Latest / All The Right Movies / The Great Escape (1963) | Ep. 48 - Part 1

Transcript

The Great Escape (1963) | Ep. 48 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

• 0:05
  You appointed me Big X. And it's my duty to have us
• 0:08
  confound and confuse the enemy to the best of my ability.
• 0:11
  That's. True and.
• 0:13
  That's what I intend to do. I'm going to call such a
• 0:16
  terrible stink in this Third Reich of theirs.
• 0:19
  The thousands of troops that could well be employed at the
• 0:21
  front will be tied up here looking after us by putting more
• 0:25
  men out of this perfect camp of theirs.
• 0:28
  And I've ever escaped. Before we're not.
• 0:30
  Getting out two or three or a dozen, but 203 hundred scan of
• 0:34
  them all over Germany. Every escape artist in Germany
• 0:37
  is transported to the perfect camp of Stalag Luft 3 led by Big
• 0:42
  X. They band together and come up
• 0:43
  with an ingenious plan to carry out the greatest mass escape
• 0:46
  from APOW camp. But how many will escape and
• 0:49
  will they make it to freedom? The epitome of rainy day Bank
• 0:52
  holiday view and John Sturges is the greatest Scape is one of the
• 0:55
  greatest adventure films ever made, helped in no small part by
• 0:58
  a legendary ensemble cast and one of the most beloved stunts
• 1:01
  in movie history. My name is Luke, and in the
• 1:04
  cooler with me are Flight Lieutenant Matt.
• 1:06
  Crazy mixed up kid that Verner, but I like him.
• 1:10
  And Captain Westie. I'm watching him.
• 1:13
  I'm a lifeguard. All the right movies are going
• 1:15
  to devote our energies to sports and gardening and put the goons
• 1:18
  to sleep. Meanwhile, we dig.
• 1:39
  Tally ballyhoo everyone, and welcome to all the right movies.
• 1:49
  That was indecently brilliant. A podcast on classic and hit
• 1:55
  films. Guaranteed to harass, confound
• 1:58
  and confuse all listeners. Oh.
• 2:00
  Yes. We are well behind enemy lines
• 2:02
  this week as we discussed the universally beloved World War 2
• 2:06
  romp The Great Escape. And a romp it is.
• 2:09
  It is a huge film, a huge romp. Indeed.
• 2:12
  Who doesn't love a romp, Westie? Exactly.
• 2:15
  Now, before we start tunneling, we're going to let you know
• 2:17
  about the benefits of being a patron of all the right movies.
• 2:20
  Indeed. You've heard it before, but now
• 2:22
  more than ever, you are missing out on hundreds of hours of
• 2:25
  additional movie podcasts. Yeah.
• 2:28
  First up, you have our podcast archive, which is bursting at
• 2:31
  the seams with classic after classic.
• 2:33
  Only the last 20 episodes like this one are available to 1:00,
• 2:36
  and all the rest are only available in our podcast
• 2:38
  archive. And you can sign up on Spotify,
• 2:41
  Apple Podcasts, and Patreon for that worth its weight in gold.
• 2:46
  But also, if you sign up on Patreon, you get access to two
• 2:50
  brand new podcasts per month, our exclusive shows Double
• 2:53
  Feature, and our movie review show The Watch List.
• 2:56
  Yeah, you do indeed. Not to mention our archive of
• 2:59
  podcasts created specifically for Patreon supporters.
• 3:01
  There are over 70 episodes of our Patreon shows, so that is
• 3:04
  overall over 150 podcasts that you can't listen to anywhere
• 3:08
  else. Amazing.
• 3:09
  Massive no rations from all the right movies.
• 3:12
  No, no, no, no. SO.
• 3:14
  For all that and more, sign up at patreon.com/all the Right
• 3:17
  Movies. It would really help us out if
• 3:19
  you can. It means we can keep on spinning
• 3:20
  all plates on our podcasts, social media, YouTube, website,
• 3:24
  all of that. So thank you everyone in
• 3:26
  advance. Yes, thank you so much.
• 3:27
  That really is a massive help. Huge.
• 3:29
  Yeah. Also, we've spread our wings on
• 3:32
  social media, so if you are on Blue Sky and Threads, be sure to
• 3:36
  check us out. Threads we are at all the under
• 3:38
  score right movies and on Blue Sky we were at all the right
• 3:40
  movies.com. Lovely.
• 3:42
  Yes, we are. Don't hesitate because we're
• 3:45
  getting a lot of take up on those platforms, so please do.
• 3:48
  Please do guys. Now back to enemy base.
• 3:50
  Matt, this was your pick. It was.
• 3:53
  Oh, and a big one it was Why do you want to talk about The Great
• 3:55
  Escape? Well, I mean, I think this film,
• 3:57
  it's so embedded in our culture. It's quite different to a lot of
• 4:01
  films we cover where we all see, oh, I remember the first time I
• 4:04
  watched this. I generally can't remember the
• 4:06
  first time I watched The Great Escape.
• 4:08
  It's just always been there and it is a bit of a cliche but it
• 4:12
  is true. If it's the Easter bank holiday,
• 4:14
  The Great Escape is on telly. If it's Boxing Day, the Great
• 4:17
  Escape is on. Everyone knows it and you're the
• 4:20
  cliche about it is true as well. Like if you're flicking through
• 4:22
  channels and you come across The Great Escape, it's staying on.
• 4:26
  It doesn't matter what point you've joined the film, you're
• 4:28
  watching it from that point because it's so easy to get
• 4:31
  into. You don't have to play a catch
• 4:33
  up, you can just relax and have a great time with it.
• 4:36
  As you mentioned, the top, the cast, just a staggering
• 4:38
  ensemble. It's an incredible true story.
• 4:41
  And just from my personal perspective, it's all slightly
• 4:44
  bothered me that our output on this podcast, it's so post 1970
• 4:49
  and I'm really getting to start redressing the balance a bit.
• 4:51
  You know, cinema did exist before the 1970s.
• 4:54
  We've done Rewindow and that's it.
• 4:56
  So I think The Great Escape, it's just a perfect fit.
• 4:58
  Nice. Yes, I totally agree.
• 5:01
  Like many films in this genre, The Great Escape was not really
• 5:03
  part of my youth. Unlike you Matt, movies from the
• 5:07
  60s and beyond with a 2 hour plus runtime put me right off
• 5:10
  when I was younger. Well, still do now.
• 5:11
  Right. Going to say yeah.
• 5:13
  Nothing changed. So my first viewing of this was
• 5:16
  in my mid to late teens. I think it was really released
• 5:19
  on VHS in this wonderful package.
• 5:22
  So I bought it for the package alone more than anything else.
• 5:24
  It was kind of like a green package, it felt.
• 5:26
  Nice to just another one, yeah. Yeah, that's advertising for
• 5:31
  you. Suck at me right in.
• 5:33
  If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't have seen it
• 5:35
  until recently, and the last time I saw it was at Easter this
• 5:40
  year. Matt as well.
• 5:41
  But I would have been hugely missing out if I hadn't seen it
• 5:44
  early on in my youth. Because it's an absolute doozy.
• 5:48
  A true movie classic from a bygone era of films that they
• 5:51
  just do not make any more. No, it's funny and charming, but
• 5:54
  doesn't forget the peril that these men face.
• 5:57
  And I am a sucker for an ensemble cast.
• 5:59
  This is one of the best. It is whips along at a
• 6:02
  breathtaking pace, a RIP Roar in time, and I think it's
• 6:04
  justifiably a Stormwall classic. And it's got one of the great
• 6:08
  movie posters. Yeah.
• 6:10
  So this is incredible. And we've done over 100
• 6:12
  classics. Like you said, Matt, it's time
• 6:14
  we spread our wings and cover more pre 70s films.
• 6:16
  And what a way to do it. Yeah.
• 6:18
  What about USD? You've got to love this one.
• 6:20
  Well, I mean, you know me. You know me too.
• 6:22
  Well, I know you do. Well, we're recording this on a
• 6:24
  Sunday and I've just watched it again and I really had to prize
• 6:26
  myself away because it wasn't finished.
• 6:29
  We had about half an hour left and I thought, fuck, I've never
• 6:31
  done this before, but I had to just leave it and come and but
• 6:34
  it's fine to leave it. Come and talk about it.
• 6:35
  I guess what it's like times I've never really finished it.
• 6:38
  It's like Matt that's always been here.
• 6:40
  It's always been around for me. It's a massive Sunday film.
• 6:43
  It's every time I put it on acting like smell the cooking.
• 6:46
  I can smell like like Christmas dinner.
• 6:48
  There's so much noise going on, but you don't need all the
• 6:51
  dialogue in the film and you can have all the family around and
• 6:53
  it's still on. Every single character is just
• 6:56
  huge. And it's like you can just root
• 6:57
  for whoever you want to and everyone's on on a level, on a
• 7:01
  part. It's such a watchable film.
• 7:03
  Like Matt says, you can go in at any time.
• 7:05
  Like you can put it on and say, I'll put the Great Escape on, go
• 7:07
  and do some hoovering or whatever and then come back and
• 7:09
  just watch a little bit and then go do something else.
• 7:11
  And it's just like you can do that to put on two or three
• 7:13
  times a day. And it's just so varied in its
• 7:16
  approach to all these different things.
• 7:18
  And the way it's tied together by Sturgis, the way it's acted
• 7:20
  by everybody, It's just so beautifully made as a as a
• 7:23
  complete piece, as a complete film, So comforting.
• 7:26
  It's just like a best friend. It never lets you down and every
• 7:29
  time it finishes, even though it's really dour, even though
• 7:33
  we'll get into this like it's not a happy story whatsoever,
• 7:35
  but you feel good when it's finished.
• 7:37
  Oh yeah, you just feel like $1,000,000 and that's.
• 7:40
  A magic trick that isn't it it. Really is.
• 7:42
  And I think it's just so well done and I can put it on for
• 7:44
  anybody. And I know that my kids will sit
• 7:46
  and watch it. I know that.
