The Great Escape
Encyclopedia
The Great Escape is a 1963 American film about an escape by Allied
prisoners of war
from a German POW camp
during World War II
, starring Steve McQueen
, James Garner
, and Richard Attenborough
. The film is based on the book of the same name
by Paul Brickhill
, a non-fiction account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III
in Sagan (now Żagań
, Poland
), in the province of Lower Silesia
, Nazi Germany
. The characters are composites of real men. The film was made by the Mirisch Company
, released by United Artists
, and produced and directed by John Sturges
.
prisoners of war (POWs), the Germans move the most determined to a new, high-security prisoner of war camp. The commandant
, Luftwaffe Colonel
von Luger, tells the senior British officer, Group Capt Ramsey, "There will be no escapes from this camp." Ramsey replies that it is their duty to try to escape. After several failed escape attempts on the first day, the POWs settle into the prison camp.
Gestapo
and SS agents bring Squadron Leader
Roger Bartlett (RAF) to the camp and deliver him to von Luger. Known as "Big X," Bartlett is the principal organizer of escapes and Gestapo agent Kuhn orders that he be kept under the most restrictive permanent security confinement, which Col. von Luger, disgusted by the Nazis and the SS, only makes a "note" of, treating the command with complete contempt. As Kuhn leaves, he warns Bartlett that if he escapes again, he will be shot. Bartlett is then placed with the rest of the POWs, rather than the restrictive holding that Gestapo agent Kuhn had demanded.
Locked up with "every escape artist in Germany", Bartlett immediately plans the greatest escape attempted—tunnels for breaking out 250 prisoners. The intent is to "confuse, confound and harass the enemy" to the point that as many troops and resources as possible will be wasted on finding POWs instead of being used on the front line.
Teams are organized to tunnel, make civilian clothing, forge documents, procure contraband materials, and prevent guards from discovering their work. Flight Lieutenant
Hendley, an American in the RAF, is "the scrounger" who finds what the others need, from a camera to clothes and identity cards. Australian Flying Officer
Louis Sedgwick, "the manufacturer," makes tools such as picks for digging and bellows for pumping air into the tunnels. Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski and William "Willie" Dickes are "the tunnel kings" in charge of making the tunnels. Eric Ashley-Pitt of the Royal Navy
devises a method of hiding bags in the prisoners' trousers and spreading dirt from the tunnels over the camp, under the guards' noses. Forgery is handled by Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe, who becomes nearly blind
from intricate work by candlelight. Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's guide in the escape.
The prisoners work on three tunnels simultaneously, "Tom," "Dick" and "Harry." Work on Harry and Dick is stopped so that more work can be performed on Tom. The work noise is covered by the prisoner choir led by Flt Lt Cavendish.
USAAF
Captain Virgil Hilts, "The Cooler King," irritates guards with frequent escape attempts and irreverent behavior. His first attempt, conceived in the cooler
, is a short tunnel with RAF
Flying Officer
Archibald Ives; they are caught and returned to the cooler.
While the British POWs enjoy a 4th of July celebration organized by the three Americans, the guards discover tunnel Tom. The mood drops to disappointment and hits Ives hardest. He is drawn to the barbed wire that surrounds the camp and climbs it in view of guards. Hilts runs to stop him but is too late, and Ives is machine-gunned dead near the top of the fence. The prisoners switch their efforts to Harry.
Hilts agrees to change his plan and reconnoiter outside the camp and allow himself to be recaptured. The information he brings back is used to create maps showing the nearest town and railway station.
The last part of the tunnel is completed on the night of the escape, but is 20 feet short of woods which are to provide cover. Danny nearly snaps from claustrophobia
and delays those behind him, but is helped by Willie. Seventy-six escape.
After attempts to reach neutral
Switzerland
, Sweden
, and Spain
, almost all the POWs are recaptured or killed. Hendley and Blythe steal an airplane to fly over the Swiss border, but the engine fails and they crash-land. Soldiers arrive. Blythe, his eyesight damaged, stands and is shot. Hendley waves and shouts "don't shoot", and is captured as Blythe dies. Cavendish, having hitched a ride in a truck, is captured at a checkpoint, discovering another POW, Haynes, captured in his German soldier disguise.
