The POWs get organised and begin planning a new escape - one that could give them all a shot at liberty… if they can foil the preparations of the Germans.
Like The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape is one of the iconic World War 2 adventure movies.
It is almost pointless listing its praises.
While it is based on a true story, The Great Escape fits the format of a squad-on-a-mission movie.
From the opening scene, we are introduced to the main location and our ‘squad’: Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson and Steve McQueen.
As soon as they arrive, the cast are scoping out the camp for weaknesses, giving the viewer a shorthand for the variety of escape artists that have been brought together.
While almost three hours long, the movie never feels bloated - the first hour sets out the obstacle, and the divide between the British prisoners, led by Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborough), and American pilot Captain Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen).
At this point in his career, McQueen was on the upswing - he had made his name in the TV show Wanted Dead or Alive, and then became a movie star in John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven.
In The Great Escape, McQueen’s Virgil Hilts is played as a clown. He is a natural talent for escape but all the planning and strategy is handled by everyone else.
As with Hell is for Heroes, McQueen plays a loner who is forced to think beyond himself and become a team player.
All the members of the group are working with personal impairments of various kinds:
Bronson is the muscle who digs the tunnel, despite having claustrophobia (he is broken when he is buried in a tunnel collapse. Pleasance is an expert forger who is losing his sight. Coburn has a bad Australian accent.
The last hour follows the various escapees as they try to evade capture.
The movie offers a variety of set pieces, from Garner and Pleasance's attempted aerial escape, to McQueen's iconic attempt to jump a motorbike over the Swiss border.
As the net closes in, the film loses its air of good humour: as in the true story, most of the recaptured POWs were executed.
The film’s end is bitter - a few men managed to escape and the camp commandant has been removed from his post. For the film, this is a victory, despite the great cost.
Bringing the story full circle, the film ends on McQueen back in the cooler, planning his next escape.
John Sturges directs with a highly functional, classic Hollywood-style form of continuity storytelling. There is nothing flashy about the film’s style, yet it pulses with energy and excitement.
The cast are all terrific, from James Donald as the immovable senior officer of the POWs, to Richard Attenborough as the bloodied-but-unbowed master strategist.
While the cast are great, the one actor I fixated on was James Garner.
Has there been anyone who managed to be effortlessly cool and deceptively ordinary? McQueen may be iconic, but Garner brings a weight and sophistication to his role that is more dynamic - the character is a fixer, and Garner brings an ease and assurance that makes his various double dealing believable.
He also brings an undercurrent of hard-nosed empathy - witness the way he trips up Pleasance to make him admit that he is losing his sight, but does not leave his side during the escape.
That atmosphere is reinforced by Elmer Bernstein’s memorable score.
Balancing character, thrills and pathos, The Great Escape is great entertainment.
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