• 7:47
  And he mean my dad will sit and watch it.
• 7:49
  My grandpa used to sit and watch it.
• 7:50
  It just spans everything and it's got something for
• 7:52
  everybody. So yeah, I'm very excited to
• 7:53
  talk about this one. It's it's been a long time
• 7:55
  coming. Yes, it has very much and just
• 7:58
  pick up on a thing that you've said there, Westie, you
• 8:00
  mentioned about the cook and you mentioned about the Hoover and
• 8:03
  it really is that ingrained in kind of home domesticated.
• 8:07
  Life it really. Is the greatest.
• 8:08
  Yeah, it's just blends in. It's like an environment in
• 8:12
  itself and it creates just such a warm environment, just just
• 8:15
  with it merely existing on the screen.
• 8:17
  It's fucking fantastic. It is.
• 8:19
  It's wonderful. Yeah.
• 8:20
  The Greatest Gate was written by James Clavin WR Burnett, based
• 8:24
  on the novel by Paul Brickell, produced and directed by John
• 8:27
  Sturgis for the Mirish Company and distributed by United
• 8:30
  Artists. Filmed on location and on sound
• 8:32
  stages in Germany, it was released on the 20th of June
• 8:35
  1963. It has a legendary cast
• 8:38
  including Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough,
• 8:40
  James Colburn, Charlie Bronson, Donald Pleasance and many, many
• 8:43
  more. Here we go, boys.
• 8:45
  We're headed to Stalag Love 3 for the opening scenes of The
• 8:48
  Greatest Game. It's captain.
• 8:50
  Hills. In the opening act were
• 9:12
  introduced to the main players on both sides of war.
• 9:14
  The prisoners make themselves comfortable with immediate
• 9:17
  escape attempts and the main man, Roger Big X Bartlett,
• 9:20
  arrives to separate the men from the boys.
• 9:22
  Big X love that, love it. Over the USD Big X.
• 9:26
  Yeah, the big X, the big man, whatever.
• 9:29
  Yeah, whatever. Yeah, 'cause what you want,
• 9:30
  Don't call us in the morning. It's the intro to this whole
• 9:37
  thing, the intro to the camp itself.
• 9:39
  When you're in there, I think it's the way the score plays
• 9:42
  out, how it alters your emotion, alters your perception.
• 9:44
  The the doors are closed and there's this kind of
• 9:47
  claustrophobia there and you see everybody walking around.
• 9:50
  You're introduced to the characters and they're already
• 9:52
  sniffing out. They're already like, how can I
• 9:54
  immediately, It's immediately see Hedley walking around.
• 9:57
  He's having a little bit of a look.
• 9:58
  There's these great close-ups of just the barbed wire and that's
• 10:01
  how new IT all feels. I got and smell the wood like
• 10:04
  it's all just this brand new thing and you've just been put
• 10:07
  in this thing and it's just like it's been designed to keep you
• 10:09
  in and you as a viewer. You want to how can I get out of
• 10:11
  this place? It's you can still sat and see
• 10:14
  the woods out and see outside. It's like it's so tempting to
• 10:16
  just want to. You've got like, you know, head
• 10:18
  is walking around, hilts is checking the dirt and then
• 10:21
  they're all there and you see them all, but not in a really
• 10:23
  obvious way of like, these are the guys you're going to follow.
• 10:26
  It's a great you see the score when it just goes a little bit
• 10:28
  dower and the realization sets in and it's like, oh God, we're
• 10:31
  here. This is it.
• 10:32
  This is all we've got now how we're going to figure this out.
• 10:35
  It's just puts you as one of the PO WS, like without it being a
• 10:39
  point of view. You know, there's no handheld
• 10:41
  camera really. It's just very static, but it's
• 10:43
  just the way it puts you in with everybody.
• 10:44
  You feel like you're part of it all, but it is very sugary.
• 10:48
  Oh, it is. Even the guards on the guard
• 10:50
  tower, you just expect them to give them a little wave and
• 10:52
  like, yeah, yeah, hello. I'll just.
• 10:54
  I'll just tap me gun. Yeah.
• 10:56
  What do you think about that? Yeah, I get, I get that.
• 11:00
  Things like that. It just, it doesn't push it too
• 11:02
  far. It just reminds you like, that's
• 11:04
  their role. They're the bad guys, They're
• 11:06
  the good guys. They need to get out of here and
• 11:08
  that's it. And you're like, right, let's do
• 11:10
  it. That's no matter what happens,
• 11:11
  this is going to be entertaining.
• 11:12
  Brilliant. Yeah, I love it when Ramsey's in
• 11:15
  there speaking to the commandant.
• 11:16
  Yeah, and he's reeling off the rap sheets of all the prisoners.
• 11:19
  Yeah, I've even tried to jump out of the truck on the way.
• 11:21
  Yeah. It's.
• 11:23
  Like it's our job to try and escape.
• 11:25
  It's. Like, well, yes, I know.
• 11:26
  Yes, I know that, but please don't.
• 11:29
  And the commandant you mentioned it was played by Hans Messimer
• 11:32
  who he had first hand power experience as well.
• 11:34
  He was captured by the Soviet army but escaped and walked
• 11:37
  hundreds of miles to the German border.
• 11:39
  Amazing. Yeah.
• 11:39
  Yeah. He closely resembles the actual
• 11:42
  commandant of the stalagm of three.
• 11:43
  The actual one, right? Friedrich Vilhelm, He was also
• 11:47
  sympathetic to the plight of the allied forces and held anti Nazi
• 11:50
  views. Yeah, the actual guy took the
• 11:52
  post at loft 3, as he saw it, as a way to serve his country,
• 11:55
  which he loved, but distanced himself from the Nazis, which he
• 11:57
  despised. And he was also relieved of his
• 12:00
  duties after the great escape. And in an ironic twist, he
• 12:03
  became APOW near the end of the war because he surrendered to
• 12:06
  the British. But he then testified in the
• 12:08
  manhunt about the executed 50 escapees and he donated material
• 12:12
  from memorial to the victims. Yeah, he feigned mental illness
• 12:16
  to to get off with what they saw as the war crimes of letting the
• 12:20
  Pows escape. Yeah, because they testified for
• 12:23
  him, didn't they, when they were on trials?
• 12:25
  Incredible stuff actually did respect.
• 12:26
  Him that much? Yeah.
• 12:28
  And that comes across on screen. Oh, totally does.
• 12:30
  You know, it's a hell of a thing, really.
• 12:31
  It is. It's great.
• 12:33
  Yeah, I'm very much the same. I do love how this just set to
• 12:36
  stall out immediately because these guys have been there all
• 12:38
  of 20 minutes and they just go, yeah, fuck this, let's go, let's
• 12:41
  get out of here. It's unbelievable.
• 12:45
  Tub. Like no thought of to stay in
• 12:51
  there one night to scope it out a bit and get some rest and get
• 12:54
  settled in. No straight out of there, but
• 12:56
  it's the variety of scape attempts which I love here.
• 12:59
  You've got hills straight away working out, there's a blind
• 13:01
  spot between the car towers and that's going to be important.
• 13:04
  So he's the logical thinker. Then you've got the likes of
• 13:06
  Ives and Danny who would just, you know, climbing up on top of
• 13:09
  the hood straight away and just throwing themselves.
• 13:11
  Yeah, ridiculous. The truck side under the trees.
• 13:14
  It's pretty. But I do want to talk about
• 13:15
  James Corbin here and that incredible Australian accent.
• 13:19
  Like when he thought, what you do my coat mate?
• 13:22
  Yeah. Fantastic.
• 13:24
  Just say mate, that makes me sound Australian, yes?
• 13:27
  He will be Australian then. Yeah, Knuckles, it says
• 13:31
  Knuckles. They want Knuckles.
• 13:32
  Knuckles. Knuckles.
• 13:37
  I mean it's. Ridiculous.
• 13:38
  But that fake fight, it just set the characters up really well
• 13:40
  because it tells you how experienced they are had
• 13:42
  escaping. They've got the plans already in
• 13:44
  motion. And then it follows on.
• 13:47
  You've got the brilliant scene between Coburn and Bronson as
• 13:49
  Danny when they've stuck into the line of Russian workers, and
• 13:52
  Cedric as Danny for some Russian.
• 13:54
  Yeah. Vas Lulu.
• 13:56
  Yeah, Vas Lulu. What does that mean?
• 13:57
  I love you. What bloody God is that?
• 13:59
  What? Bloody God is that?
• 14:01
  I don't know, I wasn't going to use it.
• 14:02
  Myself then walks off. Then just walks off.
• 14:05
  Yeah. So I think this exchange is
• 14:07
  really important because it helps kneel the torn.
• 14:09
  It says this is going to be Graeme or Dower.
• 14:11
  This is going to be fun. Actually, this is going to be,
• 14:14
  as we've been saying, a big adventure.
• 14:16
  I do love it when the big man shows up.
• 14:18
  Big X. Roger Bartlett, you know he's
• 14:21
  the main man because the reception he gets from his
• 14:23
  fellow prisoners. It's the other people's
• 14:25
  reaction. It's like, don't make a big
• 14:26
  deal. They might not know who he is.
• 14:27
  Like he's a big deal. Yeah, I'll warn this guy.
• 14:29
  I'll warn the other one. I love it.
• 14:31
  Yeah. But when he goes in to see the
• 14:33
  commandant, he kind of looks meek and unassuming and almost
• 14:36
  malnourished the way he's kind of hunched over.
• 14:38
  Yeah. And it's set up in this scene on
• 14:40
  Account Rogers former escape attempt.
• 14:42
  If he escapes again and is caught, he'll be shot.
• 14:46
  And that's exactly what happens. Relay that in this scene as
• 14:50
  well. You've got the cracks in the
• 14:51
  common dance. Tough talk.
• 14:52
  He clearly isn't fully on board on account of his delayed Haile
• 14:55
  Hitler. Yeah, very reluctant.
