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The Great Escape
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The Great Escape (1963) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

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Down 20% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
John Sturges
Writers:
Paul Brickhill (book)
James Clavell (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Great Escape on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
4 July 1963 (USA) more
Tagline:
put a fence in front of these men...and they'll climb it... more
Plot:
Several hundred Allied POWs plan a mass escape from a German POW camp. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations more
User Comments:
Outstanding Entertainment more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
172 min
Country:
USA
Colour:
Colour
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
James Garner developed his "Scrounger" character from his own personal experiences in the military during the Korean War. more
Goofs:
Continuity: On their first day in camp, Hilts throws his baseball to the wire to check the Germans' lines of sight. When he is finally stopped and the commandant comes over and Hilts is explaining what he was doing, the position of his hands change in differently angled shots. more
Quotes:
Ramsey: Did the Gestapo give you a rough time?
Bartlett: Not nearly as rough as I now intend to give them.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Married with Children: The Great Escape (#2.18)" (1988) more

FAQ

How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Is this movie based on a novel?
A Note Regarding Spoilers
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24 out of 36 people found the following comment useful:-
Outstanding Entertainment, 11 February 2004
Author: tdemos from Oregon USA

Credit should be given to the brilliant score by Elmer Bernstein. If you listen to it closely, it literally is a battle between the Allied Prisoners (flutes & woodwinds) and the Germans (tubas). The escape scenes with the little boat on the scenic german river is evocative of Wagner and his heroic Germanic Operas. The scenery of the German countryside and the Alps is breathtaking. I believe that the scriptwriters emphasized the heroism, humor, and character of the prisoners to make an uplifting statement of what is essentially a cruel and tragic story. As a child growing up in the seventies, our 7th grade glass was reading the Paul Brickhill book and we had the opportunity to meet a former (American) Stalag Luft III prisoner from that era. He had arrived at the camp after the Great Escape, but was placed on the monument detail for the 50 executed men. He said that few men seriously contemplated escape after this incident and the emphasis was on surviving the war and going home alive.

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James Coburn's accent Purdinator
ok, just read the book.... Kimball-Kinnison
*headtilt* tearsofasara
Message loss, and Ives's song idgreenwood
New Cast Discoveries idgreenwood
Just saw this at the cinema! tgtbatu1990
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