Bartlett is recognized in a crowded railroad station by Gestapo agent Kuhn. Another escapee, Ashley-Pitt, sacrifices himself when he kills Kuhn with Kuhn's own gun, and soldiers then shoot and kill him. In the commotion, Bartlett and MacDonald slip away but they are caught while boarding a bus after MacDonald blunders by replying in English to a suspicious Gestapo agent who wishes them "Good luck". Hilts steals a motorcycle, is pursued by German soldiers, jumps a barbed wire fence but becomes entangled in another and is captured, he escapes execution as a spy by showing them the captain's bars on the inside of his shirt.
Three truckloads of captured POWs go down a country road and split off in three directions. One truck, containing Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish, Haynes and others, stops in a field and the POWs are told to get out and "stretch their legs." They are shot dead. Fifty escapees are murdered. Hendley and nine others are returned to the camp. Von Luger is relieved of command of the prison camp and is driven away by the SS for failing to prevent the breakout.
Only three make it to safety. Danny and Willie steal a rowboat and proceed downriver to the Baltic
coast, where they board a Swedish merchant ship. Sedgwick steals a bicycle, then rides hidden in a freight train boxcar
to France, where he is guided by the Resistance
to Spain. Hilts is brought back alone to the camp and taken to the cooler. Lieutenant Goff, one of the Americans, gets Hilts's baseball and glove and throws it to him when Hilts and his guards pass by. The guard locks him in his cell and walks away, but momentarily pauses when he hears the familiar sound of Hilts bouncing his baseball against a cell wall. The film ends with this scene, under the caption, "This picture is dedicated to the fifty."
, W. R. Burnett, and Walter Newman
from Paul Brickhill
's book The Great Escape
. Brickhill had been a prisoner at Stalag Luft III
during World War II.
The film was, to a large extent, a work of fiction, only loosely-based on the real event, serving as a vehicle for its box-office stars. Many of its characters were fictitious, or amalgams of several real characters. There were no escapes by motorcycle, or aircraft. The screenwriters increased the importance of the roles of American POWs; none of the escapees were American and their role was minor and the escape was a largely British affair. While Americans in the POW camp helped build the tunnels and worked on the early escape plans, they were separated from the Europeans before the tunnels could be completed. Hilts's dash for the border by motorcycle was added at McQueen's request, who did the stunt riding himself except for the final jump.
Ex-POWs asked filmmakers to exclude details about the help they received from their home countries, such as maps, papers, and tools hidden in gift packages, lest it jeopardize future POW escapes. The filmmakers complied.
's Virgil Hilts, "remains one of the film's most enduring characters, his cooler king having become an icon of cool who continues to inform popular culture." Critic Leonard Maltin
wrote that "the large, international cast is superb, but the standout is McQueen; it's easy to see why this cemented his status as a superstar."
Richard Attenborough
was cast as Sqn Ldr Roger Bartlett RAF ("Big X"), a character based on Roger Bushell
, the South Africa-born British POW who was the mastermind of the real Great Escape.
Flt Lt Colin Blythe RAF ("The Forger") was based on Tim Walenn and played by Donald Pleasence
. Pleasence himself had served in the Royal Air Force
during World War II. He was shot down and spent a year in German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft 1
.
James Garner
had been a soldier in the Korean War
and was twice wounded. He was a scrounger during that time, as is his character Flt Lt Hendley.
Hannes Messemer
was cast as the Kommandant
of Stalag Luft III
, "Colonel von Luger," a character based on Oberst Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau
.
Angus Lennie
's Flying Officer Archibald Ives, "The Mole", was based on Jimmy Kiddel, who was shot dead while trying to scale the fence.
The three successful escapees in the film is an accurate reflection of the number of successful prisoners from those involved in the escape. However, none of the real escapers were native English speakers. The escape of Danny and Willie in the film was a reflection of the success of two Norwegians who escaped by boat to neutral Sweden. The Norwegians were Per Bergsland
and Jens Müller. The successful escape of Coburn's Australian character via Spain was a reflection of the success of Dutchman Bram van der Stok
.
where sets for the barrack interiors and tunnels were constructed. The camp was constructed in a clearing in the forest near the studio. The German town near the prison camp, called Neustadt in the film, was really Sagan (now Żagań
), Poland. Many scenes were filmed in and around the town of Füssen
in Bavaria, including its railway station. The nearby district of Pfronten
with its distinctive St.Nikolaus Church and scenic background also features often in the film.
