The Great Escape, 1963
Dir. John Sturges"We have in effect put all our rotten eggs in one basket. And we intend to watch this basket carefully."
The Great Escape is a cult classic that I'm sure everyone has at least heard of by now. It's the story of a band of officers, all different cultures and nationalities, joining together to escape from a WWII, Nazi POW camp. It's a simple story, told really simply.
Everyone around me, and in the film community, seems to love this film unconditionally, but I must say that I was disappointed and mislead into the greatness of this film. Firstly, the story is about as basic as they get, which is all fine and dandy, because usually a basic story allows you to fully realize and develop your characters...this is sometimes the case in The Great Escape. Steve McQueen's character, in particular, is such a great lead, and has a chemistry with everyone on the screen. When people remember this movie, there's reason that McQueen is usually at the top of the list of why. His final stunt sequence, a motorcycle chase through the hills of Germany is enthralling and holds up really well. But what really makes his performance memorable are the small character touches granted to him throughout, such as the glove and baseball and his rowdy celebration of Independence Day.
I'd be remiss if I left out James Garner in the review, who also plays a fascinating character, another American, who has all the charisma that McQueen has...albeit in a slightly different way. He plays a pickpocket, or a scavenger, who steals the show, along with McQueen, whenever he's featured. His interaction with Verner, one of the guards, is great and offers some much needed comedy.
The rest of the film, however, is extremely average. Maybe it's because I'm just now watching it, a near fifty years after release, or it's due to legitimate concerns, but it's definitely one of the more overhyped films I've seen. It's not a bad film, just one that manages to hit all the notes adequately, without really ever excelling anywhere but in the two leads I've mentioned. For starters, any of the other characters in the film are extremely flat and one note. This film liberally uses movie cliches, such as a man who digs tunnels, suddenly announcing his fear of enclosed spaces. Never mentioned this in the 17 previous tunnels he dug, but now, for dramatic effect and "tense" scene it pops up. Which leads me to another argument is that the only time I was really tense or felt worried for the characters was in the last stretch of the film, where we follow the actually escape. Any of that tension or fear is largely absent in the camp scenes, because the camp in all honesty doesn't seem that bad. Sure it's drab, and monotonously brown (much like the color palette of the film, zinger!) but The Great Escape portrays Nazis as friendly and nicer than jail guards are portrayed nowadays.
So add in some really cliched character bits, a lack of tension, and not to mention an extremely bloated running time (this film could have easily been trimmed, especially in the camp scenes), and you have several enough flaws to argue against this film's classic status. But for all the flaws I really did enjoy the last hour or so, and loved James Garner and Steve McQueen. God knows how this film would've turned out if they weren't a part of the cast. It's a good film, but doesn't deserve a lot of the praise it gets, I much prefer other classic escape films (Escape From Alcatraz) or even other films from that time and genre (The Dirty Dozen). Fro those who haven't seen it, I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't discourage you from watching it. My opinion is about as down the middle as one could be, but because of the two aforementioned performances, I'm leaning slightly more favorably.
3 out of 5
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