Join WhatsApp Channel
Join Telegram ChannelJohn Sturges' classic returns to Arte.
Released on August 1, 1963 in France, The Great Escape became the biggest success of that year: with 8.7 million admissions, it doubled Lawrence of Arabia, The Butter Cooking, James Bond vs. Dr. No, The Leet, The Gunslingers… This film following the spectacular, and true, escape of prisoners of war in 1942 gained such popularity that it later inspired works as diverse as Chicken Run, Toy Story 3, Stranger Things Or Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
Once upon a time… in Hollywood: Tarantino at the top [Critique]
With Settling scores at OK Corral And The Seven Mercenaries, The Great Escape is the best-known film by John Sturges, a solid filmmaker from the post-golden age of Hollywood who knew how to perfectly cope with the new demands of the studios to counter the growing influence of television: action, wide open spaces, stars. It was he who, at the dawn of the 1960s, launched the fashion for strip films with The Seven Mercenaries whose recipe was simple: mix established and rising stars within a choral plot making them shine in turn according to their roles and skills.
For The Great Escapethree years later, he reunited with Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn, whom he plunged into a German prison camp among leading British actors, including Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasence and David McCallum. The other American, James Garner, completed a homogeneous cast, ready to play as a team. However, it is said that Charles Bronson would not have liked the fact that Steve McQueen wanted to pull the cover for him. The latter indeed saw in the role of Captain Virgil Hilts the opportunity to establish his popularity and his status. He thus campaigned to add the famous final motorcycle chase sequence which did not correspond to the facts – the story was inspired by a real spectacular escape. Undubbed (except for the motorcycle jump shot), Steve McQueen was so identified with his character, nicknamed “The Cooler King”that he retained the nickname of “King of cool”. The legend was in progress.
61 years later, The great escape remains a model of action film. The legendary sequences follow one another. The baseball thrown into a dead center, the earth evacuated via pierced socks, Pleasence's ruse to hide his blindness, Bronson lying on his cart in the tunnel, the attacks of claustrophobia of the same Bronson, the dispersion of the escapees in the surrounding countryside and their concealment strategies…
We don't feel the three hours of film passing by. The effectiveness is such that it easily masks the ease of a scenario whose casual tone contrasts with the harshness of the events described. We enjoy the antics of McQueen and his sidekick Angus Lennie; we smile at the tender complicity between Garner and Pleasence. Bronson strength on his side “disease” while the presence of James Coburn is inexplicably reduced – we therefore do not understand why he is shown as one of the rare survivors of the escape. Come on, let's not sulk our pleasure and let's see again The Great Escape for the tenth time.
Steven Spielberg is working on a new film based around the character of Bullitt