The film depicts the tunnel codenamed Tom as having its entrance under a stove and Harry's as in a drain sump in a washroom. In reality, Dick's entrance was the drain sump, Harry's was under the stove, and Tom's was in a darkened corner next to a stove chimney.
The motorcycle chase scenes culminating in the jumping of the barbed wire were shot on meadows outside Füssen, and the "barbed wire" that Hilts crashed into before being recaptured was actually strips of rubber tied around barbless wire, constructed by the cast and crew in their spare time.
Critical and public response was mostly enthusiastic. In 1963 New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
wrote: "But for much longer than is artful or essential, The Great Escape grinds out its tormenting story without a peek beneath the surface of any man, without a real sense of human involvement. It's a strictly mechanical adventure with make-believe men." British
film critic Leslie Halliwell
described it as "pretty good but overlong POW adventure with a tragic ending". In Time
magazine 1963: "The use of color photography is unnecessary and jarring, but little else is wrong with this film. With accurate casting, a swift screenplay, and authentic German settings, Producer-Director John Sturges has created classic cinema of action. There is no sermonizing, no soul probing, no sex. The Great Escape is simply great escapism".
The film has been regularly shown on British television, especially during periods such as Christmas
. In a 2006 poll in the United Kingdom
, regarding the family film that television viewers would most want to see on Christmas Day, The Great Escape came in third, and was first among the choices of male viewers.
In 2009 seven POWs returned to Stalag Luft III for the 65th anniversary of the escape and watched the film. According to the veterans, the first half depicting life in the camp is authentic; for example, the machine-gunning of a man who snaps and tries to scale the fence, and the way the tunnels were dug. However, one veteran criticized McQueen for glamorizing the situation.
's theme, have appeared in other films, television series, and video games.
, Reservoir Dogs
, The Parent Trap
, Top Secret!
, Charlie's Angels
and all contained references or homages to the film.
, The Simpsons
, Hogan's Heroes
, Nash Bridges
, Seinfeld
, Get Smart
, Red Dwarf
, and Ripping Yarns
have all parodied or paid homage to the film.
A fictional, made-for-television sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story
, appeared years later. It starred Christopher Reeve
and Judd Hirsch
, with Donald Pleasence as an SS villain.
available for various home computer
platforms
, and the 2003 SCi Games (Eidos) release
for PlayStation 2
, Xbox
, and Windows
.
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
from a German POW camp
Stalag
In Germany, stalag was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager.- Legal definitions :...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, starring Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
, James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
, and Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
. The film is based on the book of the same name
The Great Escape (book)
The Great Escape is an insider's account by Paul Brickhill of the 1944 mass escape from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III for British and Commonwealth airmen. As a prisoner in the camp, he participated in the escape plan but was debarred from the actual escape 'along with three or...
by Paul Brickhill
Paul Brickhill
Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill was an Australian writer, whose World War II books were turned into popular movies.-Biography:...
, a non-fiction account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force servicemen. It was in the German Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan , southeast of Berlin...
in Sagan (now Żagań
Zagan
Zagan may refer to:*Zagan - a demon in the Ars Goetia*Żagań - a town in west Poland...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
), in the province of Lower Silesia
Province of Lower Silesia
The Province of Lower Silesia was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. Between 1938 and 1941 it was reunited with Upper Silesia as the Silesia Province. The capital of Lower Silesia was Breslau...
, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. The characters are composites of real men. The film was made by the Mirisch Company
Mirisch Company
The Mirisch Company was a film production company owned by Walter Mirisch and his brothers, Marvin and Harold Mirisch. The company was also known at various times as Mirisch Production Company, Mirisch Pictures, Inc., and The Mirisch Corporation.Walter Mirisch began producing at Monogram Pictures...
