Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10549 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-05-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, German, Russian
• Subtitled in: Danish, Norwegian, Slovene, English, Hebrew, Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Finnish, Greek, Czech, Croatian, Turkish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 165 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Great Escape image of Steve McQueen (as "The Cooler King") astride his motorcycle has entered silver-screen iconography, alongside Brando on his bike from The Wild One. Based on a true story about a group of POWs who mount a daring breakout from a supposedly inescapable Nazi prison camp, this rousing and suspenseful World War II epic features an all-star cast, including James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and David McCallum. --Jim Emerson

Amazon.co.uk Review
A stirring example of courage and the indomitable human spirit, for many John Sturges' The Great Escape is both the definitive World War II drama and the nonpareil prison escape movie. Featuring an unequalled ensemble cast in a rivetingly authentic true-life scenario set to Elmer Bernstein's admirable music (who writes contrapuntal march themes these days?), this picture is both a template for subsequent action-adventure movies and one of the last glories of Golden Age Hollywood. Reunited with the director who made him a star in The Magnificent Seven Steve McQueen gives a career-defining performance as the laconic Hilts, the baseball-loving, motorbike-riding "Cooler King". The rest of the all-male Anglo-American cast--Dickie Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, James Garner, Charles Bronson, David McCallum, James Coburn and Gordon Jackson--make the most of their meaty roles (though you have to forgive Coburn his Australian accent).

Closely based on Paul Brickhill's book, the various escape attempts, scrounging, forging and ferreting activities are authentically realised thanks also to the presence on set of technical advisor Wally Flood, one of the original tunnel-digging POWs. Sturges orchestrates the climactic mass break out with total conviction, giving us both high action and very poignant human drama. Without trivialising the grim reality, The Great Escape thrillingly celebrates the heroism of men who never gave up the fight.

On the DVD: The Great Escape special edition is indeed a special event. The anamorphic 2.35:1 picture is good if a tad grainy, and the remastered Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is a fitting vehicle for Elmer Bernstein's magnificent contribution. Accompanying the feature there's a reasonable cut-and-paste group commentary culled from interviews with various cast and crew, plus text trivia captions about the actors and the real-life camp.

The second disc features a first-rate Granada TV documentary from 2001, "The Untold Story", which tells of both the escape itself and the subsequent post-war search for the Gestapo officers who butchered 50 of the 76 escapees. This has an appendix of further valuable interviews with survivors, and there's also an American making-of documentary, "Heroes Underground", which is good though annoyingly divided into separate chapters and featuring non-anamorphic clips from the film. Perhaps best of all though is the 25-minute life of American POW David Jones, "The Real Virgil Hilts", whose career both during and after the war is extraordinary and inspirational. A classic movie finally gets the DVD treatment it merits.--Mark Walker

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Dolby 5.1 Sound
Audio Commentary by cast and crew
An American Icon
History versus Hollywood" documentary
The True Story of The Great Escape documentary
Trivia Track
Theatrical trailer
Photo galleries

Customer Reviews

"Rotten eggs" conjure up the greatest escape plan ever
"Putting all the rotten eggs in one basket" was how the German kommandant of Stalag Luft III allegedly described to the senior British officer, Ramsay (James Donald), the task of getting the most "troublesome" escapers from the "Big X" organisation from POW camps scattered all over the embattled Third Reich to one place. Looking at the set based on the real camp, it was nothing like Colditz Castle - rather like something thrown up in haste on a patch lacking greenery but located conveniently next to a wood.

Yet, under the direction of "Big X" Bartlett (Richard Attenborough in what, for me, was his most memorable role), seething with rage at ill-treatment from the Gestapo who threatened "You will be shot" if he escaped again and was caught, these "rotten eggs" managed to conjure up one of the most daring prisoner-of-war breakouts in military history, whose story was recounted by Paul Brickhill, the author also responsible for the book which had inspired the film, "The Dam Busters" (1955).

Attenborough is joined by a cast of well-known British stars like Gordon Jackson (of ITV's "Upstairs Downstairs" fame), Angus Lennie (who memorably blows a raspberry at the kommandant for his comment that British and German people "understand" each other), David McCallum (playing the only naval officer in the movie), and Donald Pleasance (who was no mean "twit" with his understanding of birds - yes, it is a pun!), plus, of course, big-name American stars James Garner, Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen.

