Picky Picky.
Still one of the best films ever made.
That’s a great article and worth reading beginning to end. Thanks for posting it.
I think the author is confusing 'The Great Escape' wit 'The Bridge over the River Kwai'.............
But, remember, it was just a play acting movie, not real life.
Based of "real life events" is a wide open statement, so I can't get too excited about this good article.
A movie about white men doing heroic things would never be made these days.
Flawless, inspirational movie that accurately captures the essentials of the real escape and aftermath. What Hollywood movie does not take license? It was minimal. It is breathtaking how little fictionalization was done in the movie.
Adding Americans, to a Hollywood movie meant for US audiences. What a crime!
Not a lot of ground breaking info in the article. Anybody who knows about the movie, knows that Steve McQueen was a self-centered primadonna who was a royal pain in the butt for everyone on set, which he was in every movie he ever was in. It was par for the course. If you know McQueen’s childhood, then you know why he was such a broken adult and his various personality flaws. Still a brilliant actor who left behind many wonderful movies.
The scene at the end is reminiscient of the Malmady massacre. So while the machine gunning of the captured prisoners was not historic to the event, it makes perfect sense to roll a Malmady style execution to end the film.
Calling the motorcycle chase scene an oded to McQueen’s ego is hilariously ridiculous. Who doesn’t feel that this is the most exciting and dramatic scene in the entire movie. Yes, it is pure Hollywood and adds nothing to the historic nature of the escape, but after seeingmoist everyone being captured, it provides that wonderful feel of “JUST MAYBE SOMEONE IS GOING TO MAKE IT!” You are heart broken when he is balled up in the barbed wire, but uplifted again when he remains unbroken back in the cooler, loudly bouncing that worn out baseball on the concrete walls. You know he is going to get home eventually.
It is a perfect movie and flawless. Not only is it first class entertainment, but it accurately portrays a historical event from WWII. It was a meaningless event, but the key is in the fighting spirit and refusal to give up, in the warriors who took part in digging the tunnels and escaping.
One of my Top Ten movies of all time. The music theme (by Elmer Bernstein I believe) still bounces around in my head occasionally.
Charles Bronson - Danny the Tunnel King - actually had severe claustrophobia from his days as a kid working in the mines in Pennsylvania. His family was Lithuanian. He spoke four languages.
I like the film, always have. Never saw it as “fact”, always viewed it as entertainment. Nothing wrong with that.
But too many people don’t make that distinction. But I had read “Escape From Colditz” when I was 13, so I at least had some reality based knowledge to bounce off against it. (That is a remarkable story as well-they actually build a glider in a hidden attic to escape with, though it was never used)
As for escaping, I loved the story of Bob Hoover, who escaped from Stalag 1, made his way to an airfield, and stole a FW-190 which he flew as far as he could (wondering when an Allied fighter was going to blow him out of the sky!) until ditching it in a field in the Netherlands, and was saved by some British soldiers before the Dutch farmers could do him in, thinking he was a Nazi pilot!)
As for the “much whistled tune” I never did like the use of it in “The Great Escape”. It introduced a light-hearted aspect to the movie I never thought fit. (I think it was the fun, happy, upbeat tune they played every time they marched him off to solitary)
Just a few years ago, when they came out with the movie “The Monuments Men”, what had been a very slight irritation watching “The Great Escape” turned into a bitter anti-Hollywood BS that persists with me today.
I had read the book “The Monuments Men”, and I loved it. Great book. And when I heard they were going to make a movie on it, I did a fist pump! But boy, when it came out, what a piece of crap. All the Lefty movie stars making their appearances, and they put that same whimsical music in it that completely made it an un-serious movie.
That could have been a stellar movie, bringing to millions a story that hadn’t received much attention, but they made a silly, cartoonish abortion out of it, using it to serve as a vehicle for the likes of George Clooney.
I detest that movie!
The film, now celebrating its 60th anniversary...
Who can ever keep up?! I was just about to run out the door.
