The Great Escape, WWII POW films, Film Citicism

The Great Escape, USA 1963

Oh goody, the first World War II movie of the year. My Dad loved movies like this, and he turned his son into war movie fanatic too. Especially WWII movies, and I don't think Hollywood will ever stop making them. The Nazis have been our favorite villains since Casablanca in 1942 up until as recently as Inglorious Basterds in 2009. (Note to Tarantino: intentionally spelling bastard wrong doesn't make the title cool) The Great Escape has little to do with the actual war. Its based on the true story of a German prison camp for allied POWs and the massive efforts those men made to escape. Steve McQueen's motorcycle ride is perhaps the most iconic scene , but my favorite part is seeing a young Charles Bronson losing his cool after multiple tunnel cave-ins. It wasn't a particularly well acted portrayal by Bronson, but it reminds the audience of the desperation those men experienced and how miserable their task must have been. Another great WWII prison movie is Stalag 17. I like it a little better than The Great Escape, but only because William Holden, maybe my favorite actor, stars in a very dark and dramatic performance. William Holden is also famous for another role in a WWII prison film, Bridge on the River Kwai, but that movie deserves its own blog post. I will get to that later.

I would like to add a note about some of the terms I might use in my contributions here. I listen to and read a lot of movie reviews, so some of the vernacular that critics use may unintentionally find its way into my blog posts. Please feel free to call me on it whenever I slip up and let terms like “meta” or “below the line” sneak their way into my writing. I actually don't know for sure what most of those terms mean. Sometimes I use them because I want to sound smart. If you are looking for good movie criticism I recommend the works of Leonard Maltin. Most of the a$$holes that write reviews for Rotten Tomatoes don't know what the hell they are talking about. They are much better at trashing filmmakers than they are at giving their readers any useful criticism. But I admit that I often make decisions about what films I see based on the ratio of positive reviews on RT. But they aren't always right. 77% positive reviews for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Give me a f*#@ing break.