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!

Based on veracious events, the movie has all elements of being a masterpiece. This could not be called to be a tedious artwork despite a gargantuan running time of almost 3 hours. Instead, the movie captures the imagination of the viewers, perhaps due to the ingenuity being shown by the director in the making of it.

THE GREAT ESCAPE is director John Sturges's follow up to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and if anything it's even more epic than his classic western. Once again we have an all-star cast taking place in an action and suspense-filled story, this time about a jailbreak from a prisoner of war camp in Germany. Despite an incredible running time, this film is enjoyable for every second of screen time; it has humour and heart in spades, and of the huge cast, nobody puts a foot wrong. I think Steve McQueen steals all of his scenes here in a show-stopping role, but others like Richard Attenborough and James Garner are more quietly determined while Donald Pleasence and Charles Bronson are the most sympathetic you'll ever see them. A classic and worthwhile tale is told with the budget to tell it properly and the production values are quite brilliant throughout. It's an unashamed fist-thumping classic and a film I never tire of watching; I love it to bits and can't say a bad thing about it.