The Great Escape

Not on the AFI's list of the top 100 movies, though I'd certainly put it ahead of at least 8 or 10 on the list. Actors you've heard of:

Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn

Actors you'd recognize but maybe haven't heard of:

Donald Pleasence, Nigel Stock

And there's a German actor whose first name is "Karl-Otto". I don't know how you get more German than that, unless your name is "Hans-Wolfgang".

Anyway, this is a really good movie. Made ten years after Stalag 17, it shares some things with it (secret codes, daring escapes, moments of levity worked into prison life), but it's a much fuller and more serious (not to mention longer) film. The details of the escape plans and the way they have everything worked out (based on actual events) are really enjoyable. Steve McQueen is good and cool, and I was rather surprised to realize that this is the first movie of his I've watched from start to finish. But the two who caught my eye the most were Charles Bronson and Richard Attenborough.

Attenborough is Roger Bartlett, the head of the whole escape operation ("Big X", he's called). He's a master escape artist, so he runs things calmly. But he hates the Germans, especially the Gestapo, so he also carries himself with a quiet fierceness, and if he were running for President, we'd say he had "gravitas".

Bronson plays Danny Velinski, "The Tunnel King" in charge of digging. He's a gritty, tough character who shows a surprising vulnerable streak later on. I couldn't understand him for a while, until I picked up on the fact that he was speaking with a Polish accent, like a good Velinski should. In real life, Bronson was the son of Polish immigrants and was born Charles Buchinski.

I really need to find the soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in China. Pretty good.

Anyway, really good movie. Not the ending I expected. The theme music is something you'll instantly recognize, and they find lots of ways to use it if you're paying attention. A lot longer than I expected at 2:52. But if you've got the time, go for it.