• 14:57
  Yeah. But when Bartlett is talking to
• 14:59
  Ramsey, we quickly learn what a wily old trickster he is.
• 15:03
  Once he knows almost the entire X organization is on site, he
• 15:06
  starts to formulate his ground plan.
• 15:08
  And there's some wonderful dialogue here.
• 15:10
  Ramsey says that all the rotten eggs are in one basket, and
• 15:13
  Violet says there's madness in their method.
• 15:15
  Love that. Yeah, great.
• 15:17
  And when Ramsey asks if the Gestapo gave him a rough time,
• 15:20
  Roger replies, not nearly as rough as I intend to give them.
• 15:23
  Yeah, come on. Yes, yeah.
• 15:26
  This is the man. Yeah, Put all your money on this
• 15:29
  horse. He's going to cause such a stink
• 15:30
  in this camp. I love it.
• 15:31
  He's brilliant and that's confirmed in the planning team
• 15:34
  with all the chaps. He's got it all planned down to
• 15:36
  the man you detail. And he's where we really find
• 15:39
  out the magnitude of the task at hand.
• 15:41
  No half measures. They're going to dig a tunnel
• 15:43
  over 335 feet, straight down, 30 feet before they go horizontal.
• 15:47
  And not only that, there's going to be three of them, Tom, Dick
• 15:49
  and Harry, and they're taking a 250 men, a huge undertaking, but
• 15:54
  you absolutely never question Rogers ability to pull it all
• 15:57
  off. No, no, no, no.
• 15:58
  In the real story in the spring of 1943, RAF Squadron Leader
• 16:02
  Roger Bushel Bartlett in the film outlined his plans for a
• 16:05
  mass escape from Stalaglove 3. The plan was for the escape to
• 16:09
  take place on March 24th, 1944, and that's almost a year later.
• 16:13
  That's unbelievable. Yeah, I mean.
• 16:14
  You need something to do. It just goes to show how much
• 16:19
  plan went into this. Like the film, they did dig
• 16:22
  three holes so that if one was found, the Germans wouldn't
• 16:24
  expect another two underwear. The plan was to get 200 men
• 16:27
  through the tunnel. Unbelievable.
• 16:30
  And the film does get pulled up for playing around with the
• 16:33
  facts, but the fundamentals are absolutely correct.
• 16:35
  Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So Big X has a plan and a
• 16:38
  willing group of chaps to help them out, and he pulled it off.
• 16:42
  Let's see. Of course he can.
• 16:43
  Of course he fucking can. Plans are in motion on Tom, Dick
• 16:48
  and Harry, and our boys are hard at work laying the foundations
• 16:51
  to keep the Germans blissfully unaware, including an ingenious
• 16:55
  way of concealing the surplus soil.
• 16:57
  That's indecently brilliant, isn't it?
• 17:00
  Let's be honest, I'll say it again.
• 17:02
  What do you think, Roger? It's brilliant, he says.
• 17:05
  It's great. Many elsewhere.
• 17:06
  What do you think? It's wonderful.
• 17:08
  I mean, it's it's mental. It's absolutely crazy that this
• 17:12
  worked and the way that it's sure believable, it's so plainly
• 17:15
  shown. It's if the audience is like a
• 17:17
  four year old child who doesn't have a clue how this is going to
• 17:20
  work. Like we've already seen it work,
• 17:22
  but don't need like shots of the feet as the raking in the middle
• 17:26
  of like a strung out section, right?
• 17:28
  And then between oh, yeah, yes. And they will walk up and, and
• 17:31
  at this point I'm going right. I've really got to just let this
• 17:33
  wash over us because they must outnumber the guards like 10:00
• 17:36
  to 1:20 to 1:00. And then I can have a pickaxe
• 17:39
  and a rake and like, oh, yeah, no problem.
• 17:41
  They go. Just tear them down.
• 17:42
  Yeah, of course you could just, you could wreak havoc with a
• 17:45
  pickaxe. You know, you maybe a couple of
• 17:48
  them will get shot, but I think there's enough of them to kind
• 17:50
  of get through. But again, you just think, no, I
• 17:52
  don't want a quick way out of this.
• 17:54
  I want, it would be time. I want to do it like in a in a
• 17:56
  really intellectual way. I don't want any kind of bolsh
• 17:59
  or, you know, bravado. It's just got to be done in a
• 18:02
  really clever kind of very, you know, stiff up very, very
• 18:05
  British way. Yeah.
• 18:07
  It's very kind of British sensibilities that come across,
• 18:09
  especially at the time it was made.
• 18:10
  It's very, very English, and it's something that we're all
• 18:14
  like, oh, it's so proud of that. But it's, no, that's one thing
• 18:16
  that really pisses me off because, you know, you didn't do
• 18:18
  anything about it. That's what they had to do, and
• 18:20
  they were good at doing it. I mean, I kind of put a fucking
• 18:23
  shelf up. Never mind dig a tunnel.
• 18:25
  Generational, isn't it? Like, I couldn't do any of that
• 18:27
  shit. Yeah.
• 18:29
  If we were in a power camp now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:32
  Play the theme tune, probably on a trumpet, because someone would
• 18:35
  have it. I can send an e-mail to the
• 18:38
  Gestapo and say sorry. Come on, you.
• 18:41
  Know, once you gave a football or something maybe, and there
• 18:45
  was so much of that kind of masculinity because they had to
• 18:48
  be like that. They had to be, you know,
• 18:50
  mechanics and they had to be technicians because they were,
• 18:53
  you know, they were pilots, they were skilled, had these skills
• 18:56
  and they put them to the to this really good use.
• 18:59
  And I think if people look back and go, that's what the British
• 19:01
  are like. It isn't.
• 19:02
  That's what they used to be like.
• 19:03
  Yes. And again, not anymore, No, no.
• 19:06
  And we could say that about the Russians, say that about the
• 19:08
  Germans, say about the Japanese. Anyone in World War 2 was
• 19:11
  incredibly skilled and they did incredible things.
• 19:14
  It's a very romanticized version of of.
• 19:16
  Course it is. It's very charming, isn't?
• 19:18
  It so charming. That's that's one just getting
• 19:20
  rid of some shit. It's two different colours.
• 19:24
  Let's just charm the shit out of this, all right?
• 19:26
  Like none of it gets in your shoes.
• 19:28
  It's fine. Yeah, I know.
• 19:30
  And the real prisoners, they walk great courts to conceal the
• 19:33
  bulges made by the sun from the tunnels, and they've got
• 19:35
  referred to as Penguins because of their supposed resemblance to
• 19:38
  the animal. Yeah, so it's dirty or it's not
• 19:41
  sand, but still artistic license.
• 19:43
  Well, of course there's plenty of that, but I mean, there must
• 19:45
  be. What are The Walking around
• 19:46
  like? Penguins.
• 19:48
  The Germans didn't twig at that. They didn't twist that big long
• 19:51
  day. Giveaway.
• 19:52
  Middle of summer, What's wrong with them?
• 19:54
  It's like two kids standing up through their shoulders trying
• 19:56
  to get into a film with a big quarter.
• 19:58
  To a nightclub, yeah. Just imagine if you went down to
• 20:01
  the field just like 2 tiny feet with loads of soil coming out.
• 20:07
  And then following on from this, you've got it might be the
• 20:09
  longest scene between just two characters in the entire film.
• 20:12
  And it's the conversation between Henley and Werner, which
• 20:15
  is another scene that's really funny and really trauma, but
• 20:18
  tells you a lot about the characters.
• 20:20
  Because I think it's quite a subtle point the film makes,
• 20:23
  that a lot of Germans the were Nazis and they weren't
• 20:25
  particularly happy doing these jobs.
• 20:26
  They weren't paid well, and Henley knows that, and he
• 20:29
  players and that, you know, blowing the cigarette smoke
• 20:31
  just, like, into Verna because the prisoners probably did get
• 20:34
  more cigarettes in their rations.
• 20:36
  Yeah, than the gods could afford.
• 20:38
  And Verner doesn't even realize he's been bribed by Henley
• 20:42
  straight away. And he gives him some smokes.
• 20:44
  You probably have a couple of roommates and sticks a couple in
• 20:46
  his hair top pocket. Yeah.
• 20:48
  Yeah. In Henley, you mean.
• 20:49
  God, it's just magnificent in this.
• 20:50
  But Henley plays this almost like a seduction because he's so
• 20:53
  charming and he knows exactly what buttons to push with
• 20:57
  Verner. And it's so funny when he tells
• 20:59
  Verner he was in the Boy Scouts also, as I I had 19 married
• 21:02
  badges. No, I had 20.
• 21:04
  That's so funny. And I think This is why you
• 21:06
  realize Henley is so good as a scrounger, like his ability to
• 21:09
  charm and to get information out of people because we're they're
• 21:12
  complaining about his teeth, you know, says that dentist is a
• 21:15
  butcher. But then he gets a look on his
• 21:16
  face because he realizes he said too much and he could get in
• 21:18
  serious trouble for this. But you can't help feel sorry
• 21:22
  for Verna. Like he clearly doesn't want to
• 21:23
  be there. He clearly hates the job.
• 21:25
  He seems a nice enough guy. But Henley has now got him
• 21:28
  exactly where he wants him. He's got the real coffee.
• 21:31
  When was the last time Verna had some real coffee?
• 21:32
  I mean, his eyes are practically bulging out of his head when he
• 21:35
  sees the marmalade and the chocolate, but when he sees von
• 21:39
  Lugas butter, I mean he's and he's about to kick off, but he's
• 21:42
  been played so well by Handley because he can't report him now
• 21:45
  because he said too much. He's in, yeah.
• 21:47
  And he's in. He's fallen completely in a
• 21:49
  Handley strap. And then the sting in the tail.
• 21:51
  The whole thing is being set up by Handley to not only nab his
• 21:54
  wallet, but to get anything he needs from Verner, including
• 21:57
  what sounds like a really complicated camera later on.