, released by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
, and produced and directed by John Sturges
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , The Magnificent Seven , The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra .-Career:He started his career in Hollywood as an editor in 1932...
.
Plot
Having wasted enormous resources on recapturing AlliedAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
prisoners of war (POWs), the Germans move the most determined to a new, high-security prisoner of war camp. The commandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...
, Luftwaffe Colonel
Oberst
Oberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. The Swedish rank överste is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank eversti...
von Luger, tells the senior British officer, Group Capt Ramsey, "There will be no escapes from this camp." Ramsey replies that it is their duty to try to escape. After several failed escape attempts on the first day, the POWs settle into the prison camp.
Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and SS agents bring Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
Roger Bartlett (RAF) to the camp and deliver him to von Luger. Known as "Big X," Bartlett is the principal organizer of escapes and Gestapo agent Kuhn orders that he be kept under the most restrictive permanent security confinement, which Col. von Luger, disgusted by the Nazis and the SS, only makes a "note" of, treating the command with complete contempt. As Kuhn leaves, he warns Bartlett that if he escapes again, he will be shot. Bartlett is then placed with the rest of the POWs, rather than the restrictive holding that Gestapo agent Kuhn had demanded.
Locked up with "every escape artist in Germany", Bartlett immediately plans the greatest escape attempted—tunnels for breaking out 250 prisoners. The intent is to "confuse, confound and harass the enemy" to the point that as many troops and resources as possible will be wasted on finding POWs instead of being used on the front line.
Teams are organized to tunnel, make civilian clothing, forge documents, procure contraband materials, and prevent guards from discovering their work. Flight Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
Hendley, an American in the RAF, is "the scrounger" who finds what the others need, from a camera to clothes and identity cards. Australian Flying Officer
Flying Officer
Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...
Louis Sedgwick, "the manufacturer," makes tools such as picks for digging and bellows for pumping air into the tunnels. Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski and William "Willie" Dickes are "the tunnel kings" in charge of making the tunnels. Eric Ashley-Pitt of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
devises a method of hiding bags in the prisoners' trousers and spreading dirt from the tunnels over the camp, under the guards' noses. Forgery is handled by Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe, who becomes nearly blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
from intricate work by candlelight. Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's guide in the escape.
The prisoners work on three tunnels simultaneously, "Tom," "Dick" and "Harry." Work on Harry and Dick is stopped so that more work can be performed on Tom. The work noise is covered by the prisoner choir led by Flt Lt Cavendish.
USAAF
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
Captain Virgil Hilts, "The Cooler King," irritates guards with frequent escape attempts and irreverent behavior. His first attempt, conceived in the cooler
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
, is a short tunnel with RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Flying Officer
Flying Officer
Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...
Archibald Ives; they are caught and returned to the cooler.
While the British POWs enjoy a 4th of July celebration organized by the three Americans, the guards discover tunnel Tom. The mood drops to disappointment and hits Ives hardest. He is drawn to the barbed wire that surrounds the camp and climbs it in view of guards. Hilts runs to stop him but is too late, and Ives is machine-gunned dead near the top of the fence. The prisoners switch their efforts to Harry.
Hilts agrees to change his plan and reconnoiter outside the camp and allow himself to be recaptured. The information he brings back is used to create maps showing the nearest town and railway station.
Claustrophobia
Claustrophobia is the fear of having no escape and being closed in small spaces or rooms...
and delays those behind him, but is helped by Willie. Seventy-six escape.
After attempts to reach neutral
Neutral country
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, almost all the POWs are recaptured or killed. Hendley and Blythe steal an airplane to fly over the Swiss border, but the engine fails and they crash-land. Soldiers arrive. Blythe, his eyesight damaged, stands and is shot. Hendley waves and shouts "don't shoot", and is captured as Blythe dies. Cavendish, having hitched a ride in a truck, is captured at a checkpoint, discovering another POW, Haynes, captured in his German soldier disguise.
