes that what he is doing is indeed wrong and that he could never break Hilts' strong spirit. I highly recommend this all time Classic for all, a masterpiece!