• 22:00
  Yeah, where? Still a test of that I imagine.
• 22:03
  I can't do if you want to be bored by it, but I'll let you
• 22:05
  know. The focal plane shutter is over
• 22:06
  relief shutter if you want. In that same Verner tells Henley
• 22:13
  that he's not a well, man. Life imitated art,
• 22:16
  Unfortunately. Robert Graff, who plays Verner,
• 22:18
  died of cancer in 1966, just a few years after the film.
• 22:21
  Oh really? He's good as Werner as well.
• 22:23
  I like well, linking into what you were saying about
• 22:26
  distributing the soil out evenly, USD really love the
• 22:30
  attempts to conceal the escape work overall in the camp.
• 22:34
  Yeah, the segment just absolutely whips along.
• 22:36
  Cedric has made his air pump, the choir a conceived and the
• 22:39
  racket created by the hammering. Great, if somewhat convenient
• 22:43
  timing. Maybe very.
• 22:45
  Convenient. The great convenience that
• 22:47
  you'll be. Cullen has come up with an
• 22:51
  ingenious front for his forgery work with his bird school, and
• 22:55
  the wood is taken from anywhere and everywhere to reinforce the
• 22:58
  tunnels. This stretch serves as a number
• 23:01
  of purposes, but it's mainly exposition, and it puts into
• 23:03
  practice the theory that Big X laid down earlier.
• 23:07
  It delves into the detail about the escape, how things are
• 23:09
  actually done, the mechanics of the escape.
• 23:11
  It doesn't go overboard. It gives just enough to accept
• 23:14
  this progress without asking too many questions.
• 23:17
  And you're right Wesley, those questions are beginning to build
• 23:19
  up because I am thinking how on earth did they have enough wood
• 23:23
  for that job 3 tunnels and conceal that from the guards?
• 23:27
  When Hilts walks out of the barracks with 30 slats of wood
• 23:30
  from the beds, how isn't he noticed that insane?
• 23:34
  How do they fix the beds? But unbelievably, removing the
• 23:38
  boards was based in reality. And Roger Mushall, the Big X.
• 23:42
  He led by example and donated all of his bed boards, and he
• 23:46
  conceived of a string system to keep his mattress in place but
• 23:49
  came crashing down landed on his bunkmate at the first attempt.
• 23:54
  String. What do you expect?
• 23:55
  I mean I love you. I mean cool one.
• 23:57
  I was expecting more from X. So these little things give you
• 24:02
  all the information but doing an entertaining way to keep you
• 24:04
  engaged. And if that means somebody has
• 24:07
  to do a platform through a bed, then by God man will do it of.
• 24:10
  Course, never mind. Platform through a bed is always
• 24:15
  a winner of. Course it is.
• 24:17
  Any pratfall? Yeah.
• 24:18
  And in this stretch as well, we've got the first signals that
• 24:21
  Collins eyesight is nowhere near up to snuff, which is a
• 24:25
  heartbreak and subplat and you know, Oldham, but they get them
• 24:27
  killed. But in reality there was no
• 24:29
  prisoners with an eye condition as severe as Collins.
• 24:32
  Some forgers did suffer eye strain from working on the
• 24:34
  month, like the minute ill of Forge and all the documents.
• 24:37
  Oh yes, and in some cases it was so severe that they had to be
• 24:39
  taken off the job. In the real camp there was a
• 24:42
  team of forgers who were given help by anti Nazi Germans,
• 24:45
  including some of the guards. Pleasance was cast after casting
• 24:48
  directed Stalin Star Master saw him in the Harold Pinter play
• 24:51
  The Caretaker and loved him, but he actually was a POW in World
• 24:54
  War 2. His plane was shot down over
• 24:56
  enemy lines and he was held as a prisoner Starlight Loft 1 until
• 25:00
  the war ended and while he was there he warned his acting
• 25:02
  skills which acted as entertainment for the other
• 25:05
  prisoners. Very nice.
• 25:07
  Yeah, there's a Lord of stories. So pretty much all of the cast
• 25:10
  and crew were in the war on some level, Yeah.
• 25:13
  But despite his first hand experience, Pleasance was given
• 25:16
  the cold shoulder by Sturgis went offering advice.
• 25:18
  That is until Sturgis was told that he was a prisoner of war
• 25:22
  and consulted them on a daily basis.
• 25:24
  Right. Right.
• 25:25
  And as we're on the subject of exact and the master plan, we've
• 25:28
  got our first question from an ATRM patron.
• 25:30
  Oh. Nice.
• 25:31
  OK, we mentioned Patreon at the top, and this is one of the
• 25:33
  benefits. Submit your question for the
• 25:35
  film that we're covering and we'll answer them on the show.
• 25:37
  And that is what we're going to do right now.
• 25:39
  So our first one is from a longtime patron.
• 25:41
  It is Kim Jackson. Hello, Kim.
• 25:44
  Oh, hello, Kim. Kim says thank you for covering
• 25:46
  one of the greats. Pleasure, our pleasure.
• 25:48
  Of course. She says my compound question,
• 25:51
  if you wound up in a prison camp, would you have tried to
• 25:54
  break out? And if so, how would you have
• 25:55
  tried and what if any vehicle would you have chosen to help in
• 25:58
  your escape? A similar question also came
• 26:00
  from Stefan Rossi as well. So shout out to Stefan.
• 26:03
  Hello, Stefan. OK, I lost Stefan.
• 26:04
  So, Westie, if you wound up in a prison compound, I think we all
• 26:07
  know what you're in for. But how would you escape?
• 26:09
  We. All know what you're in for,
• 26:10
  yeah. Let's not mention it.
• 26:14
  No, we'll not mention it. It's fine.
• 26:15
  We'll just soldier on discreet veil over that for now.
• 26:18
  How would I escape? I certainly wouldn't go in that
• 26:20
  fucking tunnel, I'll tell you that much.
• 26:21
  I couldn't claustrophobia to to claustrophobic couldn't do it.
• 26:25
  And even just the scenes, you know, when the soil falls on
• 26:27
  Danny, it's like I kind of take it.
• 26:29
  It's just fucking too much. So it'll be over the top, very
• 26:32
  much like Ives. I love it, but I would I
• 26:34
  wouldn't be as depressed. I'll be like, hey, look over
• 26:36
  there and then just try and get over as I could.
• 26:38
  Something like that. What the hell is that?
• 26:41
  What the hell is that? And then just jump over the
• 26:46
  barbed wire. I'd have to go over the top or
• 26:47
  I'll have to cut my way through and then just just Sprint to the
• 26:50
  trees. I think, right, OK, now I'd need
• 26:53
  the fresh air. I need that kind of push and
• 26:55
  vehicle. I would probably find a tank.
• 26:58
  Tank, you know. Impenetrable.
• 27:00
  Exactly feeling that maybe a train, but I'd need some
• 27:03
  training cans. So let's see what was available
• 27:06
  going on the train without a few cans.
• 27:07
  Can you really? They're definitely going to tell
• 27:11
  you British doing that, though. Yeah, there's a bridge boozing
• 27:14
  on the train. College.
• 27:15
  Four kinds of Carlin. Some kind of continental lager?
• 27:19
  Foster, Something like that. Something classy, yeah.
• 27:28
  O'Neill best Scotch, Something like that.
• 27:30
  What about you? About your escape attempt.
• 27:32
  I'm also not going in the tunnel, just not don't fancy
• 27:35
  that either. So other thing to get out,
• 27:38
  you've got to think about what's coming in and out of the camp on
• 27:40
  a regular basis, which is probably food supplies or like
• 27:44
  Red Cross parcel. So I'd wait in front of those to
• 27:46
  come in a camp and then I'd maybe try to hide inside a big
• 27:49
  sackcloth, like pretend I'm just a big sack of potatoes or
• 27:52
  something. Probably get towards the back,
• 27:54
  get missed or presume used to in the same camp.
• 27:57
  I'd get you 2 to start, a bit of knuckles going on, and then I'd
• 28:00
  roll underneath the truck and just hang on like side troll
• 28:02
  Bob. That's amazing man, That is
• 28:05
  amazing. Mine and yours are very very
• 28:07
  similar. OK, right.
• 28:09
  So firstly, I think everybody in prison needs a job of some sort
• 28:13
  and, and I've kind of blurred the lines between a prisoner of
• 28:16
  war camp and just a prison. But I'm going to be in the
• 28:18
  kitchen and I'm going to whip up a mean casserole dish for the
• 28:22
  boys and cement my place there. And then once I've got
• 28:25
  everybody's confidence, I'll slip something disgusting at the
• 28:27
  pot and everybody's running the nearest bathroom, including the
• 28:30
  guards because obviously they're they're on board by now.
• 28:33
  Right, delicious cuisine, that kind of resist of.
• 28:35
  Course, of course. And in the pandemonium I tie
• 28:38
  myself the other side of the delivery truck with my belt,
• 28:41
  just like Max Katie or Side Shore Bob.
• 28:44
  Yeah, of course my timings have to be tip top.
• 28:47
  You know, I've got plenty of time to get that spot on.
• 28:50
  None of that tunnel and shit though.
• 28:52
  I'm with you guys. I'm not doing that.
• 28:54
  So thank you very much for your question, Kim.
• 28:56
  And that draws a close to the opening act of The Great Escape.
• 28:59
  Indeed, yes. Our boys are making progress,
• 29:01
  but it isn't all going to be plain sailing, no.
• 29:07
  The director. A man we've never talked about
• 29:11
  in the past. A man who served in the US Army
• 29:14
  Air Forces during World War 2. John Sturgis, who followed up
• 29:17
  The Magnificent Seven with his absolute barnstorming classic
• 29:22
  Westie. What do you think of his work on
• 29:23
  The Greatest Game I? Mean, firstly, I love the
• 29:25
  Magnificent 7 and I think he'd see a lot of what he learned in
• 29:28
  that film one over to this one, especially with the ensemble
• 29:31
  castie. I don't know any director who
• 29:33
  commands that much respect where everyone will just be like, yes,
• 29:37
  just whatever John says will go like he is big X, isn't he?
