THE GREAT ESCAPE: Blu-ray re-issue (UA, The Mirisch Co., 1963) Criterion

John Sturges’ The Great Escape (1963) is a grand old example of the even grander and older idiom: something about ‘life imitating art’ or vice versa, a celebration of the heroic exploits of a group of enterprising Allied POW's who never accepted their plight as absolute, even under the most daunting circumstances. Sturges, one tough hombre, affectionately known around Hollywood for his male ensemble set pieces, takes an exemplary cast – featuring, among others, Steve McQueen, James Garner, James Coburn and Charles Bronson – the cream of the crop in butch masculinity, and, the first to be hand-picked by Sturges – and transforms one of the best accounts of WWII into an exhilarating motion picture. Given the movie’s enduring appeal as a show of American might on full display, it is probably prudent to point out that American involvement in the ‘real’ great escape was short-lived. Indeed, the Americans, having had their excavation unearthed by the Nazi prison guards at Stalag Luft III were corralled and transported to another camp to wait out the duration of the war, leaving the real ‘escape’ of 76 men to British, Canadian and Australian POW’s who remained behind. Apart from this rather blatant alteration, much of The Great Escape remained faithful to history, right down to the devious methods of sand removal employed by the POW’s, virtually undetected by the camp’s guards.  Pressed by Sturges for an uncanny fidelity to the historical record, screenwriters, W.R. Burnett and James Clavell, applied only basic artistic license, in order to streamline their storytelling. Whereas the ‘escape’ was the result of virtually hundreds of prison detainees toiling in unison towards a common goal, the movie chooses to zero in on only a handful of militants, devoted to the cause. And while Stalag Luft III, the most secure war camp of its kind, with 9-ft. barbed wire fences and armed guards perched atop watch towers, built in Sagan in the heart of Hitler’s Germany expressly to house captured Allied flyers, was made up of six militarized compounds housing over 10,000 men, to maintain a manageable budget, the movie’s facsimile would depict only one.  

Otherwise, Burnett and Clavell’s storytelling was remarkably faithful to the facts and the realities inside Stalag Luft III; often referenced as ‘the least Nazi-fied’ of Hitler’s prison camps. Although life inside the camp could hardly be considered ideal, it did almost achieve a social atmosphere of mutual camaraderie between the prisoners (primarily comprised of British, American, Canadian and Australian men) and their Nazi captors. The Great Escape is based on a novel by Paul Brickhill, an Australian pilot downed in Tunisia in 1943 and made to sit out the duration of the war until 1945 in Stalag Luft III. Brickhill was a patriot first and foremost. After the war, he was inundated with offers to transform his experiences into a novel. While Brickhill eventually wrote his memoir for posterity, he was reticent to allow Hollywood its opportunity to horn in on a story he regarded as quite personal for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, the author proved no match for director, John Sturges’ – as bull-headed as he was committed to making certain his finished film accurately depicted the events as they had occurred during the war. Brickhill had been an integral part of the tunnel-building process; a plan to include three shafts in simultaneous construction, thirty-feet beneath base camp. This truly ambitious endeavor was matched by team leader, Roger Bushell’s audacious strategy to free 250 of his fellow POW’s in one daring midnight push to freedom right under the Nazis ever-vigilant watch. The motivation was never to bring these men successfully home; rather, to insight massive disruption to keep the Nazis preoccupied while the remaining Allied Forces continued to attack Hitler’s stronghold from without. Ultimately, only 79 prisoners ever saw the other side of the camp’s double-barbed wire fence; three, immediately captured, and fifty, brutally assassinated at Hitler’s behest - a devastating betrayal of the Geneva Convention, merely to prove his point.

In 1950, Sturges shopped the idea for this opus magnum to MGM where he was under contract. Alas, the project was dismissed outright by L.B. Mayer who believed history’s narrative was too confusing, and, the budget for such an ambitious undertaking would cripple the studio’s resources. A disappointment; time, as they say, was on Sturges’ side.  By 1960, he was a free agent. In the interim, he had also proven his merit as a film-maker, most recently, possessing a certain cache with The Mirisch Company, thanks to the overwhelming success of The Magnificent Seven (1960) – arguably, the greatest ensemble western ever made. Quite simply, Sturges had a way of directing male-driven ensemble melodramas – achieving a cadence and a tempo that gave his stars their moment to shine while drawing an immersive connectivity from the material and the presence of such overpowering heavy hitters. Sturges’ driving initiative on The Great Escape was always firmly grounded in his own recognition of the daring nobility and bravery of the real escapees. To flesh out the story with essential ‘Hollywood flair’ - Sturges turned first, to W.R. Burnett – renown for hard-edged thrillers like The Asphalt Jungle, and who had also penned ‘Everybody Comes to Rick’s’ – the un-produced play eventually transposed to the big screen as Casablanca (1942).  For authenticity, Sturges also employed James Clavell, who had been a POW during the war. Next, Sturges went one step further, contacting Brickhill to be The Great Escape’s technical adviser. Regrettably, by the time the movie went into pre-production, Brickhill’s health was failing. As he was quite unable to make the journey to Bavaria, Brickhill recommended Canadian flyer, Wally Floody in his stead – Floody, the man who had actually helped to design ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’ – the so nicknamed triage of escape tunnels built under Stalag Luft III.

