The Great Escape: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack

 (268 customer reviews)

The Great Escape certainly didn't get its due when it was released -- it wasn't even nominated for Best Picture, Director or any of the Acting awards. In fact, it was only nominated for Film Editing! It seems, however, that the film doesn't even get its proper due today as it was not on the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Film list despite its large following.The Great Escape is certainly one of the most memorable films I've ever seen. The cast includes the late great Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough (Director of Gandhi), Charles Bronson, James Coburn, James Donald (Bridge on the River Kwai), Donald Pleasance and David McCallum (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.). McQueen's performance is riveting and makes the viewer miss him all the more. Garner, who actually was a "Scrounger" during the Korean War, is terrific. It's also particularly nice to see a performance as a good guy from Pleasance and as a human being by Bronson (sorry, but Bronson truly...Read more

I saw The Great Escape in the fall of 1963 when I was 8 years old. In my hometown during those days moviegoing was a family affair-- wear nice slacks and shirt etc. Seeing this grand movie with the macho stars on a big screen with booming sound made quite an impression on me. Steve McQueen was simply the "King Of Cool" and he became my favorite film star. This movie has transcended generations -- my 18 year old son recently viewed it and he was totally engrossed in this fantastic true story of men seeking freedom under the most desperate circumstances. He agreed with me that "they don't make em like they used to" and that most of the films today can't hold a candle to The Great Escape.The DVD is superb -- the color and picture quality is first rate -- looks just like when I saw it in the fall of 1963 at the old Capitol Theatre in Rome, NY. The featurette on the making of The Great Escape is a nice feature that I never saw before.

This is one of the all-time classic war movies. The story of how the Nazis put "all the bad eggs in one basket": they built a special camp in which they incarcerated the Allied pilots shot down over occupied Europe who had made escape attempts from other camps. Filmed on location in Germany (although the real-life camp was in Poland), the film has an authentic feel, with quaint German cottages and the foothills of the Alps rising in the background. Add in the plethora of nationalities (there are American, English, Scottish, Polish, Aussie, and Canadian prisoners among the inmates, all with authentic accents), the well-researched uniforms and camp layout, and some great cinematography, and you have a classic WWII film that stands the test of time.The performances are outstanding. Notable examples are James Gardner as a scounger and Charles Bronson (virtually unrecognisable) as the tunnelling expert. The big name (at the time) is, of course, Steve McQueen, here his...Read more