Bartlett is recognized in a crowded railroad station by Gestapo agent Kuhn. Another escapee, Ashley-Pitt, sacrifices himself when he kills Kuhn with Kuhn's own gun, and soldiers then shoot and kill him. In the commotion, Bartlett and MacDonald slip away but they are caught while boarding a bus after MacDonald blunders by replying in English to a suspicious Gestapo agent who wishes them "Good luck". Hilts steals a motorcycle, is pursued by German soldiers, jumps a barbed wire fence but becomes entangled in another and is captured, he escapes execution as a spy by showing them the captain's bars on the inside of his shirt.
Three truckloads of captured POWs go down a country road and split off in three directions. One truck, containing Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish, Haynes and others, stops in a field and the POWs are told to get out and "stretch their legs." They are shot dead. Fifty escapees are murdered. Hendley and nine others are returned to the camp. Von Luger is relieved of command of the prison camp and is driven away by the SS for failing to prevent the breakout.
Only three make it to safety. Danny and Willie steal a rowboat and proceed downriver to the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
coast, where they board a Swedish merchant ship. Sedgwick steals a bicycle, then rides hidden in a freight train boxcar
Boxcar
A boxcar is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry general freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads...
to France, where he is guided by the Resistance
Resistance during World War II
Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...
to Spain. Hilts is brought back alone to the camp and taken to the cooler. Lieutenant Goff, one of the Americans, gets Hilts's baseball and glove and throws it to him when Hilts and his guards pass by. The guard locks him in his cell and walks away, but momentarily pauses when he hears the familiar sound of Hilts bouncing his baseball against a cell wall. The film ends with this scene, under the caption, "This picture is dedicated to the fifty."
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Steve McQueen Steve McQueen Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination... |
Captain Virgil Hilts USAAF, "The Cooler King" |
| James Garner James Garner James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades... |
Flight Lieutenant Bob Hendley DFC RAF, "The Scrounger" |
| Richard Attenborough Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi... |
Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett DFC RAF, "Big X" |
| James Donald James Donald James Donald was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he usually specialised in playing authority figures.Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast... |
Group Captain Ramsey DSO MC RAF, "The SBO [Senior British Officer]" |
| Charles Bronson Charles Bronson Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series... |
Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski DSC DFC RAF, "The Tunnel King" |
| Donald Pleasence Donald Pleasence Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades... |
Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe RAF, "The Forger" |
| James Coburn James Coburn James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,... |
Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick RAAF, "The Manufacturer" |
| Hannes Messemer Hannes Messemer Hannes Messemer was a German actor best known for his role as the commandant in The Great Escape . The movie had a star-studded cast, but it was the relatively unknown Messemer who uttered the film's most famous line Hannes Messemer (May 19, 1924 – November 2, 1991) was a German actor best... |
Oberst von Luger, "The Kommandant" |
| David McCallum David McCallum David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a Scottish actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., as interdimensional operative Steel in Sapphire & Steel, and Dr... |
Lieutenant-Commander Eric Ashley-Pitt DSC RN, "Dispersal" |
| Gordon Jackson Gordon Jackson (actor) Gordon Cameron Jackson, OBE was a Scottish Emmy Award-winning actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals.... |
Flight Lieutenant Andy 'Mac' MacDonald RAF, "Intelligence" |
| John Leyton John Leyton John Leyton is an English actor and singer. As a singer he is best known for his hit song, "Johnny Remember Me" , which reached Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in August 1961.-Career:Leyton went to Highgate School and after completing his national service, he... |
Flight Lieutenant William 'Willie' Dickes RAF, "The Tunnel King" |
| Angus Lennie Angus Lennie Angus Lennie is a Scottish actor best known for his film appearance as Steve McQueen's friend Archibald Ives in the 1963 film The Great Escape. He was also known for being in the television soap opera Crossroads.... |
Flying Officer Archibald 'Archie' Ives RAF, "The Mole" |
| Nigel Stock | Flight Lieutenant Denis Cavendish RAF, "The Surveyor" |