• 29:39
  He's just like, yeah, And he's in charge of not only the tone
• 29:45
  of this, but also the pace of it.
• 29:47
  It's a big story. It's a really big undertaking.
• 29:50
  He's got to get all of the facts right, which I think he does.
• 29:53
  He does take liberties, but he does it in such a really
• 29:55
  entertaining way. I think what Stir just brings to
• 29:57
  this is like, I would imagine him being a really hard man, but
• 30:01
  I think it's a really light touch here very much.
• 30:03
  It's very, very respectful. I think of both sides.
• 30:06
  I don't think he plays the Nazis as these cartoonish bastards.
• 30:11
  I think everything that they do is kind of morally incorrect.
• 30:14
  But the know that until you get higher up and you get Gestapo
• 30:17
  members and then they're a little bit more jaded.
• 30:19
  But I think he portrays like the Nazis in this especially as if
• 30:22
  they're brainwashed, as if they believe in something that's been
• 30:25
  thrust onto them. It's a duty for them to do this.
• 30:27
  He doesn't get them in such a negative light.
• 30:28
  And at the same time, he doesn't make our guys really heroic
• 30:31
  either. They do have flaws that do what
• 30:33
  they can. And I think he brings that to
• 30:35
  the table. And he wasn't scared to say,
• 30:37
  like, for me, if I was going to direct this, I'd be like, right,
• 30:40
  I've got Steve McQueen. That's it.
• 30:42
  He's the star, they're the buddies, he's the main guy.
• 30:46
  Everyone is going to fall around him, but Sturgis gives everyone
• 30:49
  that's just incredible space, incredible time.
• 30:51
  And the way that you know, he works with the camera, the way
• 30:54
  that that doesn't really seem apparent in any of the scenes.
• 30:57
  There's nothing where you kind of go.
• 30:59
  There's the camera there. It all just feels part of it.
• 31:01
  It's so well blocked. It's so well shot, so well
• 31:03
  thought through. And when I watch this film, I
• 31:05
  feel like I'm in very, very good hands, very, very safe hands.
• 31:08
  Magnificent 7 isn't as tight as this, but fuck, now he's learned
• 31:12
  a lot in three years and he really tightens the the screw
• 31:15
  with this film and he does it beautifully to the point now
• 31:17
  where you can put it on for anyone and they can't deny that
• 31:20
  it's absolute top tier filmmaker.
• 31:22
  Oh, it is. It's magnificent.
• 31:23
  Yeah. Matt, what do you think of
• 31:25
  starches as work here? I think his work is why I said
• 31:27
  it at the top. This is such a good example of a
• 31:29
  film where you turn it on at any point and you're happy to watch
• 31:32
  it and you don't think, oh miss the 1st 20 minutes and I'll
• 31:35
  bother with the rest of it. It's a film that feels like it's
• 31:38
  nothing but a series of highlights.
• 31:40
  Like when people talk about this film, it just becomes a series
• 31:43
  of just going on. But that bit's good.
• 31:44
  And do you remember that bit? And when he gets claustrophobic
• 31:46
  in the tunnel and then then the bike jump.
• 31:49
  And I think that's because Sturgis shapes every scene with
• 31:52
  equal importance and he pierces every single scene perfectly.
• 31:55
  There's not one scene in this film that outstairs it's
• 31:58
  welcome. And it's like he's he's playing
• 31:59
  poker and he's just got the perfect hand every time.
• 32:02
  And every thought he lays down is a winner.
• 32:05
  And there's another winner and there's another winner.
• 32:07
  And that's why you can have scenes of like the unlikely
• 32:10
  friendship between Handley and Colin, but they don't get too
• 32:13
  long, so it doesn't become a drag and you don't get bored.
• 32:15
  We've mentioned the scenes of the dead disposal.
• 32:17
  It's short and snappy. Then it's out of there.
• 32:19
  And then you enter the next scene, which is just as
• 32:21
  important how we're going to make all these uniforms.
• 32:23
  And then the tonal shifts are remarkably well done as well.
• 32:26
  So you can have the comedy aspects like Handley and
• 32:28
  Verner's conversation, but then you can have the tragedy of eyes
• 32:31
  coming up and it fits perfectly side by side.
• 32:33
  And the whole thing just romps along with this real piercing.
• 32:36
  This for me, it's one of the the most sharply edited films I've
• 32:40
  ever seen. Not sharp in like the Paul
• 32:42
  Greengrass sense, where like every editor is like a punch in
• 32:44
  the face, but sharp in the sense that he keeps this film moving
• 32:48
  even when it's restricted to just being stuck in the camp for
• 32:51
  the first two hours. It's never borrowing for a
• 32:53
  minute. Two hours in one location is
• 32:55
  pretty incredible. And you've got 50 minutes of
• 32:57
  separate locations, but you're always still feel really
• 33:00
  claustrophobic about it. Yeah, it's perfectly done.
• 33:03
  It's perfectly played out. You know when you're on the
• 33:05
  skill extric and you find that perfect pace and it doesn't go
• 33:08
  off the track? And never goes off the track.
• 33:10
  And you hold it and it's just such a fucking joy, like when
• 33:13
  the when the, when the scissors slide, when you, when you're
• 33:15
  cutting something you. Don't have to.
• 33:18
  Yeah, it's what heroin must feel like.
• 33:20
  It's just that beautiful kind of glide.
• 33:22
  It's just that glide. Yeah, and I think that's what
• 33:24
  Sturgis does with this. It just glides through the film.
• 33:26
  It just feels like it's so nice. Yeah.
• 33:29
  I would agree with everything that you've said, fellas.
• 33:31
  I think it's magnificent work from Sturgis.
• 33:33
  To make something as weighty as this could have been quite a
• 33:36
  huge undertaking, but for it to breeze along for almost 3 hours
• 33:40
  and stuff it full of iconic details, it's amazing stuff.
• 33:42
  Yeah. What I'm most impressed with is
• 33:44
  the clarity that he brings to production, particularly
• 33:47
  considering the size of the cast.
• 33:48
  Having to deal with that many characters and potentially that
• 33:51
  many movie star equals is no mean feat.
• 33:54
  Yeah, I mean, he's dealing with at least 6 lead characters who
• 33:58
  were or would go on to be huge movie stars.
• 34:01
  Yeah, and that's enough to put anyone under huge pressure.
• 34:04
  But he appears unflappable in his management of it.
• 34:08
  It could have gotten very complicated and he could have
• 34:10
  crumbled under the expectation of making sure that everyone
• 34:13
  gets their turn in the limelight, but he does it
• 34:16
  effortlessly. I'm never confused about who's
• 34:18
  doing what job, their importance in the whole thing, and the
• 34:20
  ramifications if one element is unsuccessful.
• 34:23
  Yeah, I think that is evident throughout the film, and I'll
• 34:26
  talk more about it later. But this could have been a
• 34:27
  star-studded mess, for Sturgis manages them all perfectly.
• 34:32
  Yeah, naturally it's an all male cast, but United Artists sent
• 34:35
  memos to Sturgis urging him to add female roles to the script.
• 34:38
  Like way. Out of place.
• 34:39
  This is amazing. Specifically the suggested
• 34:41
  conduct and a Miss Prison Camp beauty pageant in Munich.
• 34:45
  And the winner would have the winner would have played a part
• 34:48
  in the scene where Eric gets shot and the lucky lady would
• 34:51
  have won a low cut top and cradle the dying Eric.
• 34:54
  Wow. Barbara Windsor in there.
• 34:57
  Carry on, Nazis. The most emotive part of the
• 35:01
  film. It's unbelievable.
• 35:04
  That is out of place. But also the custom process.
• 35:07
  Yeah, not a normal custom process.
• 35:09
  No, Miss Prison Camp. Unbelievable.
• 35:11
  Definitely not. Definitely not inappropriate.
• 35:14
  Sturge just told them where to put their suggestions.
• 35:18
  Of course it makes an absolute mockery of it.
• 35:23
  It's like Terry Garvin, Young Frankenstein knockers.
• 35:28
  Thank you, Doctor. The film does get a lot of
• 35:35
  shared thrown its way on account of the liberties it takes.
• 35:38
  We've discussed them a little bit so far.
• 35:41
  And I mean, if it were a documentary, then I'd get it.
• 35:44
  But yeah, really is the problem. This is a film.
• 35:47
  It's based on true events. It's is right at the top to.
• 35:50
  Say what we said on the last episode about Apollo 13.
• 35:53
  Yeah, yeah, they had I'm put up because they were calm as
• 35:55
  cucumbers up there. And that's not going to make it
• 35:56
  very interesting. No, that's the same thing.
• 35:59
  Sturges and production took on board advice from real prisoners
• 36:01
  of war. There were some details like the
• 36:03
  help that they received from their home countries, maps,
• 36:06
  tools, etcetera, that the prisoners of war has to be
• 36:09
  removed from the film to protect any potential future escape
• 36:12
  attempts in whatever wars that might come up in the future.
• 36:15
  Yeah. The film was shot entirely on
• 36:17
  location in a film studio in Bavaria.
• 36:19
  The barracks and the tunnels were built on studio sound
• 36:22
  stages as well, which I can't really tell.
• 36:24
  No, it looks completely legitimate, Yeah.
• 36:27
  Fortunately, just next to the sound stages was a dense wooded
• 36:30
  area, which was perfect for the escape scenes.
• 36:32
  Sturgis did have to subvert some red tape to film dislocation,
• 36:36
  however, because saplings had been planted as part of the
• 36:38
  German National Forest and they could not be.
• 36:40
  Destroyed. Yeah.
• 36:41
  So Sturgis put in a call into the Minister of the Interior and
• 36:45
  agreed that he could demolish the trees to be able to film in
• 36:48
  that spot as long as they planted twice as many saplings
• 36:51
  as replacements. Right Productions cost.
