The Great Escape Rating: Release Date: 18 December, 2001 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $10.99 You SAVE: $3.99! Cast: Steve McQueen James Garner Richard Attenborough Charles Bronson Complete Cast (20 total)

The Great Escape Reviews

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Good Tough Guy Movie-Special Effects Need Not Apply
This movie was made in 1963, if anyone tries and judge movies from 1963 by todays standards they typically think the movie is boring and slow moving. The movie is based on a true story, there is a book you can read if you want more detail. You probably have more great actors (James Garner, Charles Bronsan, McQueen, Attenborough, Coburn, etc) in this one movie than you have combined in all hollywood today. Today is all special effects, blood and guts and the more brutality the better. Imagine any movie today with no cursing, would not get past the screening room. Listen to Richard Attenborough classify all the Germans as one enemy, does not differentiate between SS and Gestapo. We are at war with ALL of them, not just the SS. Teenagers drive todays movie market and there a few movies which can keep their attention if there are no special efects. This movie is an adult movie, plain and simple. The motorcycle scene is awesome. I think Steve McQueen did most of it. Richard Attenborough is one tough guy in the movie, you do not have to be steroid pumped up to be tough, you can be tough with your mind. The music score is great, scenery is great, actors great and it is an entertaining movie. I really have tried to tell that I enjoyed this movie and it is a good movie. Remember this movie is made only 16 or so years after WWII.

Bootcamp for escape artists
THE GREAT ESCAPE is a three-hour long epic based on a true story about the most notorious group of escape artists held as POWs in WWII. Malice, determination, and loyalty are brought to fruition in the process. The goal in placing the most troublesome prisoners in one camp was to provide the strictest security. However, the Germans unwittingly pooled the best resources together for and attempt at the largest escape in prison history.

Though the DVD cover prominently portrays a defiant Steve McQueen, THE GREAT ESCAPE hails though an all-star cast of scroungers, surveyors, manufacturers, forgers, tunnelers, and organizers. During three hours of drama, with bits of humor, sorrow, and genius, find out how many of 250 prisoners succeed in escaping a maximum security POW camp.

I played this DVD on my 6:9 aspect ratio computer monitor. When viewing most 16:9 widescreen movies, black bars of less than an inch appear top and bottom. The ratio of THE GREAT ESCAPE is 2.35:1 (more than twice as wide as it is high) -- letterbox. Instead of filling the screen from left to right with increased top and bottom bands, the entire tiny image was framed in large black margins. I had to zoom in to see the picture -- cropping out a significant portion. Under such magnification the degraded film quality was evident.

I shy away from violence for entertainment sake but enjoy revelation of how crimes are solved. In the context of war, some violence might be expected. Yet the movie begins with the comedic tone of MASH and escalates to moments of bloodshed. In this setting it was unanticipated and diminished my personal enjoyment of the film.

RATINGS:
-Acting: 4
-Story: 4
-DVD quality: 2.5
-Average rating: 3.4

Movie quote: "Why didn't anyone think of that before? It's so stupid, it's positivly brilliant!"

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