--- title: "The Great Escape: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-great-escape/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-great-escape" critics_score: 70 critics_reviews: 10 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Great Escape (1963): what the critics said Critics' score 70 from 10 reviews: 7 positive, 2 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics come down in favour. The reviews return to the same things: Sturges’s patient staging of the tunnelling and the escape plan itself, the size and ease of the ensemble, and Steve McQueen, whose cool sits at the centre of nearly every notice. Elmer Bernstein’s score is picked out more often than any other department, and the motorcycle chase in the last half hour is named as the sequence people remember. Several also credit the film with making a real wartime event approachable for audiences who would otherwise never have met it. The spread is wide. The commonest reservation is that the film softens the grimmer side of the prisoner-of-war experience in favour of adventure, and a few find it old-fashioned even for its time. The New York Times, reviewing on release, calls it artificial and mechanical, its men made up rather than lived. The Evening Standard admires the scale but prefers smaller British escape films such as The Colditz Story. ## Radio Times — Andrew Collins Rating 5/5. 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. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-3qo9k9/the-great-escape/) ## Los Angeles Times — Glenn Lovell Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 4 August 1996. The critic highlights the restored widescreen Panavision presentation of the 1963 POW classic and praises its large-scale action sequences and emotional depth, noting why director Sturges considered it one of his best efforts. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-04-ca-31053-story.html) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1962. 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. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1962/film/reviews/the-great-escape-3-1200420303/) ## Empire — Bob McCabe Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/empire-essay-great-escape-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Chris Cabin Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 21 May 2013. 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. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-great-escape/) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2004. 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. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-great-escape-1798199594) ## The New Yorker — Jonathan Miller Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 August 1963. 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. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/08/24/camp-scenes) ## Time Out — CPe Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 11 September 2012. 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. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-great-escape-2) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. 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. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/golden-oldie-6311655.html) ## The New York Times Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 8 August 1963. 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. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1963/08/08/archives/screen-pows-in-great-escapeinmates-of-nazi-camp-are-stereotypical.html) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-great-escape.md