journal features

movie review - The Great Escape

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Sydney, 2001.01.03

Ah, the sixties. When real men couldn't act (except, strangley, for Bronson!), and Nazis all had vays to make you talk. This movie is too long, too slow, and way too focused on the three (three!) Americans present in a cast filled with Brits and colonials. The acting is stilted, McQueen seems to have rewritten large segments of the film to suit his purposes (e.g. upping the motorcycle footage), and the view of WWII as a good-natured backdrop for cheesy male bonding - so common to 60's flicks - is over-ripe in this one.

But its cast promises more, so you keep waiting for a character to identify with, or at least a sense of suspense. But these things are missing along with any sense of perspective.

Not recommended.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force