The Great Escape (film)
| The Great Escape | |
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| Directed by | John Sturges |
| Produced by | John Sturges |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on |
The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Ferris Webster |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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172 minutes |
| Country | United States |
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| Budget | $3.8 million |
| Box office | $11,744,471 |
The Great Escape is a 1963 American World War II epic film based on an escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from a German POW camp during World War II, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough, filmed in Panavision.
The film is based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 book of the same name, a non-fiction first-hand account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. The characters are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men. However, many details of the actual escape attempt were changed for the film, and the role of American personnel in both the planning and the escape was largely fabricated. The Great Escape was made by the Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges.
The film had its Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 20 June 1963.
In 1943, having expended enormous resources on recapturing escaped Allied prisoners of war (POWs), the Germans move the most determined to a new, high-security prisoner of war camp. The commandant, Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger (Hannes Messemer), tells the senior British officer, Group Captain Ramsey (James Donald), "There will be no escapes from this camp." Von Luger points out the various features of the new camp designed to prevent escape, as well as the advantages that the prisoners will receive as incentive not to try. After several failed attempts on the first day, the POWs settle into life at the camp.
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Wikipedia