The Great Escape
The Great Escape
“ Put a fence in front of these men... and they'll climb it! ”
CINEMA1963-07-03
RegionUS
Runtime172 MIN
Media TypeMovie
PRODUCTION COMPANIES
Storyline
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
DIRECTOR / Director
John Sturges
KEYWORDS
prisonuniformswastikaprisonerbased on novel or booknaziescapeoptimismfreedommachinegunswitzerlandshowerdystopiabaseballworld war iiprisoner of warclaustrophobiaattempt to escapebarbed wirebased on true storyprison guardprison escapetragedysolitary confinementmotorcyclealps mountainsbritish officer1940sluftwaffesoldiersaudacioushopeful
Collection: The Great Escape Collection
The Great Escape is a 1963 American epic war suspense adventure film based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 non-fiction book of the same name. The film depicts a heavily fictionalized version of the mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from German POW camp Stalag Luft III during the Second World War. A fictional, made-for-television sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, was released in 1988. The film is not a true sequel as it dramatizes the escape itself just as the original film does, although mostly using the real names of the individuals involved (whereas the original film fictionalized them and used composite characters). It depicts the search for the culprits responsible for the murder of the 50 Allied officers.
