|
Year
: 1963
Director:
John Sturgess
Starring:
Steve Mcqueen, Richard Attenborough,
Donald Pleasance, Gordon Jackson . |
The Great Escape
So
a World War Two prison camp is not hugely Christmas
related. I
wonder what it says about the British psyche that this
film is always shown on TV on Christmas day to cheer
us up?
The
Great Escape is
a tale of a group of allied POW's that are trying
to escape from an "inescapable" German Prisoner
of War camp. As the film continues we see various
sporadic escape attempts end in failure and the
decision is made to pool their resource in an attempt
to effect a mass escape. Tunnels are dug, official
papers are forged, clothing is turned into disguises
and plans are made for the disbursement of the
escapees out to neutral safe countries following
the escape, all of this being done whilst the German
guards keep up their constant patrols and inspections
of the troops barracks. But even if the escape
is successful, can the escapees possibly get to
safety?
Remarkably
this film is actually based on a true story by
a survivor of a German POW camp. The story was
adapted and changed in the interests of making
a cinematic piece (and more sellable - particularly
making it more of the lead characters Americans
whereas actually they were mostly commonwealth
soldiers). The authenticity is helped by a number
of the cast (including Donald Pleasance) who were
held in POW camps during World War II.
Obviously
this film has nothing to do with Christmas itself
other than it is a perennial Christmas TV favourite,
but why is that? I can only assume that its due
to the faith in the human spirit, and even though
the story ends in tragedy (just like the real events
it was based on) the courage, bravery and triumph
of the human spirit shines through the film and
perhaps it is that which touches us all particularly
at Christmas. Or it could just be for the welcome
appearance of Shughie McFee from Crossroads.
The
Great Escape -
nothing to do with Christmas's but plenty to do
with making you feel Christmassy and
is placed at December 17th on our Films
guaranteed to make you feel Christmassy (UK edition)
Buy
this film and more from our Christmas
DVD Store in association
with Amazon.co.uk