• 36:53
  Right. Well, OK.
• 36:55
  Judd Taylor plays golf in the film.
• 36:57
  It's over eager, American friend.
• 36:59
  Very over eager. Yeah, he said.
• 37:01
  He loves. Throwing into the baseball,
• 37:02
  Yeah, he loves it. Every single time he said that
• 37:05
  the camp was so authentic that a man walking his dog passed the
• 37:08
  set and nearly had a heart attack because he thought he'd
• 37:10
  stumble upon a real POW. Yeah, he had to comfort him and
• 37:16
  tell him, you know, it's all right.
• 37:17
  It's. Yeah, I'm not surprised.
• 37:19
  It looks amazing. Is amazing, Yeah.
• 37:22
  Yeah, and as we've kind of been alluding to, searches did want
• 37:25
  to make the film less one sided. You wanted to show not all
• 37:28
  Germans were supportive of the Nazi.
• 37:29
  So we've mentioned Von Luger, how sympathetic he was to the
• 37:32
  prisoners, and if you pay attention you'll notice he
• 37:35
  Valisa silts from the cool after 15 days, not 20, because he's
• 37:38
  got the chalk marks on the wall. Yes, that's right.
• 37:41
  Yeah. Sturgis was loved by the cast,
• 37:44
  Coburn said. He had great faith in the actor,
• 37:47
  and he would storyboard everything.
• 37:48
  He never talked to me about the character or anything.
• 37:50
  What was in the script was what was shot.
• 37:51
  What was on the storyboard was the way it was shot.
• 37:54
  You can tell that he's a meticulous man.
• 37:55
  Oh, yeah. That's very much.
• 37:57
  Next, we've got our second Patreon question.
• 37:59
  This one comes from Jacob Perry. Hello, Jacob.
• 38:02
  Hello. Jacob, Jacob says.
• 38:04
  I just gave this a first view and in anticipation of the
• 38:07
  podcast, a stone cold classic and one that I wish I'd gotten
• 38:10
  to earlier. Oh nice.
• 38:12
  Jacob asks. What are examples of classic
• 38:14
  films that you haven't gotten around to seeing yet and looking
• 38:17
  forward to? God.
• 38:19
  Thanks, as always for the great movie contents, Jacob says.
• 38:22
  Pleasure, Jacob. Yeah.
• 38:23
  Thank you. Thanks for the question.
• 38:25
  Yeah, it's I've chosen Jacob's question because we've all got
• 38:27
  these dirty little secrets. I know when I hate admitting it.
• 38:30
  I want to be perfect, yeah. Well, nobody's perfect, Westie.
• 38:33
  Well, I know it's worth a try, yeah.
• 38:36
  Classic films that we haven't seen, resulting in everyone
• 38:39
  going. You haven't seen Citizen Kane?
• 38:41
  Yeah, So there's my startup for 10.
• 38:43
  I haven't seen Citizen Kane. Right.
• 38:44
  OK, yeah, I know it's about roses and snow or something like
• 38:47
  that. Yeah, yeah.
• 38:48
  The sledge maybe. Yeah, Yeah, that's all the end
• 38:51
  of now. You don't need to watch it.
• 38:52
  Yeah, Rose hip or something like that, he says.
• 38:53
  Something other stormwallers that I haven't seen.
• 38:58
  There are a lot, but I'm just going to give you 2.
• 39:01
  The searches haven't been anywhere near that.
• 39:03
  Wow. Yeah, that's, that's surprising.
• 39:06
  Yeah, that's something we'll have to remedy.
• 39:08
  Yeah, I know, I know it's on me list and I do want to watch it,
• 39:11
  but there's. No fucking list, you're full of
• 39:13
  shit. We know it's a Western, Luke,
• 39:16
  and we know you're in the Western.
• 39:20
  Lawrence of Arabia, you know, I haven't seen.
• 39:22
  That right, yeah, that's. That's amazing.
• 39:24
  Yeah, I bet it is. How bet it is It's.
• 39:27
  Amazing, to be fair. The list goes on but I'll stop
• 39:30
  there. I have seen Sleep Away, Camp 3
• 39:32
  Teenage wasteland though, so I think that balances things.
• 39:35
  Everything. 'S balanced, yeah.
• 39:36
  You don't even need to see Citizen Kane.
• 39:37
  I mean, that's was a high influence on that like.
• 39:39
  I really, really have seen Sleep Away Camp 3, of course.
• 39:44
  That's outrageous. You've got to love what you
• 39:46
  love. It's up to you, isn't it?
• 39:48
  Yeah, I mean, if they were called Christmas evil, we might
• 39:50
  be having a different conversation.
• 39:52
  But they're not, are they? No.
• 39:55
  Matt, what about you? I know this is going to sound
• 39:57
  like I'm setting you up, but I've not seen bad boys too.
• 40:01
  You ain't seen bad boys too. It's it's better.
• 40:04
  It's a better than bad boys. But if that's your only example,
• 40:08
  then I'm going to be very disappointed.
• 40:11
  Very. Surprised.
• 40:12
  It depends like what one person's definition of a classic
• 40:15
  is, isn't it? You know a lot of people who are
• 40:18
  CC and all this is a classic from the adhesive stuff I've
• 40:20
  never seen. I mean you would say this is a
• 40:22
  classic loop. I've never seen cocktail, for
• 40:24
  example. What the fuck?
• 40:26
  Oh Jesus Christ, you. That's outrageous.
• 40:31
  My right. Turn that off.
• 40:32
  Turn the mics off cocktail. Yeah, again, depending if you
• 40:41
  call him a classic. I don't think I've ever seen a
• 40:43
  Jean-Claude Van Damme film. Or piss off.
• 40:46
  You must have seen one of them. You've seen hard.
• 40:47
  Target right, You're not seeing a wall.
• 40:49
  Sidewalk. Definitely not heard blood sport
• 40:51
  kick. I'll not tell you what I've seen
• 40:52
  time, cop. I've seen time time.
• 40:53
  There you cry. That.
• 40:56
  Is that is that's it just shitty in these films?
• 40:59
  Well, that's what people say. I mean, the only other thing I
• 41:02
  did, right, I went to the IMDb top 250 and I went down the
• 41:06
  lesson, the first one that came across, but well, I was, I was
• 41:10
  doing that same, same, same. The first one I haven't seen is
• 41:12
  City Lights at 55 which is a Charlie Chaplin film.
• 41:16
  Yeah. Charlie Chaplin.
• 41:17
  Yeah. Yeah, and they go bad boys.
• 41:19
  Two city lights. Bad Boys.
• 41:21
  Two City. Lights.
• 41:22
  There's the next double feature films Matt hasn't seen.
• 41:27
  Jesus Christ, man. Right?
• 41:28
  Well, you've shamed us all. Well, you've certainly shamed me
• 41:31
  because I've got absolute classics that I've got nowhere
• 41:34
  near. And you're.
• 41:35
  I haven't seen blood sport, no mental.
• 41:39
  Not supposed to have, it's fine. But no, no, that's not cheerful
• 41:43
  at all man. What about USD?
• 41:46
  I actually answered the question and there's some that I kind of
• 41:51
  looked for and I just, I don't know if I've got the energy.
• 41:54
  I. Know I'll probably enjoy them
• 41:55
  and I hear them talked about a lot and brilliant, the likes of
• 41:59
  Doctor Zhivago. OK.
• 42:01
  I don't know if I've got the energy for.
• 42:02
  That. No, I haven't seen that either.
• 42:03
  Magnificent stuff. Gone with the wind, Never too
• 42:07
  long. I don't know for.
• 42:08
  Two races, you know. Two races really racist.
• 42:11
  And it's, you know, frankly, my idea.
• 42:12
  I don't River Dance or whatever it is.
• 42:15
  Give it down. Give it down.
• 42:18
  And Sunset Blvd. Never seen.
• 42:20
  Oh, really? Yeah.
• 42:21
  I'm surprised by. That was that was the one that
• 42:23
  kind of stuck out. It's like it's there, but again,
• 42:25
  I just really, really need to be in the mood.
• 42:28
  I don't know what to expect from it, and I kind of get put off
• 42:31
  when things just get loaded so much.
• 42:33
  It's like you have to say that. If someone says that to me, I
• 42:36
  don't watch it. Don't tell me what I have to
• 42:38
  watch. I'll be the judge of that.
• 42:40
  Right, so I've embarrassed myself.
• 42:42
  I made him. That's embarrassed himself.
• 42:43
  You haven't seen blood Sport you.
• 42:46
  Haven't seen Cocktail. That is, that is, that's a
• 42:48
  crime, the cinematic crime. And I'm not talking about the
• 42:50
  film. Matt doesn't know how to make a
• 42:52
  red eye, does he? No, he doesn't.
• 42:54
  No, he doesn't. Exactly a bartender.
• 42:58
  Red eye. It's like Coburn.
• 43:01
  That's cool. Cohen's and everything.
• 43:04
  Coburn is proud. That's excellent, man Knuckles.
• 43:09
  Knuckles. Here, Knuckles.
• 43:11
  You know, like a red boy. Oh, right.
• 43:15
  OK, great. Well, thank you for the
• 43:16
  question. Thank you for the question.
• 43:17
  That's really, really appreciated.
• 43:19
  But less questions like that would be fantastic.
• 43:21
  And that draws a close to our piece on John Sturgis, who
• 43:24
  pulled off an outstanding job here.
• 43:26
  He did go on to make other classic films, but I think The
• 43:28
  Great Escape is probably his great achievement.
• 43:30
  Yeah, I think. So I'd agree, yeah.
• 43:35
  The cast. A huge cast in The Great Escape.
• 43:40
  We've talked about Pleasants already.
• 43:42
  We'll talk about a few others as we go, but here we're looking at
• 43:45
  the major players, Edinburgh, Ghana.
