THE GREAT ESCAPE
US, 1963, 170 minutes, Colour,
Steve Mc Queen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance, Gordon Jackson, James Coburn, David Mc Callum, John Leyton, Nigel Stock.
Directed by John Sturges.
The Great Escape is one of the best of the war escape films made and has proved popular over ten years. It is based on the well-known book by Australian author Paul Brickhill ("The Dam Busters" and "Reach for the Sky"). One of the co-authors of the screenplay is James Clavell, novelist and writer-director of To Sir With Love and The Last Valley.
The Great Escape is well-written, most of the principal characters being interestingly drawn and contributing well to the plot. The detail of the escape is very well presented and made plausible. The escape itself is exciting, the conclusion saddening,
Steve Mc Queen is as usual, especially with his bike. Richard Attenborough and the English part of the cast are effective, especially Donald Pleasance in a more sympathetic role than usual. James Coburn is good - but not Australian! However, an interesting performance is given by Charles Bronson, showing a capacity for acting, more perhaps than in his more laconic starring roles of the 70's.
Director John Sturges made such good films as Bad Day at Black Rock, The Magnificent Seven.
1. What makes this film so popular over decades?
2. Is there any value, in making and screening such World War II films so long after the end of the War?
3. What aspects of human life did the film highlight well - courage, tenacity, comradeship, self-sacrifice, etc? How?
4. How did the film go about setting the atmosphere - especially of the camp itself and its physical set-up, of the prisoners, the Germans, the Kommandant and the S.S.?
5. How convincing was the initial conversation between the Kommandant and Ramsay concerning the duty to escape and harass the enemy? How did this set a tone for the film?
6. The screenplay spent a lot of time establishing the principal characters as persons. How successful was this? How was it done relatively quickly for so many men? In discussing this, one can find the motivation and driving force behind the escape:
- Bartlett - Biz, tortured by the German Gestapo, dedicated (was he seeking revenge?), mastermind and morale-booster;
- Ramsay - typical British officer, yet cool and supporting others, fearless;
- Mac Donald - less bright, but good support to Bartlett, efficient in training, Scots humour;
- Hilts - individualist, American (and his first interchange with the Kommandant - brash), cooler, friendly, determined, humorous, moved by Ives' death, self-sacrificing to be recaptured;
- Henley - American, scrounging techniques, especially with Wemer, his relationship with Blythe;
- Blythe - so English, tea, milk, birds, forging, his blindness;
- Danny - Polish, determined, escape attempt with Russians, the tunnel, his friendship with Willy, his claustrophobic fear;
- Willy - supportive and understanding of Danny;
- Sedgwick - laconic, Australian, co-operative;
- Ashley- Pitt - intelligent, planner;
- Cavendish - choir, length measurements;
- Ives - Scots, small, cheeky, near breaking-point,
7. How convincing were the details of the escape plan and the executing of them? Did you enjoy this? Did the film make the details plausible? How risky was all this? e.g. the gardening sequences, choir, drill, taking wood, bird-study, forging, clothes, rehearsals?
8. What did the 4th July sequence add to the theme of the film? What effect did Ives' death have?
9. How exciting was the escape itself? Did the plans take into account all the human factors and errors -e.g. Blythe's blindness and Henley's help, Danny's fear, the hole twenty feet short, the air raid, Cavendish dropping his box, the nerve-wracking waiting?
10. How important was it for each man to reach safety or merely to harass the Germans and keep soldiers and Gestapo occupied?
11. Comment on the editing of the escapes, the constant cross-cutting from one group to the other. How effective in the light of the whole film were they?
- the train trip;
- Ashley- Pitt giving his life for Bartlett and Mac Donald;
- Bartlett and Mac Donald being chased;
- Cavendish's capture;
- Hilt's ride;
- Henley and Blythe's plane ride; Blythe's death;
- Sedgwick’s bike, Resistance, Spain;
- Danny and Willy's rowing to safety.
12. Was the escape worth the trouble and the SO or more lives? (Did the Nazis have the right to execute the 50?) Ramsay said it depended on your point of view.
13. Did you feel sorry for the Kommandant as he was taken away?
14. Is this a hopeful kind of film, or sad and pessimistic?
15. Comment on the various musical themes and their use.
