Patriotic Philms Phor the 4th – #10 of 10 – The Great Escape (1963) – Encore Review 6

In order to celebrate the 245th birthday of the US, I decided to watch 10 films over the weekend that are related to the patriotism of the founding fathers and of Americans on a whole. Today, I will culminate this series with something connected to a very special project that I have been working on over the past few months… check it out below!

“No taxation without representation!” – Goff

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (cable, video, DVD, 15 May 2001, 29 Oct 2013, 1 Jan 2015, 11 Jan 2018, 26 Sep 2019, 20 Apr 2020, 10 Jan 2021 and 4 Jul 2021)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – After the Germans decide to put all of the escape artist POW’s in a single, more guarded camp, the former pilots decide to plan an all out escape.

My Take on it – This is one of my all time favorite films and have seen it more time than I can count.

The truth is, over the past 4 months, I’ve seen it lots and lots of times, but not in the typical way that one usually watches a movie.

I was doing preparation for a Movies By Minute Podcast on the film and while recording nearly all 172 episodes (so far), I have watched and reviewed each minute of this film over and over and over again that I will veritably never know how many times I’ve seen this entire film (albeit in smaller segments.

This new podcast actually went live this morning (5th July, 2021) due to its strong connection to the July 4th holiday.

The film was originally released on July 4th, 1963 and the obvious scene featuring Independence Day is a very memorable part of the film.

The film is perhaps one of the largest ensemble casts in a movie where they all have prominent roles,(not just small cameos) and the story flows so well from start to finish that one probably will never even notice that it is nearly 3 hours long.

The music by Elmer Bernstein is superb and quite memorable even 58 years after it was released.

This movie made up and coming stars James Garner, Richard Attenborough and of course Steve McQueen household names.

The film keeps a light tone which helps enhance things to a point where even the heavy subject matter doesn’t feel as heavy despite still being poignant and powerful throughout.

The motorcycle scene with Steve McQueen has become one of the most iconic scenes in any movie and is quite recognizable by most people, whether they have seen this film or not.

If one wants to hear more about this film in closer (I mean much closer) detail, you can find my podcast on most podcatchers – The Great Escape Minute.

In addition:

Our Facebook group is known as The Cooler

Our Twitter account is @GreatEscapemxm

Our email address is TheGreatMinute@gmail.Com

and our website is TheGreatEscapeMinute.com

Tally-HO!!!!

Highly Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The real-life escape preparations involved six hundred men working for well over a year. The escape did have the desired effect of diverting German resources, including a doubling of the number of guards after the Gestapo took over the camp from the Luftwaffe. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)