Wikipedia:
Release dates
June 20, 1963 (London)
July 4, 1963 (United States)
Running time 172 minutes
I didn't even think to check that when I wrote on the 12th:
<<<
Normally Moses is made analogous to a fish. Joshua being the "son of Nun"; i.e. disciple of Moses the nun, fish. Yet Moses' bride was... a bird. Nobody'd noticed the mixed species issue? I don't know, but sometime back I went in the direction of waterfowl, because Moses was drawn out of the water. That's when I found the diving duck named the Greater scaup.
See, it's not just a movie starring Steve McQueen.
Weaving, and the beginning of the 42 "Stations of the Exodus"
>>>
Or on the 16th, re 172:
"Those familiar with the material on inner.org would know that formatting drops out, notably the superscripts, which makes for some interesting reading. For example:"
<<<
Of course, for the sake of brevity I had left out the number of scruples:
Apothecaries' Weight: US (UK pre 1824)
5,760 grains = 288 scruples = 96 drams = 12 ounces = 1 pound
https://pharmacytechniciantoday.com/certification-exam-review/11-apothecaries-avoirdupois-metric-measurement-systems/
(ounce אונקיה) = 172
Observance really is key, Juneteenth, 528: 'ג'וּנְטִינְת = key מפתח
... otherwise folks would miss the Great Escape!
And that's no joke! Remember the answering machine that was *the* codebreaker in Sneakers?
Cryptography systems are based on mathematical problems...
...so complex they cannot be solved without a key.Janek* figured out a way to solve those problems without the key...
...and he hard-wired it into that chip.- Turn it off.
>>>
No more secrets.
Honey, you and Melissa get your things.
Melissa is a female given name. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (mélissa), "bee",[1] which in turn comes from μέλι (meli), "honey".[2][3] In Hittite, melit signifies "honey".[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa
*Janek
(colloquial) a diminutive of the male given name Jan
(derogatory) Alternative form of janek ("fool")
It's like the luck of the Irish:
"During the gold and silver rush years in the second half of the 19th century, a number of the most famous and successful miners were of Irish and Irish American birth... Over time this association of the Irish with mining fortunes led to the expression 'luck of the Irish.'
"Of course, it carried with it a certain tone of derision, as if to say, only by sheer luck, as opposed to brains, could these fools succeed."
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/phrase-luck-of-the-irish
Remember that poor fool in the Bible named Naval? Poor Abigail. Well anyway, Naval [נבל] means fool, but "נבל" will also take you over here "on the half shekel", for the atonement of souls.
🍿🤓🍿
Shamrock ☘️ Not to be confused with 🍀 Four Leaf Clover, though their applications may overlap.
(Okay now I'm out the door..)
Why send everyone to yahoo instead of to the actual source?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/the-great-escape-steve-mcqueen-true-story-stalag-luft/
So I had to go to and read the article to find out that the “repellent, horrible truth” was that the scene at the end was somewhat grislier and more awful than it actually was? Deceptive headline.
Anyway, it’s nice to commemorate the picture — probably the one movie that I saw the most times in the course of my life — and indirectly commemorate the real prison escapees.
One of my all time favorite movies, but as I recall, all the Americans were transferred out of the camp before the escape occurred.
Also, Donald Pleasence, on 31 August 1944, his Lancaster NE112 was shot down during an attack on Agenville, and he was captured and imprisoned in the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft I.
Walters’ book is critical of Bushell for pushing forward with an operation that was “unsound, doomed, dangerous and superfluous to the war effort”.
I would disagree. If I were a prisoner, I would welcome any offer of hope via an escape plan regardless of the potential outcome.
In a POW camp, without hope, men just give up and accept death......
There’s a word for a movie that attempts to present a completely factual account of a historical event: ‘documentary’. As far as I know, no one ever claimed “The Great Escape” was a documentary.
I would argue that Hilts motorcycle escape scenes are the greatest “manly” scenes of all time. I could watch them everyday.
Modern day movies are dreck compared to this.
Every one of them, especially McQueen, Pleasance and Garner, gave an entirely memorable performance. I remember scenes like it was yesterday, even though I haven't seen it since it opened in the movie theater.
Ping!
Hollywood cannot make movies like this and the other classics.