Garner plays Handley "The Scrounger", a volunteer with the American-crewed RAF "Eagle" fighter squadrons, Bronson plays Danny, "The Tunnel King", a Polish volunteer with the RAF, while McQueen plays Hilts, a U.S. Army Air Forces man who, for reasons never explained, is put in this camp along with the "Big X" people. This was quite clearly an attempt to sell this movie to the American public, yet it was an inspired choice, given that its popularity has endured over the past four decades.

Thankfully, the man who would go on to play "Bullitt" was not solely responsible for making the movie one of the greatest WWII movies ever made. In their respective scenes before, during and after the tension-filled escape from the camp, Bronson, whose character's claustrophobia nearly stops the escape before it even starts, Garner and Pleasance have their chances to shine, though James Coburn, who plays Sedgwick, an Australian, does not have a memorable time, since he gets all the way to Spain in a leisurely way without meeting any trouble from the Germans - unlike McQueen, who - how shall I put it succinctly - tries to escape on a motorbike. (The rest is, as they say, cinematic history.)

The camaraderie amongst the men and their success in getting 76 men out before the penny (pfennig) finally dropped are very hard to ignore, as they use their ingenuity in distracting the Germans while carrying on the mammoth task of digging three long escape tunnels.

Yet it was not as if the POWs had everything their own way - who can forget the scene of Ives (Lennie) hanging off the barbed wire fence after being shot by a German watchtower guard as he made a futile escape attempt during the prisoners' impromptu July 4th bash to celebrate U.S. Independence Day, or the scene at the railway station where Ashley-Pitt (McCallum) sacrifices his life to prevent a Gestapo officer publicly identifying Bartlett (Attenborough) and McDonald (Jackson).

"The Great Escape" has endured in popularity for many reasons. Most of all, it tells a story based on a true story. It is a story of courage where one side had weapons whereas the other had none at all. The viewer is caught up in the tension as the POWs, in disguise, use public transport and wonder if the passengers around them, including S.S. officers, are aware of who they really are. Such tension is usual in espionage movies, yet this movie succeeds in producing even more tension than those other ones, and no spying is involved. These are people who broke out of the camp for freedom and for the chance of getting back home to continue the fight for Europe's freedom.

As the film ends, the viewer learns that it is "dedicated to the fifty" real POWs who were brutally murdered by the Gestapo after their escape from Stalag Luft III. I like to think that, even without the Hollywood hype (such as it was in the 1960s), this movie did do their story justice. Kudos to all the actors for fine, memorable performances.

Break For The Border This May!!!
For you Tommy, ze wait iz over! The Great Escape makes it best ever bid for freedom this spring in two DVDs fit for heroes!

The Magnificent Seven director John Sturges reunited with film icon Steve McQueen in 1963 for this, the most famous and most thrilling escape movie ever made. The Great Escape co-stars such legendary actors as Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Gordon Jackson and Donald Pleasence and was based on the bestseller by Paul Brickhill, the same man who wrote Reach For The Sky and The Dam Busters.

It's based on the true story of hundreds of Allied prisoners covertly working together to pull off a daring escape from Stalag Luft North, Nazi Germany's most secure POW camp. The men dig tunnels, forge papers, fashioned maps and even uniforms in readiness for the big push only for the chosen few to face impossible odds and danger at every turn when finally out in the open.

Everyone remembers the image of 'The Cooler King' McQueen astride his motorcycle as he makes his last desperate dash for the barbed wire frontier. The movie has become a national institution thanks to frequent broadcasts during festive seasons and the famous theme tune has had the ultimate accolade of being belted out by fans at World Cup matches.

It's that connection to the beautiful game that makes this release all the better. MGM Home Entertainment are releasing two double DVD sets - the special edition will present The Great Escape in its original screen ratio, Dolby Digital 5.1 and will boast a commentary by the cast and crew. No less than three documentaries, titled 'An American Icon', 'History Versus Hollywood' and 'The True Story Of The Great Escape,' explore the film from all angles plus a trivia track tells you facts, figures and info during the course of the film. The original theatrical trailer rounds the set off.

The Great Escape - a classic
The Great Escape is possibly one of the greatest films ever made- the brilliant all star cast-(Steve Mcqueen,Ricard Attenborough) the incredible attention to detail - the whole prison camp set was a complete reconstruction of the original, and derelict vehicles were revamped to add to authenticity. The plot is simple but brilliant - set in 1943-44, the Nazis have assembled a high security prison camp to contain all the allied prisoners who attempted break outs in prison elsewhere. Inadvertantly, the Nazis have assembled the perfect escape team. Although the film is 2h 40 mins, every minute is essential - the balance of the film is perfect, and it is thoroughly exciting.