In retrospect, The Great Escape is an exemplar of the Hollywood war movie. Moreover, it remains one of the most faithfully adapted ever put on film. Under Floody’s careful supervision and Sturges’ committed search for verisimilitude, The Great Escape elevated the historical accuracy of the war movie to a level few before it had endeavored to practice. Sturges’ deal with The Mirisch brothers, and, by extension, United Artists (UA) created a lucrative alliance. Initially, the movie was to have been shot somewhere in the U.S. When location scouting failed to turn up one viable facsimile for Germany, Sturges resigned himself to transporting his cast and a small crew to a modest studio in Bavaria where, just beyond its back lot, an exact replica of a single compound from Stalag Luft III was recreated down to the last detail. For obvious reasons, the cinematic retelling of The Great Escape is an American show; star power proving the box office draw. At least one key player was filled by a legit Brit. The character of Roger Bartlett, (eventually played by Richard Attenborough) was actually based on Roger Bushell; then, a 33-yr.-old South African pilot who had played a decisive role as this master plan. Attenborough brought an air of stoicism to this role that was authentic. For the rest, Sturges surrounded himself with surefire box office pull – the aforementioned Garner, Coburn, Bronson – all, well-established, with David McCallum and Donald Pleasance (exceptional character actors) bringing up the rear. The movie, however, belonged to Steve McQueen in a career-defining role. McQueen, a household name on TV’s Wanted Dead or Alive (1958-61), and, a fav in the cult sci-fi classic, The Blob (1958), most recently had distinguished himself as part of the ensemble in Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven. With The Great Escape, McQueen would graduate to the upper echelons of super stardom – the self-professed ‘king of cool’ as Hilts; the defiant ‘cooler king’ who spends a good portion of the movie in solitary confinement for his flippant antagonisms and antics.

McQueen only agreed to make The Great Escape if he could show off his prowess on a motorbike; hence, the iconic and daring stunt work on a scene totally fabricated for the movie; Hilts’ white-knuckled – though failed – victory ride to freedom, eventually becoming trapped between two fences of barbed wire in the neutral zone, apprehended, and, taken back to Stalag Luft III to wait out the duration of the war. For this sequence, Sturges had no concrete script, allowing McQueen to perform his own stunt work after a few impromptu practice jumps. However, apart from this bit of Hollywood-ized showmanship, The Great Escape would endeavor to tell the rest of its tale, practically, like it ‘was’ for so many POW’s imprisoned between its seemingly impregnable walls. Overseen by Commandant Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger (Hannes Messemer) the camp is the last stop for these gallant men of the air. In fact, von Luger tells senior British Officer, Group Captain Ramsey (James Donald) “There will be no escapes from this camp” to which Ramsey politely infers it is a prisoner’s first duty to attempt escape anyway. After several botched, uncoordinated – and decidedly third rate – tries to sneak a few men out of the camp, the men bristle to life with a rumor the Gestapo has captured RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett – a.k.a. ‘Big X’ (Richard Attenborough). Indeed, only a short time later, Bartlett is brought to Stalag Luft III by Herr Kuhn (Hans Reiser) who orders von Luger to place him under maximum security confinement – a direct order Luger takes only a passing interest in before allowing Bartlett to rejoin the general population.  Kuhn warns Bartlett if he is discovered trying to escape again, he will be shot despite the articles of the Geneva Convention.  Instead, and almost immediately, Bartlett begins making plans for his most daring Houdini act yet – a complex excavation of three simultaneously constructed tunnels, built to evacuate 250 men and thus send the Nazi High Command into a distinct tizzy.

