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The Great Escape is a 1963 American epic war suspense adventure film starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough and featuring James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, and Angus Lennie. It was filmed in Panavision, and its musical score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. Based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 non-fiction book of the same name, the film depicts a heavily fictionalized version of the mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from German POW camp Stalag Luft III during the Second World War. The film made numerous compromises for its commercial appeal, including its portrayal of American involvement in the escape. 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. It was one of the highest-grossing films of the year, received critical acclaim worldwide, and is now regarded as a classic. The film is also noted for its motorcycle chase and jump scene, which is considered one of the best stunts ever performed. Plot In 1942, the Third Reich moves a group of captured Allied airmen with a history of escape attempts to a new POW camp commanded by Luftwaffe Colonel Luger. He warns Group Captain Ramsey—the highest-ranking Allied prisoner and de facto leader of the group—that the POWs should give up attempting to escape. Many of the men immediately try and fail. Hilts, a notoriously prolific escapee, finds a blind spot at the fence and purposefully gets caught so his discovery will go unnoticed. He is sentenced to solitary isolation in "the cooler" in a cell next to Ives, and the two plan to escape together. Meanwhile, Bartlett re-establishes "the X Organisation", an escape-planning committee from a former camp, with Ramsey's tacit approval. Bartlett argues that if they can break out an unprecedented 250 men simultaneously, it will force the Germans to divert significant manpower away from the front. The POWs begin working on three tunnels codenamed Tom, Dick, and Harry. Hendley secures vital objects on the black market and befriends expert forger Blythe. Sedgwick makes picks and air bellows, Welinski and Dickes oversee the digging, MacDonald gathers intelligence, Griffith sews civilian disguises, and Ashley-Pitt devises a method of hiding the excavated dirt. Digging noise is masked by a choir led by Cavendish, who also surveys the tunnels' routes. Aware that Hilts is planning his own escape, Bartlett asks him to scout out the surrounding area and then allow himself to be recaptured so he can draw maps for the X Organisation, but Hilts refuses out of pride. As Tom nears completion, Bartlett orders Dick and Harry sealed off. Hilts, Hendley, and Goff brew potato moonshine with a homemade still and throw a Fourth of July party for the camp, but during the celebration the guards find Tom, to the prisoners' dismay. A despondent Ives snaps, scales the fence, and is shot dead. Hilts, shaken, agrees to help the X Organisation. Bartlett orders Harry reopened. When the tunnel partially collapses, Welinski confides to Dickes that he is claustrophobic; he tries to break out through the fence, but Dickes calms him down and promises to help him overcome his fear. Blythe realises he is going blind due to progressive myopia, and Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's eyes outside the camp. The POWs complete Harry, but on the night they break to the surface they find themselves 20 feet short of the woods. With Hilts' help—and aided by an air raid blackout—dozens of men flee before Cavendish slips and makes a noise. An impatient Griffith exits the hole while a guard investigates and is captured, ending the breakout. The 76 escapees flee across Europe but only three make it to freedom: Welinski and Dickes escape to Sweden, while Sedgwick reaches Spain. The rest are unsuccessful: Cavendish hitches a ride but is turned in by the driver. Hendley and Blythe steal a plane to fly to Switzerland but crash when the engine fails; Blythe is shot and dies as Hendley is recaptured. Hilts steals a motorcycle and heads for Switzerland but is recaptured at the border. At a train station, Ashley-Pitt kills a Gestapo officer to prevent him from apprehending Bartlett but is himself shot and killed. Later, Bartlett and MacDonald are caught when MacDonald is tricked into speaking English. Most of the men—including Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish, and Haynes—are told they are being taken back to the camp, but instead are actually driven to a field and shot dead. Luger delivers news of the murders—justified by his superiors under the pretext that they were killed during the escape attempt itself—to Ramsey, who informs the returning survivors, among them Hendley and Nimmo. Hendley wonders whether the escape was worth it; Ramsey says it depends on one's point of view. Luger is relieved of command by the SS and driven away to an uncertain fate. Hilts returns to the cooler, where he starts planning his next escape. Cast Production Writing In 1963, the Mirisch brothers worked with United Artists to adapt Paul Brickhill's 1950 book The Great Escape. Brickhill had been a very minor member of the X Organisation at Stalag Luft III, who acted as one of the "stooges" who monitored German movements in the camp. The story had been adapted as a live TV production, screened by NBC as an episode of The Philco Television Playhouse on January 27, 1951. The live broadcast was praised for engineering an ingenious set design for the live broadcast, including creating the illusion of tunnels. The film's screenplay was adapted by James Clavell, W. R. Burnett and Walter Newman. Casting Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn all had recently worked with director John Sturges on his 1960 motion picture, The Magnificent Seven. McQueen has been credited with the most significant performance. Critic Leonard Maltin wrote that "the large, international cast is superb, but the standout is McQueen; it's easy to see why this cemented his status as a superstar". This film established his box-office clout. Hilts was based on at least three pilots, David M. Jones, John Dortch Lewis and Bill Ash. Richard Attenborough's Sqn Ldr Roger Bartlett, "Big X", was based on Roger Bushell, the South African-born British POW who was the mastermind of the real Great Escape. This was the film that first brought Attenborough to common notice in the United States. During World War II, Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force. He volunteered to fly with the Film Unit, and after further training (where he sustained permanent ear damage), he qualified as a sergeant. He flew on several missions over Europe, filming from the rear gunner's position to record the outcome of Bomber Command sorties. (Richard Harris was originally announced for the role.) Group.... Discover the Anton De Kom David Mckay popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Anton De Kom David Mckay books.