| Robert Graf | Werner, "The Ferret" |
| Jud Taylor Jud Taylor Judson Taylor was an American actor, television director and television producer. He sometimes used the pseudonym Alan Smithee.... |
First Lieutenant Goff USAAF |
| Hans Reisser | Kuhn, Gestapo |
| Harry Riebauer Harry Riebauer Harry Riebauer was a German film and television actor.Riebauer was born in Reichenberg in a Sudetengerman family.... |
Hauptfeldwebel Strachwitz, "The Security Sergeant" |
| William Russell William Russell (actor) William Russell is an English actor, mainly known for his television work. He was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.-Doctor Who:... |
Flight Lieutenant Sorren RAF, "Security" |
| Robert Freitag Robert Freitag Robert Freitag was an Austrian-Swiss stage and screen actor and film director.- Life :... |
Hauptmann Posen, "The Adjutant" |
| Ulrich Beiger Ulrich Beiger -Selected filmography:* El Hakim * Der rote Kreis * The Great Escape... |
Preissen, Gestapo |
| George Mikell George Mikell George Mikell is an actor and writer most well known for his performances in The Guns of Navarone and The Great Escape... |
SS-Obersturmführer Dietrich |
| Lawrence Montaigne Lawrence Montaigne Lawrence Montaigne is an American actor, writer, dancer, and occasional stuntman. As an actor, he is best known for his appearances on many 1960s-era television shows.... |
Flying Officer Haynes RCAF, "Diversions" |
| Robert Desmond Robert Desmond Robert Desmond was a British film and television actor of the 1950s and 1960s.He started out as a juvenile performer, making his film debut in 1948's The Guinea Pig and recreated his television role of Spud Parker the following year in the film version of Boys in Brown... |
Flying Officer 'Griff' Griffith RAF, "The Tailor" |
| Til Kiwe | Frick, "The Ferret" |
| Heinz Weiss Heinz Weiss Heinz Weiss was a German film actor.Weiss is best known for playing the role of Phil Decker in the Jerry Cotton series of films and the role of Captain Heinz Hansen in Das Traumschiff.... |
Kramer, "The Ferret" |
| Tom Adams Tom Adams (actor) Tom Adams is an English actor with roles in horror and mystery films, and several TV shows.He starred as Charles Vine in Licensed to Kill and the sequels Where the Bullets Fly and Somebody's Stolen Our Russian Spy .His television credits include General... |
Flight Lieutenant 'Dai' Nimmo RAF, "Diversions" |
| Karl-Otto Alberty Karl-Otto Alberty Karl-Otto Alberty is a German actor.He started out as an amateur boxer before discovering a talent for acting, making his début at the City Theatre in Konstanz in 1959. He then began to take supporting roles in films... |
SS-Obersturmführer Steinach |
Adaptation
The story was adapted by James ClavellJames Clavell
James Clavell, born Charles Edmund DuMaresq Clavell was an Australian-born, British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war...
, W. R. Burnett, and Walter Newman
Walter Newman (screenwriter)
Walter Newman was an American radio writer and screenwriter active from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. He was nominated three times for Academy Awards , but he may be best known for a work that never made it to the screen: his unproduced original script Harrow Alley.Newman's radio...
from Paul Brickhill
Paul Brickhill
Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill was an Australian writer, whose World War II books were turned into popular movies.-Biography:...
's book The Great Escape
The Great Escape (book)
The Great Escape is an insider's account by Paul Brickhill of the 1944 mass escape from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III for British and Commonwealth airmen. As a prisoner in the camp, he participated in the escape plan but was debarred from the actual escape 'along with three or...
. Brickhill had been a prisoner at Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force servicemen. It was in the German Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan , southeast of Berlin...
during World War II.
The film was, to a large extent, a work of fiction, only loosely-based on the real event, serving as a vehicle for its box-office stars. Many of its characters were fictitious, or amalgams of several real characters. There were no escapes by motorcycle, or aircraft. The screenwriters increased the importance of the roles of American POWs; none of the escapees were American and their role was minor and the escape was a largely British affair. While Americans in the POW camp helped build the tunnels and worked on the early escape plans, they were separated from the Europeans before the tunnels could be completed. Hilts's dash for the border by motorcycle was added at McQueen's request, who did the stunt riding himself except for the final jump.
Ex-POWs asked filmmakers to exclude details about the help they received from their home countries, such as maps, papers, and tools hidden in gift packages, lest it jeopardize future POW escapes. The filmmakers complied.