Although virtually all of the central characters in The Great Escape are composites of various POW's, rather than homages to any single man, the movie accurately depicts how each ‘team’ of escapees organized their manpower to meet the demands of such a daring plan of action. The men are particularly skilled at making civilian clothes from their military uniforms, using blankets and bed sheets, forging documents by bribing some of the guards, while outright stealing passports and papers from others, exploiting their care packages from the Red Cross and YMCA, utilizing food stuffs and other non-essentials in very creative ways, all in service of this master plan.  Flight Lieutenant Robert Hendley (James Garner), an American flying for the RAF is affectionately dubbed ‘the scrounger’; Australian Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick (James Coburn) is ‘the manufacturer’. Together, they steal and build the necessary implements to construct the underground tunnels; pulleys and tracks for transportation of men and materials below ground, taking mattress slats from their beds to shore up the soft sandy walls of these claustrophobic tunnels. Meanwhile, Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski (Charles Bronson) and William Dickes (John Leyton) become ‘the tunnel kings’ – part gofer/part architect – ever advancing beneath the ground toward their rendezvous with freedom.

The film also accurately depicts how the prisoners used burlap baggies built into their trousers to release ground excavated from the tunnels into the gardens, virtually undetected by the Nazis. In the movie, this invention is accredited to one Lieutenant commander Eric Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum) of the Royal Navy. Other duties are handled by Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe (Donald Pleasance) – the forger, who regrettably develops progressive myopia and has to be led to safety by Hendley after their escape. For several months, the prisoners diligently toil on these three tunnels, affectionately nicknamed ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’. However, when Tom is discovered by the Nazis, Bartlett elects to abandon ‘Dick’ and concentrate all of their efforts on ‘Harry’ instead. The fly in von Luger’s ointment is undeniably USAAF Capt. Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen), the self-professed ‘Cooler King’ who repeatedly and deliberately irritates the guards with his very sloppy escape attempts.  At first Bartlett is outraged by Hilts’ audacity, believing that his shoddy defiance will only serve to exacerbate and draw attention to their more plotted plan of escape. But then, he thinks better on Hilts’ interference. Perhaps, with so much time and effort being invested keeping their eyes on Hilts, the Nazis will be less suspicious of the real efforts going on right under their noses.

Hilts makes another escape – this time deliberately half-hearted so he can relay information about their surroundings that will better inform Bartlett and his men of the most direct route to freedom. With the last part of the tunnel completed just hours before the exodus, Bartlett discovers they are 20-ft. short of the woods, making the breakout even more perilous. Miraculously, 76 make it out before the guards discover them. Hendley and Blythe steal a biplane to fly over the Swiss border.  Regrettably, their engine fails prematurely and they crash land on the German side. As soldiers arrive, Blythe stands up from the wreckage and is shot. Hendley willingly surrenders. In the meantime, Bartlett is recognized on a crowded railroad platform by Kuhn, leaving Eric Ashley-Pitt to sacrifice himself for the cause by murdering Kuhn before he himself is killed. In the commotion, Bartlett and another escapee, MacDonald (Gordon Jackson) blend into the crowd. Wretchedly, they are caught while trying to board a bus. In another part of town, Hilts makes his own audacious getaway on a stolen motorcycle, pursued by Nazi soldiers into the Neutral Zone between Germany and Switzerland. Losing control of his ride, Hilts becomes entangled in the barbed wire fence.

In short order virtually all of the escapees are rounded up. Still, Bartlett believes his objective has been achieved – to disrupt daily operations. Tragically, on their trip back to Stalag Luft III, the convoy makes an unexpected detour somewhere deep within the Black Forest. There, under direct orders from Hitler, and in direct defiance of the Geneva Convention, Bartlett and fifty of his men are brutally assassinated.  Hendley, Hilts and eight others are returned to the base camp. Von Luger is relieved of his command by the SS who are even more determined to maintain order. Of the 76, only Danny, Willie, and, Sedgwick make it to safety; the first two, by stealing a rowboat and proceeding downriver to the Baltic coast, the latter, riding a bicycle, then a freight train into occupied France where he is met by a Resistance freedom fighter loyal to Spain. The morale at the camp sours after Ramsey learns of Bartlett and the other’s demise. However, ever the devil-may-care optimist, Hilts taunts the guards on route to ‘the cooler’ – his baseball in hand, the guard undeniably perplexed by his attitude as a script appears on screen, dedicating The Great Escape to “the fifty” who gave their lives to the cause.

