The Great Escape

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The Great Escape (1963; director: John Sturges) is a famous World War II film, based on a true story about Allied POWs with a record for escaping from POW camps. The Nazis and Gestapo place them in a new more secure German camp, from which they promptly form a plan to break out as many as 250 men.

The story was inspired by an actual escape from prison camp Stalag Luft III in 1944. While the film condenses various aspects of time and place, a disclaimer claims it to be true to the original as much as possible. This includes all the real-life details of the plans, tunnels, successes and tragic outcome of the "great escape." Paul Brickhill, an inmate of the original camp, wrote an account of the escape under the same name, upon which the film was based. However, despite the presence of the film's high-profile American stars, no Americans were involved in the actual escape.

Featuring an all-star cast—including Steve McQueen (whose motorcycle chase is the film's most remembered action scene), Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, James Garner, Charles Bronson, and Donald Pleasence—The Great Escape is regarded as a classic, and is traditionally shown in Britain during the Christmas season. The march tune that serves as the film's main theme, written by Elmer Bernstein, has also become an easily recognisable classic.

The few Americans involved in the true story of the Great Escape were members of either the British or Canadian military (mostly the RAF or RCAF, but John Dodge was in the British army). The POWs were mainly British and Canadian.

Contents

1 Sequels and remakes 2 The Great Escape in popular culture 3 Trivia 4 Books about The Great Escape 5 External links

Sequels and remakes

A highly fictionalized, made-for-television sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, appeared many years later. It starred Christopher Reeve as John Dodge and, interestingly, Pleasence as an SS villain.

In 2003 it was announced that actor Jean-Claude van Damme wanted to do a remake.

2003 also saw the release of a video game based on the film for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles.

The Great Escape in popular culture

• In The Simpsons episode "A Streetcar Named Marge" (1992), Maggie plots a "Great Escape" from the Ayn Rand School for Tots.
• In Red Dwarf episode "Queeg", Lister and The Cat begin whistling the tune as a plan is set in motion to oppose the demanding backup computer, Queeg.
• In the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, a prisoner is seen dispersing debris from a tunnel operation in the exercise yard in the same manner as the inmates of Stalag Luft III.
• The animated film Chicken Run (2000) contains many references.
• English football fans enjoy whistling the theme tune during matches.
• The Great Escape is also the name of a 1995 album by British band Blur. It reached #1 in the UK charts.
• Former Monty Python cast members Michael Palin and Terry Jones parodied The Great Escape in their Ripping Yarns series, in an episode entitled "Escape from Stalag Luft 112 B", about a prisoner whose myriad, overly perfectionist escape plans take so long to complete that the war ends before he is able to go through with any of them.
• Naked Gun 33 1\3 featured a parody of the Great Escape, hiding the dirt in various madcap and otherwise zany ways.
• The Great Escape is also the title for two different video games. One published by Ocean in 1986 [1] (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi?regexp=^Great+Escape%2c+The$&pub=^Ocean+Software+Ltd$) and another one from SCI [2] (http://www.thegreatescapegame.com/).
• In football, "The Great Escape" has become a meme for a club's improbable escape from relegation. In recent days, the term has been widely used in association with the escape of West Bromwich Albion from near-certain relegation from the English Premier League in the 2004-05 season. In fact, after Albion's final match and the assurance of their safety in the Premiership, the theme tune was played over the sound system at The Hawthorns while ecstatic fans stormed the pitch.

Trivia

• Charles Bronson (Flight. Lt. Danny "The Tunnel King" Velinski) and David McCallum (Lt. Cmdr. Eric "Dispersal" Ashley-Pitt) were both married to English actress Jill Ireland: McCallum from May 11, 1957 until 1967, Bronson from October 5, 1968 until her death on May 18, 1990.

• This film shares three of its stars (Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn), its director and producer (John Sturges) and its composer (Elmer Bernstein) with The Magnificent Seven. Both films also feature one of the stars of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: David McCallum appears in this film while Robert Vaughn appeared in the earlier one.

• Richard Attenborough (Squadron Leader Roger "Big X" Bartlett), James Garner (Flight Lt. Bob Anthony "The Scrounger" Hendley) and David McCallum (Lt. Cmdr. Eric "Dispersal" Ashley-Pitt) are the only surviving major stars of the film.

Books about The Great Escape

• The Great Escape, Paul Brickhill
• The Longest Tunnel, Alan Burgess
• The Wooden Horse, Eric Williams (about another escape from the same camp, Stalag Luft III)

External links

• The Real Great Escape (http://www.historyinfilm.com/escape/real1.htm)
• Great Escape (PBS Nova) (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/greatescape/)
• Detailed information about the real event (http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/)de:Gesprengte Ketten

fr:La Grande Évasion (1963)