Casting
Steve McQueenSteve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
's Virgil Hilts, "remains one of the film's most enduring characters, his cooler king having become an icon of cool who continues to inform popular culture." Critic Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
wrote that "the large, international cast is superb, but the standout is McQueen; it's easy to see why this cemented his status as a superstar."
Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
was cast as Sqn Ldr Roger Bartlett RAF ("Big X"), a character based on Roger Bushell
Roger Bushell
Squadron Leader Roger Joyce Bushell RAF was a South African-born British Auxiliary Air Force pilot who organised and led the famous escape from the Nazi prisoner of war camp, Stalag Luft III. He was a victim of the Stalag Luft III murders. The escape was used as the basis for the film The Great...
, the South Africa-born British POW who was the mastermind of the real Great Escape.
Flt Lt Colin Blythe RAF ("The Forger") was based on Tim Walenn and played by Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
. Pleasence himself had served in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
during World War II. He was shot down and spent a year in German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft 1
Stalag
In Germany, stalag was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager.- Legal definitions :...
.
James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
had been a soldier in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and was twice wounded. He was a scrounger during that time, as is his character Flt Lt Hendley.
Hannes Messemer
Hannes Messemer
Hannes Messemer was a German actor best known for his role as the commandant in The Great Escape . The movie had a star-studded cast, but it was the relatively unknown Messemer who uttered the film's most famous line Hannes Messemer (May 19, 1924 – November 2, 1991) was a German actor best...
was cast as the Kommandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...
of Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force servicemen. It was in the German Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan , southeast of Berlin...
, "Colonel von Luger," a character based on Oberst Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau
Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau
Oberst Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav von Lindeiner-Wildau was a German Staff Officer during World War I best known today as the Kommandant of Stalag Luft III during World War II, the setting for the movie The Great Escape....
.
Angus Lennie
Angus Lennie
Angus Lennie is a Scottish actor best known for his film appearance as Steve McQueen's friend Archibald Ives in the 1963 film The Great Escape. He was also known for being in the television soap opera Crossroads....
's Flying Officer Archibald Ives, "The Mole", was based on Jimmy Kiddel, who was shot dead while trying to scale the fence.
The three successful escapees in the film is an accurate reflection of the number of successful prisoners from those involved in the escape. However, none of the real escapers were native English speakers. The escape of Danny and Willie in the film was a reflection of the success of two Norwegians who escaped by boat to neutral Sweden. The Norwegians were Per Bergsland
Per Bergsland
Sgt Per Bergsland was a Norwegian POW in the German POW camp Stalag Luft III and one of only three men to escape to freedom in the "Great Escape".-Sports career:...
and Jens Müller. The successful escape of Coburn's Australian character via Spain was a reflection of the success of Dutchman Bram van der Stok
Bram van der Stok
Bram van der Stok, MBE , also referred to as Bob van der Stok, was the most decorated aviator in Dutch history, as well as one of the three men to escape to freedom in "the Great Escape" from German POW camp Stalag Luft III....
.
Location and set design
The film was made at the Bavaria Film Studio in the Munich suburb of Geiselgasteig in rural BavariaBavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
where sets for the barrack interiors and tunnels were constructed. The camp was constructed in a clearing in the forest near the studio. The German town near the prison camp, called Neustadt in the film, was really Sagan (now Żagań
Zagan
Zagan may refer to:*Zagan - a demon in the Ars Goetia*Żagań - a town in west Poland...
), Poland. Many scenes were filmed in and around the town of Füssen
Füssen
Füssen is a town in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Ostallgäu situated from the Austrian border. It is located on the banks of the Lech river. The River Lech flows into the Forggensee...
in Bavaria, including its railway station. The nearby district of Pfronten
Pfronten
Pfronten is a municipality in the district of Ostallgäu in Bavaria in Germany.-External links: German Wikipedia article...
with its distinctive St.Nikolaus Church and scenic background also features often in the film.
The film depicts the tunnel codenamed Tom as having its entrance under a stove and Harry's as in a drain sump in a washroom. In reality, Dick's entrance was the drain sump, Harry's was under the stove, and Tom's was in a darkened corner next to a stove chimney.
