The Great Escape (1963) First Time Watching! Full Movie Reaction!!
Added 2023-02-18 17:44:41 +0000 UTC
Comments
"The Rockford Files" is one of my all time favorites, as the entire second paragraph of my original comment attests and describes how it's a great companion piece to "The Sopranos".
VivendoBem
2023-05-15 23:37:24 +0000 UTCI would encourage you to watch "The Rockford Files" starring James Garner, even if it's not suitable to use as a reaction series. He had a unique style and the series fit him perfectly.
David Martin
2023-05-15 19:57:02 +0000 UTCI figured you missed a zero!
Catherine LW
2023-02-25 17:41:35 +0000 UTCMy apologizes, I had the wrong number. Almost 94,000 American POWs were taken by Germany and of those 1,121 died in captivity which is a little over 1%.
Jeffrey Miller
2023-02-24 23:54:09 +0000 UTCOver 1,000 American POWs died in German captivity, not 100.
Catherine LW
2023-02-24 23:31:38 +0000 UTCDid you know there was a “great escape” by some German POWs in an Arizona camp? The Great Papago Escape, in 1944, by 25 German sailors and officers, who tunneled out the camp and started a trek to Mexico. They were all captured, without violence. Some ended up surrendering themselves as they experienced terrible feet problems while walking in the desert. Some were captured by American Indians who tracked them to get the bounty $ offered by the government. The funniest part was when a few of the escapees, suffering from feet problems and little food, came to a house to surrender themselves only to find some kids there, with their parents away at a store. So they sat in the kitchen, drank tea and ate cookies with the kids, regaling them with war stories until Mom and Dad came home and called the authorities to pick them up!
Catherine LW
2023-02-24 23:24:35 +0000 UTCGreat reaction, you two! Regarding the treatment of POWs by the Germans. If you were in the Western Front, you were generally treated well, but Eastern Front POWs were treated terribly by both sides. There was a kind of “gentleman’s agreement” among airmen in both sides. Despite being enemies, they considered each other as special elites in the war, as air flight was in its infancy back then, so they usually treated each other with civility. Secondly, it is the duty of every POW to attempt to escape on both sides, so they were aware of that and accepted it as part of being a POW and captor.
Catherine LW
2023-02-24 23:02:50 +0000 UTCHighly recommend The Magnificent Seven. Features Steve McQueen as well as Charles Bronson and James Coburn who were also in The Great Escape. It even has the same director John Sturges. A great ensemble film like this one only it’s a western.
James Miley
2023-02-22 06:27:10 +0000 UTCAlso no one has mentioned here that Richard Attenborough (Roger "X" in this one) was John Hammond, the owner of Jurassic Park (1993). And Kris Kringle in the remake of The Miracle on 34th Street (1994).
Mike LL
2023-02-20 13:37:15 +0000 UTCGarner was an amazing comedic actor. His timing and delivery was always spot on. We need to start lobbying for Support Your Local Sherriff. That is a funny, funny movie
Smooticus
2023-02-20 13:21:20 +0000 UTCFor McQueen movies, I'd definitely recommend all that have already been mentioned, but I'm surprised no one has suggested The Sand Pebbles. it's my favorite McQueen flick and was nominated for best picture that year and McQueen was nominated for best actor. It also reunited him with Richard Attenborough (Roger in Great Escape). This is one of my must see movies
Smooticus
2023-02-20 13:10:23 +0000 UTCAnd though I also love "Murphy's Romance", it always creeped me out a little because while Garner looked so much like my Grampa, Sally Field has always borne a striking resemblance to my mom. Yikes!
VivendoBem
2023-02-20 03:41:30 +0000 UTCSally Field said he was the best kisser she ever worked with in film.
Bennett Holleman
2023-02-20 01:40:17 +0000 UTCAh, what a great movie. I wish modern Hollywood had the patience to produce their movies like this.
Sol95
2023-02-19 21:36:40 +0000 UTCA couple people recommended it above, so I just want to echo their suggestion of Stalag 17. Great movie. Also, if you haven't seen Chicken Run, that's a much different kind of movie that took inspiration from these classic WWII prison break movies. I also agree with the McQueen recs Bullitt, The Getaway, and The Magnificent Seven. Note that The Magnificent Seven is an American version of Seven Samurai, so you should definitely make sure to watch both. There is also McQueen's Thomas Crown Affair, which is very good, and it too has a remake from 1999, and both movies should also be watched.
Tyler Foster
2023-02-19 21:00:45 +0000 UTCAnother great imprisonment movie based in a true story with Steve McQueen (and Dustin Hoffman) is "Papillon" (1973).
Mr. Writhms
2023-02-19 20:11:09 +0000 UTCProbably should of just mentioned he stared in the Maverick movie, rather than having that spoiler.
Vwlss Nvwls
2023-02-19 13:47:48 +0000 UTCI mean they did technically escape, they just didn't stay free.
