The Great Escape (1963)

This is one of the all-time great war movies, celebrating the indomitable spirit of Allied POWs through an intricate escape plan. Sturges excels at detailed staging and ensemble casting, with McQueen's supercool performance and Bernstein's score standing out.

The critic praises the film for entertaining, captivating, thrilling and stirring the audience through its depiction of a bold POW escape plot, highlighting strong performances especially by Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough, and Elmer Bernstein's score.

The critic finds the film harmlessly entertaining, appreciating the ingenuity of the escape efforts and the male camaraderie among the prisoners, with good boisterous performances by Steve McQueen and James Garner, while noting its nostalgic, miniature charade quality.

The film is an uneven but entertaining WWII escape drama that felt old-fashioned even on release. It features memorable sequences, a strong cast led by Steve McQueen as the Cooler King, and an iconic motorcycle stunt in the final half hour.

The critic finds the film artificial and mechanical, with make-believe men and an overly romanticized, arrogant portrayal of defiance in the POW camp that relies on clichéd Hollywood tricks rather than real human involvement.

The film humanises a significant WWII event and introduces generations to war through its story of the mass POW escape. It singles out Steve McQueen's iconic motorcycle jump and Elmer Bernstein's defiant score for praise.

The American-scale production is impressive with its ensemble and McQueen's cool persona and stunts, but the critic prefers more intimate escape stories like The Colditz Story. It notes the film's fictionalised, propaganda-tinged portrayal of likeable Germans.

The critic praises Sturges's focus on the prisoners' collaborative tunnel-building effort and international teamwork as a metaphor for filmmaking, while noting that the film soft-pedals the grim realities of the POW experience.

The critic calls the film a workmanlike adventure epic that excels in its authentic heist-like breakout sequences and lighthearted diversions but struggles with the grim historical outcome, crediting McQueen's motorcycle scenes for providing a rousing close.