The motorcycle chase scenes culminating in the jumping of the barbed wire were shot on meadows outside Füssen, and the "barbed wire" that Hilts crashed into before being recaptured was actually strips of rubber tied around barbless wire, constructed by the cast and crew in their spare time.
Reception
The Great Escape was a major box office success on release and made a star out of Steve McQueen. It became one of the highest grossing films of 1963 despite heavy competition and in the years since its release its audience has only broadened, cementing its status as a cinema classic.Critical and public response was mostly enthusiastic. In 1963 New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
wrote: "But for much longer than is artful or essential, The Great Escape grinds out its tormenting story without a peek beneath the surface of any man, without a real sense of human involvement. It's a strictly mechanical adventure with make-believe men." British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film critic Leslie Halliwell
Leslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell was a British film encyclopaedist and television impresario who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work...
described it as "pretty good but overlong POW adventure with a tragic ending". In Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine 1963: "The use of color photography is unnecessary and jarring, but little else is wrong with this film. With accurate casting, a swift screenplay, and authentic German settings, Producer-Director John Sturges has created classic cinema of action. There is no sermonizing, no soul probing, no sex. The Great Escape is simply great escapism".
The film has been regularly shown on British television, especially during periods such as Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
. In a 2006 poll in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, regarding the family film that television viewers would most want to see on Christmas Day, The Great Escape came in third, and was first among the choices of male viewers.
In 2009 seven POWs returned to Stalag Luft III for the 65th anniversary of the escape and watched the film. According to the veterans, the first half depicting life in the camp is authentic; for example, the machine-gunning of a man who snaps and tries to scale the fence, and the way the tunnels were dug. However, one veteran criticized McQueen for glamorizing the situation.
Popular culture references
References to scenes and motifs from the film, as well as Elmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
's theme, have appeared in other films, television series, and video games.
Film
The films Chicken RunChicken Run
Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films...
, Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and...
, The Parent Trap
The Parent Trap (1998 film)
The Parent Trap is a remake of the 1961 family film of the same name. It was directed and co-written by Nancy Meyers, and produced and co-written by Charles Shyer. It stars Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson as a couple who divorce soon after marrying, and Lindsay Lohan in a dual role as their...
, Top Secret!
Top Secret!
Top Secret! is a 1984 comedy film directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. It stars Val Kilmer , Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of the GDR era and Elvis films...
, Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels (film)
Charlie's Angels is a 2000 American action comedy film directed by McG, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu as three women working for a private investigation agency...
and all contained references or homages to the film.
Television
Monty Python's Flying CircusMonty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
, The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...
, Nash Bridges
Nash Bridges
Nash Bridges is an American television police drama created by Carlton Cuse. The show starred Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit. The show ran for six seasons on CBS from March 29, 1996 to May 4, 2001 with a total of...
, Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
, Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
, and Ripping Yarns
Ripping Yarns
Ripping Yarns is a British television comedy series, shown on BBC 2 from 1976 to 1979. It was written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame...
have all parodied or paid homage to the film.
A fictional, made-for-television sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story
The Great Escape II: The Untold Story
The Great Escape II: The Untold Story was a highly-fictionalized, 178 minute, made-for-TV sequel to the 1963 movie The Great Escape....
, appeared years later. It starred Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
and Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...
, with Donald Pleasence as an SS villain.
Video games
Several video games were based on the film, including the 1986 Ocean Software gameThe Great Escape (video game)
The Great Escape is a video game which shares a title and similar plot to the movie The Great Escape. It was programmed by Denton Designs, who went on to produce the similarly acclaimed Where Time Stood Still...
available for various home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
platforms
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
, and the 2003 SCi Games (Eidos) release
The Great Escape (2003 video game)
The Great Escape is a game based on the 1963 movie The Great Escape. It was developed by UK-based developer Pivotal Games and published in 2003 by SCi Games, which had purchased the rights for the game from MGM. The game was released on PlayStation 2, PC and Xbox...
for PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
.
External links
- The 1963 Film of "The Great Escape" at History in Film
- James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show (See 30:23–34:47 of video.)
- Photos of the filming (See last photos of webpage.)
- The Great Escape locations