Vwlss Nvwls
2023-02-19 13:42:26 +0000 UTCSecond for Maverick !! Also a Great James Garner is "Space Cowboys" from 2000 with Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones
Florian Meier
2023-02-19 13:39:18 +0000 UTCSuch a great movie 🍿 i associate with Christmas cuz it's literally on TV every year here, has been since I can remember and so have seen it many times and always find myself saying out loud don't answer with Thankyou 🤦 such an easy mistake and yet so so costly . I'd have been useless in that tunnel tight spaces underground no way man I just can't 😱 . Great reaction though guys very enjoyable indeed
Ian
2023-02-19 12:25:29 +0000 UTCFYI... it has been my experience that you cannot go wrong with Steve McQueen films. I have enjoyed all that I have seen, but not sure I have seen them all.
Vwlss Nvwls
2023-02-19 11:13:28 +0000 UTCI had not seen this movie since I watched it with my father in high school in the 80s. I knew I liked it, but I must have really liked it, because my teenage self never noticed it was 3 hours long. :D
Vwlss Nvwls
2023-02-19 10:51:44 +0000 UTCJames Garner was in Maverick the tv show but also the 1994 movie with Mel Gibson & Danny Glover, reunited with their Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner
Odd Thomas
2023-02-19 10:49:30 +0000 UTCEscape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood is a good prison break movie
Odd Thomas
2023-02-19 10:47:01 +0000 UTCSa-weet...love this movie. Sunday morning is a go.
Steve Mercier
2023-02-19 06:00:21 +0000 UTCSecond the recommendation fr Stalag 17.
Michael Soukup
2023-02-19 05:57:54 +0000 UTCAnother POW movie that I highly recommend is Stalag 17, which was actually the inspiration for the later TV show Hogan's Heroes. At the very least, I hope you put Billy Wilder on your list of great directors to follow up on. I'm only starting the reaction just now, but I know you'll love it. There is definitely a reason it's being recommended so often.
Marcus Cato
2023-02-19 03:21:23 +0000 UTCAirmen prisoners were sent to Lufwaffe camps and infantry/tanker prisoners were sent to Wehrmacht camps. We Germans are very orderly like that. I laughed when you said they will hold the train when that would throw off the schedule.
Jason Mangen
2023-02-19 02:46:43 +0000 UTCWhat happened to the commandant of Stalag Luft III? Allied former prisoners at Stalag Luft III testified that he had followed the Geneva Conventions concerning the treatment of POWs and had won the respect of the senior prisoners. He was repatriated in 1947. He died in 1963 at the age of 82, less than two months before the film The Great Escape was released.
Anthony Perez
2023-02-19 02:26:13 +0000 UTCGreat film, great reaction. People have already mentioned other good Steve McQueen recommendations : Bullit , The Getaway, Papillon (1973), The Magnificent Seven. Another good John Sturges war movie is The Eagle Has Landed (1976) , which also has Donald Pleasance who plays, shall we say, quite a different character than Collin here! :).
Samolina Pilchard
2023-02-19 02:19:08 +0000 UTCJames Garner, the scrounger, had a very successful career in film and television. TV he played the lead in Maverick (57 - 62). and played Maverick's dad in the movie named Maverick (94) that starred Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson from the 90s. His second hit tv show was The Rockford Files (74 - 80) . Movies you may have heard of are The Notebook (04), Murphy's Romance (85), Victor/Victoria (82), Grand Prix (66), The Americanization of Emily (64), Darby's Rangers (58). Sayonara (57). Any one of these is a good watch...
Mike McLaughlin
2023-02-19 01:40:10 +0000 UTCEnjoyed your reaction. There is an archeological investigation with actual participants to add great insight and details to the real Great Escape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEMW2svLTF8 This will bring clarity to many questions and some ingenious inventions the POWs faced and overcame. Strongly recommend this.
Mike McLaughlin
2023-02-19 01:24:40 +0000 UTCJames Garner is the absolute best. He's got a ton of classics mentioned here by others, but I'm a huge fan of one of his later pictures Murphys Romance, co-starring Sally Field. Also, my aunt worked for Mr. and Mrs. Garner as their personal chef for a few years in the 90s. She said they were delightful.
Jen Barnes
2023-02-19 01:13:10 +0000 UTCA couple of other notes about this movie: All of the music is indeed original to the film, composed by Hollywood music legend Elmer Bernstein. The German Luftwaffe (air force) and Wehrmacht (army) abided by the Geneva Convention rules for enemy combatants. Our heroes here were luckily being held by the Luftwaffe. If Allies men were being held by the Gestapo or SS, or the Japanese, Geneva Convention rights were not observed and treatment ranged from terrible to inhuman. Though not specified, I believe Danny and Willie rowed up river, likely to the the German city of Hamburg, its major port on the Baltic Sea and stowed away on a Swedish ship because Sweden was neutral in WW2. This would have been much easier than rowing all the way across the Baltic Sea all the way to Stockholm.
