After a mini-hiatus, I have returned with yet another film review! I spent the break obsessing over WandaVision (which I will definitely write about once it concludes) and did end up seeing a few films in theaters, but none of them really felt worth writing about. Because of this, I’m going to start off the semester by reviewing another classic. This time, it’s the 1963 war film The Great Escape.
Based on a true story, The Great Escape follows the members of a prisoner of war (POW) camp in WWII as they prepare (and execute) an extremely complex escape attempt. I call it an “attempt” because although 76 POWs eventually leave the camp, very few are able to avoid capture or death — I’ll talk more about that later on. Although it does include some lighter moments to balance out the darker ones, the film can definitely fall into the category of “gritty war film.”
I’m not usually a war-movie person, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. Excluding a few notable exceptions, my biggest problem with war movies is that their characters don’t usually have much depth. The main soldier’s personality traits usually include being battle-worn, desperate to survive, and that’s it. However, The Great Escape did an excellent job by making each person unique and easy to differentiate. It was fascinating to see how different soldiers’ backgrounds and skills came together to complete the all-encompassing goal of escaping the compound.
My biggest issue with the film was the ending. Even after over 70 POWs escaped, it was shown that 50 of them were shot dead and most of the others were captured again. Only one person was shown definitively making it to freedom. Because of this, I felt quite disconcerted after watching all of those hours of hard work and fear amount to naught in the end. I can’t fault the filmmakers too much, however, seeing as they were only portraying what happened in real life. Even so, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me kind of upset.
Even with the title of the movie spoiling basically the whole film, The Great Escape is definitely worth a watch. It’s fast-paced, engaging, and relatable at all the best moments. Regardless of whether or not you like war films, this has so much else going for it that I’ll bet you’ll like it regardless. And with not much else being released right now, it might just be the perfect film for your next homebound movie night.
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