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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Never tell a prisoner that their jail is escape proof. They might prove you wrong. John Struges' "The Great Escape" mixes comedy and suspense played by a great cast of major American and British actors. One of Sturges' greatest accomplishments (along with "The Magnificent Seven") "The Great Escape" makes for both great cinema and great entertainment. Based on a true story, "The Great Escape" chronicles a large escape attempt by Allied prisoners of war from the most difficult German POW camp ever built.
What's amazing about "The Great Escape" is how well the film has aged. While the pacing lags a bit here and there (keep in mind it was made and cut in 1963), Sturges' film has the long takes that might not have been out of place for, say, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Ironically, Sturges hadn't seen any of Sergio Leone's great westerns but his attempt at a roadshow wartime epic found parallels in Leone's last two major westerns.
With a stellar cast featuring Steve McQueen (who convinced Sturges to have the script rewritten to include his stunning motorcycle escape), James Garner, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn (with an awful Aussie accent), Richard Attenbrough, Charles Bronson (who began his affair with friend David McCallum's wife Jiff Ireland while shooting this picture), David McCallum and genuine Germans who actually served in the military during World War II, the film captures the real feel of being in a POW camp. Sturges builds a sense of claustrophobia in more than the tunneling scenes by constantly reminding us that the allied prisoners of war were little better than caged animals to many of the Germany military.
This edition of "Escape" is a huge improvement over the one released three years ago. The high definition transfer has much sharper image quality than the previous edition. While the film appears grainy at times, that's the fault of the original film stock more than the transfer. The overall look of the film remains stunning. Additionally, the vibrant colors look much better here as well. The sound has been remastered for 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. The improvements vary from scene to scene from exceptional to marginal at best.
An extensive piece-meal commentary from a number of the stars (some of whom are now deceased) and director Sturges is involving and multi-layered because we get interesting stories from everyone involved in the production of the film at many levels.
The extras make this movie shine. Unlike the previous edition, which had one documentary, the theatrical trailer and production notes, we get six featurettes on the making of the film. We also get an exhaustive documentary that ranks among the best of the retrospective documentaries I've seen. MGM has done a stellar job here (as they did with "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly").
At one time a great movie could also be a great bit of entertainment. Sturges film offers both and emotional depth and resonance at the same time. "The Great Escape" finally gets its due on DVD. This much improvement, augmented edition features a terrific high definition transfer, remastered sound and more than a handful of featurettes, documentaries. We also get the additional first hand experience of the making of the film in the form of the commentary featuring the director and much of the cast. |