VivendoBem
2023-02-18 23:12:56 +0000 UTCTerrific reaction to a sublime film! You guys have wonderful taste—James Garner was the greatest! Mike LL above does a good job of giving Garner’s (Hendley) resume, but I I want to expand on it a little because he’s probably my favorite actor ever. He was also my Grampa’s favorite, too—in fact Garner and my Grampa looked spookily similar, though Grampa was shorter. Garner won two Purple Hearts serving in the Korean War (also, like Grampa) where he was, just like in this film, the unofficial scrounger for his army unit. and then came home to become a huge TV star with the comedy western, “Maverick” while simultaneously becoming a major film star, which was just about unheard of in Hollywood, then or ever. His best and favorite film was 1964’s “The Americanization of Emily” but he nearly won the Oscar for 1985's’ “Murphy’s Romance” and was a huge star until he died in 2014. As mentioned by Mike LL, in the 1970s, he starred in the wonderful detective series “The Rockford Files” which is significant to our community as it was also the first big break in the career of a then young and bright TV writer/producer named David Chase who, of course, would go onto to create “The Sopranos”. If you ever catch a rerun of Rockford, chances are you’ll see an actor or two who would go on to feature somewhere in “The Sopranos”. It’s really amazing how many familiar, if much younger, faces you encounter. Garner specialized in playing rascals, and no one ever did it better, and he was known to be one of Hollywoods all time nice people. Everyone who worked with him, cast and crew, seemed to love him. He was a real mensch.
VivendoBem
2023-02-18 23:12:37 +0000 UTCDaniel's favorite actor in the film, James Garner, was star of a long running TV series The Rockford Files in the '70's but before that played a con man on the TV Western Maverick in the late '50's to early '60's so playing the sly Scrounger in The Great Escape fit his screen persona. He was also a major movie star, had two hit comedy Westerns, Support Your Local Sheriff (1969), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and played a supporting character in the movie Maverick (1994) based on his TV show that starred Mel Gibson. His best later movie was Victor Victoria (1982) the fabulous musical he made with Julie Andrews and of course he was Duke in The Notebook (2004) the movie I would have expected Sam to recognize him from, if any.
Mike LL
2023-02-18 21:32:03 +0000 UTCAnd of course three main actors from this movie, Steve McQueen (Hilts), Charles Bronson (Danny) and James Coburn (I forgot his name in the movie, but he was the guy who got away to Spain) were key characters in a famous Western film by this same director, John Sturges, they were three of the The Magnificent Seven (1960).
Mike LL
2023-02-18 21:16:28 +0000 UTCI Really Love this Film !!! One of the Best 60's Movies !! Big Fan of Steve MqQueen and Charles Bronson!!! You need to Check out "Papillon" from 1973 with MqQueen and Dustin Hoffman, and of Course "Bullitt" from 1968 !! From Bronson you need to watch "Death Wish" from 1974 and "Telefon" from 1979 and of Course "One Upon a Time in the West" from 1968
Florian Meier
2023-02-18 20:29:34 +0000 UTCOutstanding reaction and review! This is definitely one of the most influential and iconic films in the history of cinema. Tarantino likes to reference this film in his movies (Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Bastards, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood).
Erwin Quiachon
2023-02-18 20:16:21 +0000 UTCyou really can see how heavily this movie influenced The Shawshank Redemption
Jason Dolan
2023-02-18 19:10:12 +0000 UTCThe treatment of POWs in WW2 is an interesting subject. Allies on the western front, mostly Americans and Brits, were treated fairly well in German POW camps. Fewer than 100 Americans POWs died in German captivity. For the most part they were treated in accordance to the Geneva Protocols. One of the incentives to abide by these rules was out of fear reprisal against your POWs. The Soviets on the eastern front fared far worse. Over half of Soviet POWs died in German captivity for a total of over 3 million. This was in large part because Nazi ideology saw Slavs, Russians and other Eastern Europeans, as subhuman, comparable to Jews. Of course, this meant that when the war was coming to an end a lot of German soldiers were running to the west because they definitely didn't want to be taken by the Soviets. Allied POWs in Japanese captivity had it very bad. About 40% of American POWs died in Japanese captivity.
Jeffrey Miller
2023-02-18 18:41:00 +0000 UTCWow, this is one of those movies I grew up watching with my dad. He was awesome 😎 Will this be on YouTube today? I swear, the last two I've watched have been up there before I finish here 😂 Keep being awesome, guys ✌️
ShadowVessel π
2023-02-18 18:10:41 +0000 UTCSteve McQueen was such an iconic actor, would love to see you guys check out a few of his other classics,; Bullitt, The Getaway, Junior Bonner, Nevada Smith, Thomas Crown Affair
Ken Veader
2023-02-18 18:06:40 +0000 UTCAnother good movie to watch that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood references is SAVE THE TIGER which Jack Lemon won the Oscar for Best Actor. You'll see where Tarantino used some of that movie for Brad Pitt's character arc.
Jason Dolan
2023-02-18 18:02:41 +0000 UTC