• 43:47
  But first McQueen, of course. Yeah, Westie, you're up.
• 43:51
  Steve McQueen has Chris. Yeah, King of the greatest.
• 43:59
  Ship was Toby in the God rather. That's amazing.
• 44:05
  For anybody who hasn't watched the 90s UK sitcom Game On,
• 44:10
  you'll not know what that reference is, but me and Westie
• 44:13
  have bonded over that for decades.
• 44:15
  Yes, the first season with Ben Chapman is absolutely.
• 44:17
  Yes, it is. Expired Fantastic crisps.
• 44:21
  That's right over there with Marlon Brando, Toby and
• 44:24
  godfather Robert De Niro's team in Raging Bull.
• 44:31
  I mean, McQueen, everyone says he's the king of cool, right?
• 44:34
  But I mean, he's so cool in this.
• 44:36
  He's ice cold. He's cool as ice pops.
• 44:38
  He's absolutely fantastic in this role.
• 44:41
  So much charisma, so watchable on the screen.
• 44:45
  It feels like you're just like you've invested in something.
• 44:48
  When you're watching them and say I feel like you're getting
• 44:50
  something from it, they get to reach a really invested
• 44:52
  performance. He's got this real sharp wit.
• 44:56
  He's got this massive intelligence.
• 44:58
  He just looks cool. There's no one else could pull
• 45:01
  off that leather jacket. It doesn't work on anybody else.
• 45:05
  He looks good as a Nazi. I would never say that about
• 45:07
  anybody, but he really pulls that uniform off.
• 45:09
  It's really sharp because it was like, you know, me dad's kind of
• 45:12
  go to me granddad's kind of go to was like we're going to be
• 45:15
  big accent. Then he died like the best
• 45:17
  McQueen. He's a boy, he's a boy
• 45:20
  Magnificent 7. He's like he right shotgun.
• 45:22
  He's the boy in town inferno and he stands, you know, to talk
• 45:25
  with everybody. Even with Attenborough, he does
• 45:27
  some really, really great dialogue sequences back and
• 45:30
  forth and he comes across as a very, very talented actor, not
• 45:34
  just a movie star in this film. I think he really plays the role
• 45:37
  very, very well and I don't know any of the film where I've seen
• 45:41
  somebody who's part of a group but stands on his own so
• 45:44
  powerfully. He's an individual in an
• 45:47
  ensemble cast and when he's out on his own at the end, you don't
• 45:50
  feel worried for him. You feel like, well, that's
• 45:52
  fine, he can handle himself. It's hills an amazing bit in the
• 45:56
  film. They come back and say I didn't
• 45:58
  get caught too quickly and next is like he wasn't caught.
• 46:00
  Yeah, I love that it's. Fucking brilliant.
• 46:03
  Just them. It's the way that they respect
• 46:05
  each other which really heightens the characters because
• 46:06
  the characters don't have to do it themselves.
• 46:08
  You know, like we've talked about, when X arrives and it's
• 46:11
  everybody else's reaction, you've got the respect for him
• 46:13
  and it's it absolutely works on every level for me.
• 46:15
  Steve McQueen in them three films I mentioned, absolutely
• 46:18
  shines for me. Amazing Bullet as well.
• 46:20
  But like this, you put this on and go, that's the that's the
• 46:22
  boy. Nobody's going to argue with
• 46:24
  you. Yeah, he's incredible.
• 46:26
  Walter Mirish, one of the producers.
• 46:28
  His original choice for the part of Hills was Kirk Douglas,
• 46:31
  right? So just wasn't having a bloody
• 46:33
  bit of it. Though having worked with
• 46:34
  McQueen on The Magnificent 7, yeah.
• 46:36
  I mean, he wasn't the most enthusiastic about doing the
• 46:38
  film and he only signed on on the condition that he could
• 46:40
  perform his own bike stunts. He was really, really wanted to
• 46:43
  show off. His bike skills haven't
• 46:44
  performed on his own stunts on Chips and Bullet that I
• 46:47
  mentioned, but at one stage the Queen almost left the film all
• 46:50
  together. Yeah, because after the first
• 46:52
  six weeks of film and he wasn't happy with the rushes from the
• 46:54
  film or the fact that Kills pretty much disappears for over
• 46:57
  half an hour in the middle of it.
• 46:59
  So he'd walked off set demanding rewrites, but because of heavy
• 47:03
  rain, production was already behind schedule and Sturgis just
• 47:06
  didn't have the time to do any rewrites.
• 47:09
  But then Garner and Colburn both stepped in and rallied Ron
• 47:12
  McQueen and played peacemaker, gone back on board with the
• 47:14
  whole thing. Yeah, reporting.
• 47:16
  The McQueen wanted to be the hero of the piece, but didn't
• 47:18
  want to do anything too heroic, which contradicted his casual
• 47:22
  style. Conversely, he was not thrilled
• 47:25
  that Hilts was content to spend huge chunks of time in the
• 47:28
  cooler. So because of his conflict and
• 47:30
  grapes, Sturgis considered writing Hills out of the script
• 47:33
  completely. United Artists blocked that
• 47:35
  move, considering McQueen essential to the film's appeal,
• 47:38
  obviously. So they increased the budget for
• 47:41
  another writer, Ivan Moffatt, to be hired and he was sympathetic
• 47:43
  from Mcqueen's needs and he returned to set afterwards.
• 47:47
  Right. The movie star ego.
• 47:49
  Yeah. And then going on from that, I
• 47:50
  mean, Pleasants was stunned by Mcqueen's behavior.
• 47:53
  He said he hadn't realized things like this go on in
• 47:55
  Hollywood, being an obedient English actor from the theater
• 47:58
  like you would. Have no clue.
• 48:00
  I can't see a bloody thing. More directly, one of the
• 48:03
  screenwriters, WR Burnett, said McQueen was an impossible
• 48:07
  bastard. He drove you crazy.
• 48:09
  Lovely should. Have got Rick Dalton instead.
• 48:13
  Yeah, difficult man by all counts.
• 48:15
  He also didn't look in where the rest of the cast and crew, and
• 48:17
  he kept himself tucked away in a rendered chalet and was
• 48:20
  chauffeured, driven to set every day.
• 48:23
  Kind of feels right that he has been isolated in the cooler away
• 48:27
  from the rest of the crew on account of his like life.
• 48:29
  Imitate not. Film that took place in Germany
• 48:32
  and the sneaky politzai set up a speed trap along the road near
• 48:35
  the set. They knew that they'd catch a
• 48:37
  few of the cast and crew going over the limit.
• 48:39
  Naturally, Steve McQueen was one of the parties I would imagine.
• 48:42
  And of course, in time, that's why I'll be sure if I'd driven.
• 48:47
  Reportedly, the Chief Police said drum hair McQueen.
• 48:52
  That's my German. I don't care, I said.
• 48:59
  He's like hello, hello, idiot. I was pissing by when I heard a
• 49:03
  shit he said to McQueen. We've caught several of you
• 49:07
  comrades today, but you've won the special prize.
• 49:09
  McQueen was going the fastest out of all of them, you see, and
• 49:12
  he had a brief spell in jail before being released without
• 49:14
  charge. And it's explained to the start
• 49:17
  of the film, but a lot of the characters in this are
• 49:19
  composites of a number of real people.
• 49:22
  And Hilts was based on at least three pilots in World War 2, one
• 49:25
  of which David M Jones. He was shot down over North
• 49:28
  Africa and imprisoned in Stallocliff 3 and was involved
• 49:31
  in the actual 1944 escape. And Canadian Bill Ashe was known
• 49:35
  for his endless prison escapes which ultimately landed him in
• 49:37
  the cooler. And the third man was John
• 49:39
  Dortch, Booty Lewis senior, an American who was caught three
• 49:43
  times trying to escape Luft 3, his fourth attempt to be
• 49:46
  successful, and he made it home unscathed.
• 49:48
  Brilliant. Yeah, like a lot of the cast and
• 49:51
  crew, McQueen served in the forces.
• 49:53
  He was in the Merchant Marines at the end of World War 2 and
• 49:55
  later in the Marine Corps, where he seared the lives of five men
• 49:58
  while on exercise. Well, it was later given the
• 50:01
  honor of being a guard for the presidential yacht of Harry S
• 50:04
  Truman and served until 1950, just at the start of the Korean
• 50:08
  War. For the final Sam McQueen, I'm
• 50:10
  going to give you a quote from Ali McGraw, his former wife.
• 50:13
  She said every man wanted to be like him, every woman wanted to
• 50:16
  sleep with him and every boy looked up to him.
• 50:19
  Too true. The opposite will be said about
• 50:21
  me when I go. The English rose between two
• 50:30
  American thorns. It's Dickie Attenborough as
• 50:32
  Squadron Leader. Roger Bartlett AKA Big XI mean
• 50:35
  just. So much of your nickname as Big
• 50:38
  X? That'd be class, but.
• 50:39
  I don't think I wouldn't be able to handle the responsibility.
• 50:44
  It's responsibility and that's what Attenborough does.
• 50:47
  He just pulls that off so well. Because The thing is, I think
• 50:49
  Attenborough, I think he has this image from the 80s onwards
• 50:52
  where he's this cuddly Evan Killer character.
• 50:56
  You know, he directs Gandhi and then he's John Hammond and then
• 50:59
  he's Kris Kringle. Like him, doesn't love him.
• 51:01
  But I think that overlooks that he has real depth as an actor.
• 51:05
  And before the 80s he was an actor.
• 51:07
  I think he had a lot of edge in his performances.
• 51:09
  Like, if you've never seen 10 Rillington Players, go and check
• 51:13
  that out. Brilliant.
• 51:15
  Unbelievably creepy in that. And when he started out he was
• 51:18
  doing a lot of British gangster films and he was seen as a bit
• 51:20
  of a tough guy in British cinema.
• 51:22
  And I think that's what he brings here because, you know,
• 51:24
  Barter does have a bit of steel to him.
