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VHS : The Great Escape [1963]
starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence
directed by: John Sturges
directed by: John Sturges
![: The Great Escape [1963]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EWG39SV8L.jpg)
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Audience Rating: Parental Guidance Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 5050070002584 Format: HiFi Sound, PAL Label: MGM Entertainment Manufacturer: MGM Entertainment Number Of Discs: 1 Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: MGM Entertainment Release Date: June 19, 2000 Running Time: 172 minutes Sales Rank: 2988 Studio: MGM Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: July 04, 1963 |
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.co.uk Review:
The Great Escape image of Steve McQueen (as 'The Cooler King') astride his motorcycle has entered silver-screen iconography, alongside Brando on his bike from The Wild One. Based on a true story about a group of POWs who mount a daring breakout from a supposedly inescapable Nazi prison camp, this rousing and suspenseful World War II epic features an all-star cast, including James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn and David McCallum. --Jim Emerson
Amazon.co.uk Review:
A stirring example of courage and the indomitable human spirit, for many John Sturges' The Great Escape is both the definitive World War II drama and the nonpareil prison escape movie. Featuring an unequalled ensemble cast in a rivetingly authentic true-life scenario set to Elmer Bernstein's admirable music (who writes contrapuntal march themes these days?), this picture is both a template for subsequent action-adventure movies and one of the last glories of Golden Age Hollywood. Reunited with the director who made him a star in The Magnificent Seven Steve McQueen gives a career-defining performance as the laconic Hilts, the baseball-loving, motorbike-riding 'Cooler King'. The rest of the all-male Anglo-American cast--Dickie Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, James Garner, Charles Bronson, David McCallum, James Coburn and Gordon Jackson--make the most of their meaty roles (though you have to forgive Coburn his Australian accent).
Closely based on Paul Brickhill's book, the various escape attempts, scrounging, forging and ferreting activities are authentically realised thanks also to the presence on set of technical advisor Wally Flood, one of the original tunnel-digging POWs. Sturges orchestrates the climactic mass break out with total conviction, giving us both high action and very poignant human drama. Without trivialising the grim reality, The Great Escape thrillingly celebrates the heroism of men who never gave up the fight.
On the DVD: The Great Escape special edition is indeed a special event. The anamorphic 2.35:1 picture is good if a tad grainy, and the remastered Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is a fitting vehicle for Elmer Bernstein's magnificent contribution. Accompanying the feature there's a reasonable cut-and-paste group commentary culled from interviews with various cast and crew, plus text trivia captions about the actors and the real-life camp.
The second disc features a first-rate Granada TV documentary from 2001, 'The Untold Story', which tells of both the escape itself and the subsequent post-war search for the Gestapo officers who butchered 50 of the 76 escapees. This has an appendix of further valuable interviews with survivors, and there's also an American making-of documentary, 'Heroes Underground', which is good though annoyingly divided into separate chapters and featuring non-anamorphic clips from the film. Perhaps best of all though is the 25-minute life of American POW David Jones, 'The Real Virgil Hilts', whose career both during and after the war is extraordinary and inspirational. A classic movie finally gets the DVD treatment it merits.--Mark Walker
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- This version awful on wide screen tvThe film is great - however, the DVD format, at least the one I recevied, is awful - the film appears to be in a 4:3 format. The quality of the picture is terrible, and on a widescreen tv the picture sits in a tiny box in the centre of the screen. If this DVD hadn't come from Amazon, I would suspect that it's a pirated rip off. Disappointing.
And btw - I have treid every setting available on both my tv and DVD player to get the film to at least fit the screen horizontally!
Rating:
- Good Luck Herr BartlettAn early war film before the use of special effects works by it's "acting". These were top escapists who weren't to be denied, how they actually succeeded was through ingenuity, except it came at a cost, namely death and recapture.
The Germans knew they were going to be tested but they hadn't the collective nous to thwart the impending break out/s. Very sanitary in it's portrayal as it lacks an edge apart from the final scene of McQueen trying to outwit his pursuers. Marvellous back drop and ... Read More
Rating:
- Great film great music great performances Is it possible to watch The Great escape too many times ?
I have just finished watching it for the umpteenth time and it is as good as ever.
A great cast of British and US actors with a classic and iconic performance by Steve McQueen. Even if you know nothing else about the film you will remember the motorcycle jump of the first border fence by McQueen.
It is easy to forget that it also portrays a war crime by the Germans in murdering 50 of the escapees. They show ... Read More
Rating:
- THE BEST OF ALL TIME....................................................This must be the greatest war film of all time. The cast is the best of the best and though three hours long, it flies and never bores.
There is something realistic and naive about the film and our feelings go out to these desperate men who are trying to outwit the German war machine in order to return home.
The most memorable part of the film will be the motorcycle chase. Steve McQueen excels as the dissident American who spends much of his time in the cooler because of his numerous excape ... Read More
Rating:
- This film is realistic.I have noticed that there a small amount of reviews that comment on the realism of the film, quick word in your ear. The camp in the film was guarded by the Luftwaffe (german airforce), most of the camp consisted airforce personal RAF ect ect. This is how the Luftwaffe treated the prisoners, showing some respect for the captors.
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