The Great Escape’s unofficial premiere included a private screening for surviving POWs who instantly declared the movie a factual representation of their own experiences during the war. Indeed, many who saw the picture believed certain characters to be based on themselves, rather than as composites of various men who had struggled alongside them. Sturges could have received no finer accolade. Still, he was afforded an even greater satisfaction when the official June 1963 premieres in New York and Los Angeles marked The Great Escape as one of the truly outstanding war pictures ever made – a box office dynamo that sent cash registers ringing around the world. The movie also shed light on an almost forgotten chapter, reduced to a footnote after the war. In Great Britain, Prime Minister Eden fervently set about to investigate and bring to justice the Nazi officials who had carried out this mass slaughter. In 1948, eighteen Germans were put on trial, thirteen summarily executed in Hamburg. Viewed today, The Great Escape holds up as an exhilarating actioner – superbly crafted and expertly played. There is little to deny the impact the movie had on Steve McQueen’s career. It also gave Donald Pleasance international notoriety and continued the upswing of James Garner and James Coburn’s popularity with audiences. The 1960s, arguably, marked the dawning of a new type of American star; one, generally celebrated for his counter-cultural approach to life and anti-heroic self-preservation. Viewed from this vantage, The Great Escape is very much a throwback to the more gallant war movies of the 1940’s, its morality grounded in a sort of magnificent valor that remains as nourishing to the heart and soul as it was at the time of its premiere. It is, to be sure, very gratifying to see old-time stars do what they used to do best – sell themselves as paragons of virtue – a concept utterly lost on today’s angry anti-establishment celebrity-ensconced peons, cheaply masqueraded as stars.  The Great Escape endures because it appeals to a higher morality. It makes the claim that, even in war, there are people and causes worth fighting for, dying for, because the fate of humanity is more sacred, profound and ultimately treasured than any one sacrifice made for the good of all.  Today, such messages rarely emanate from our cinematic storytellers or, when they do, are mis-perceived as quaintly apologetic. Yet, The Great Escape’s enduring popularity unequivocally upholds a fundamental: that audiences remain suckers for these heroic escapades.  And boy, do we need our heroes now!

Criterion’s new 4K remaster of the movie differs considerably from the old MGM/Fox release, and, for the most part, those with discerning tastes will be immensely satisfied with the results. The image now adopts a much warmer palette; earth tones and warm brown/beige for the dirt (as opposed to gray) and verdant foliage that pops as it should. The main titles are bright red, as opposed to a slight lean toward orange/red before. Flesh tones have a more careworn ruddy appearance. They were pinkish on the old Blu-ray. Owing to improper storage over the years, problematic archival elements, and dupe negatives spliced into its general release print, resulting image quality continues to lag in spots. Daniel L. Fapp’s cinematography was never intended to be ‘pretty’. Overall clarity and image sharpness are pretty much on par with the previous disc. Obviously, dupe negatives continue to exhibit overly exaggerated grain, muddy hues, and a hazy absence of fine details. Be forewarned. If you are expecting perfection – you are not going to get it here! That said, this is the absolute best The Great Escape has looked on home video and virtually nothing – short of discovering a completely untouched original camera negative – could have been done to improve on what’s here. The color palette on Criterion’s is decidedly preferred to the MGM/Fox disc. Criterion’s Blu also shows slightly more information on the right edge of the frame. Contrast is also marginally improved; so, we get more depth and detail as a direct result.

Criterion has opted for another PCM mono track here, as well as including the MGM/Fox remastered DTS 5.1. Although mono is in keeping with the original theatrical release (and, I am usually a purist for such things) I think I actually favor the 5.1 DTS here for its aggressive SFX, and the sheer joy of hearing Elmer Bernstein’s score in true stereo. We get 2-audio commentaries; the first, featuring Sturges, Bernstein, stuntman, Bud Ekins, second unit director Robert E. Relyea and Bruce Eder. This is the same commentary Criterion had specially recorded for its 1991 LaserDisc release. The other commentary hails from 2003’s MGM DVD, and features James Coburn, James Garner, Donald Pleasence, Jud Taylor and David McCallum, Relyea, production designer, Fernando Carrere, talent manager, Hillard Elkins and stuntman, Bud Ekins with inserts from Sturges’ 1974 interview. Other goodies to consider: a new 23-minute interview with critic, Michael Sragow. We also get Heroes Under Ground, the 4-part documentary from 2001, 25-minutes on the ‘real’ Virgil Hilts and, from 1993, the 24-minute, retrospective with Coburn, Garner, McCallum and Jud Taylor. All of these extras were included on the MGM/Fox Blu-ray. Bottom line: capped off by a trailer and liner notes from critic, Sheila O’Malley, Criterion’s remaster and reissue can definitely be considered the definitive hi-def release of Sturges’ perennially enthralling war-themed masterpiece.  Buy today. Treasure forever!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

5+

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

4.5