• 51:26
  He's the guy because he's in charge.
• 51:28
  He'll go around kicking people's asses to get the job done.
• 51:30
  He's the guy. He'll tell Colin no, you you
• 51:32
  can't go because you'll be a risk to everyone.
• 51:35
  So he's not the cuddly Attenborough, and I think he
• 51:37
  just brings his real presence. And, you know, in real life,
• 51:41
  obviously he was quite a short man.
• 51:42
  And you can see in some scenes the likes of McQueen and Ghana,
• 51:45
  the kind of tower over him a bit.
• 51:47
  But there's no sense that to overpower him as an actor or as
• 51:51
  a presence in this film. Like when you see him at the
• 51:53
  start, as we've been seeing, you're like, well, who's this
• 51:55
  guy? Arise by himself, He's in
• 51:57
  handcuffs. He's clearly important.
• 51:59
  So I think Attenborough just brings this authority.
• 52:02
  He's very unflappable, you know, And it's just this really lovely
• 52:05
  contrast to McQueen because, yeah, you know, McQueen is
• 52:07
  unbelievably cool. Of course he was.
• 52:09
  But Attenborough is also killed, but in a very different way, in
• 52:12
  a very British way. This is something really
• 52:14
  authoritative about them, pretty nerveless under pressure.
• 52:18
  And I think this performance, there's something a bit
• 52:20
  theatrical to it. Like, he can have lines like,
• 52:22
  you appointed me Big X, and he can really sell it.
• 52:25
  And I think some actors would not have been able to sell lines
• 52:28
  like that. But Adam but just knocks it out.
• 52:30
  The park thing, he's really great in this.
• 52:32
  Yeah, he's amazing. Just thinking 14 years later, he
• 52:34
  directs a bridge too far, right? If you're talking about an
• 52:36
  ensemble cast, how much you learned from stages?
• 52:39
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 52:40
  Give him that the kind of scope to have that cast and bridge too
• 52:44
  far as fucking. Yeah, I.
• 52:45
  Feel like that's like a sequel to the greatest game.
• 52:47
  Feels like it, doesn't it? Yeah, in many ways, yeah.
• 52:50
  Brilliant. Richard Harris was originally
• 52:52
  cast as Bartlett but had to drop out because filming overran on
• 52:55
  this sport and Life, right? The role was then turned down by
• 52:57
  John Mills before Attenborough came on board late on in pre
• 53:01
  production. I would like to see in Harris,
• 53:02
  like, yeah. Yeah, very good.
• 53:05
  Would go on to star with McQueen in the sand Pebbles from 1966.
• 53:08
  Later, Attenborough would reveal that he didn't get on with
• 53:10
  McQueen at all. He didn't like the McQueen.
• 53:12
  Would constantly vocalize his dissatisfaction at things on
• 53:15
  set. Just very much a action star.
• 53:18
  But so when I wasn't it again. Yeah, yeah, he's getting a
• 53:20
  little bit of a negative rap here, McQueen.
• 53:23
  He is a little bit, but I mean he's kind of bringing it on
• 53:25
  himself, perhaps said the performance is immaculated, is
• 53:27
  wonderful, but he's like, he's a strong coffee to Edinburgh's
• 53:30
  tea, isn't he? Yes.
• 53:30
  He is very much. Yeah.
• 53:33
  I think old Dicky had more of a stiff elliptic approach.
• 53:35
  Reserve in the face of adversity?
• 53:37
  What? Never once got caught If the
• 53:41
  police haven't read his top linearly.
• 53:43
  Scoot ex. No problem.
• 53:46
  And unlike the composite of Hills, Roger Bartlett was based
• 53:49
  on only one man, as we've mentioned, Roger Bushel, and he
• 53:52
  was shot down during the Dunkirk evacuations and made his first
• 53:56
  escape attempt at Stalagloft 1 and he made it out, but he was
• 53:59
  caught trying to cross the Swiss border.
• 54:01
  Yeah, he was being transferred to another camp and jumped off a
• 54:03
  train with a Czech pilot. Later on, they made their way to
• 54:06
  Prague and hid out for eight months before being ratted out
• 54:09
  by an informer. Eight months, you're going to
• 54:12
  think you're home. Yeah, you were Dorman Hosed.
• 54:14
  Bushel had a head rid of the Nazis, obviously.
• 54:16
  Who doesn't? Yeah, and when he was deployed
• 54:19
  in style I'd Love Three, he was determined to cause as much
• 54:22
  disruption as possible to the Germans, hence the Great Escape.
• 54:25
  I mean, it's laid out in those early scenes.
• 54:27
  I do love the detail of the character, the scarring around
• 54:30
  Roger's eye, which is never referred to but suggests that
• 54:33
  he's seen some shit. Yeah, it was inspired by the
• 54:36
  real Roger Bushel, who had been through some shit and bought the
• 54:39
  scars to prove it. Yeah, lovely detail.
• 54:42
  So Attenborough perfectly cast as the unflappable, stiff over
• 54:45
  lipped Big X Bartlett. The big man.
• 54:50
  Finally, Jimmy Garner expertly playing Bob Hendley the
• 54:53
  scrounger, and this guy has got so much movie star charisma to
• 54:57
  burn here. The epitome of American cool
• 55:00
  with great hair and such confidence.
• 55:03
  He needs to have that for this film for us to be able to buy
• 55:05
  his befriend. And a Verner that you mentioned,
• 55:07
  Matt, He draws Werner in with his magnetic charm before he
• 55:12
  knows that he's dancing the Handley's tune, bringing him a
• 55:14
  camera in exchange for his wallet.
• 55:15
  And I think they'll burn and knows that he's been had, but by
• 55:18
  then it's too late. Yeah.
• 55:20
  So you've got that side of Handley, and then you get the
• 55:22
  absolute gentleman side, the one who takes Colin under his wing
• 55:26
  when Big X was about to cut him loose.
• 55:28
  Neutral thing. Love it.
• 55:29
  And Hendrick wouldn't let that happen, even though Colin is
• 55:32
  almost certainly the reason or one of the reasons for Handley's
• 55:34
  recapture. Yeah, I do like the moral
• 55:37
  ambiguity at the centre of their dynamic as well.
• 55:40
  Big X was right about Colin. He's too much of A risk, and if
• 55:43
  Henley had followed suit, Colin wouldn't be dead and Henley
• 55:47
  might have escaped. Yeah, so he's let his heart rule
• 55:49
  his head, which has had a massive implications that he'll
• 55:52
  have to live with forever. If you think about it, it's not
• 55:54
  on screen, but it's implicated. Lingus, doesn't it?
• 55:58
  I know he was in a lot of films and he was a huge TV star with
• 56:01
  Maverick, but I just don't think that Ghana got the acclaim or
• 56:04
  the big movie roles that he deserved to be honest, because
• 56:06
  on the strength of his performance alone, he should
• 56:08
  have been as big as McQueen. I love him.
• 56:10
  Yeah, he's fantastic here. Yeah.
• 56:12
  And actually, Walter Mirish wanted Bert Lancaster in the
• 56:14
  part of Henley, but Sturgis took his heels in once again because
• 56:18
  he was a big fan of Maverick, the TV show that launched
• 56:20
  Corner. So he was always going to be his
• 56:22
  number one choice. Sturgis said of Ghana.
• 56:25
  He's a bright and likable, uncomplicated and talented guy.
• 56:28
  He's an awfully good actor and I admire him as a person.
• 56:31
  Totally comes across on screen that.
• 56:33
  Really does. Really, really does.
• 56:35
  Many others have mentioned James Garner also had wartime
• 56:38
  experience. He served in the Korean War and
• 56:40
  was twice recipient of the Purple Heart.
• 56:42
  Oh yeah. He's also known as a scrounger
• 56:45
  and use his own experience for authenticity.
• 56:47
  You can see him doing this like in real life.
• 56:49
  Yeah, you can. Second nature.
• 56:51
  Yeah, he said. So I knew a little bit about the
• 56:53
  hustle, and I knew basically what Henry would be like, a
• 56:55
  little bit about the hustle. He is the hustle, you keep that.
• 57:02
  As we've talked about, a lot of cast and crew were irked by
• 57:04
  Mcqueen's antics, but there are conflicting reports about
• 57:07
  Garner's opinion of the big man, right?
• 57:09
  Yeah, Sturge has said McQueen and Garner got on quite well
• 57:12
  because that a lot of common interests, as he said, both were
• 57:14
  interested in cars and racing and that sort of thing.
• 57:17
  So there were reports that Ghana took to McQueen quite fondly.
• 57:20
  He started wearing turtleneck sweaters in real life and for
• 57:23
  the film, the costumes for the character, and he even lobbied
• 57:26
  Sturgis to add more dynamism to his part, just like Mcqueen's.
• 57:29
  But instead of taking that as flattery, McQueen got paranoid
• 57:33
  that Sturgis favorite Ghana and started to be difficult on set.
• 57:37
  On the contrary to that though, Ghana was quoted as saying that
• 57:40
  McQueen was a pain in the ass, a movie star but not an actor.
• 57:43
  But I felt like he is an actor in this.
• 57:44
  Not backfires, isn't it? That was Sturgis, I think.
• 57:48
  Yeah, well, he was not a fan of Charlie Bronson either.
• 57:51
  He also called him a pain in the ass and fell out with him.
• 57:54
  And Bronson lost a game of poker with an extra and didn't pay him
• 57:58
  no dice. This isn't over.
• 58:00
  That's my car. Hey, that's my car during the
• 58:06
  breaking film. And Garner and John Layton, who
• 58:09
  plays Willie, they visited Munich and got caught up in the
• 58:12
  Schwarbing riots where students were uprising against the
• 58:15
  conservative morals of the older generation right?
• 58:18
  And Ghana got into some trouble with the authorities and later
• 58:20
  had to apologize for fear of being deported.
• 58:23
  Wow. Sticking up for the students, so
• 58:26
  three of the best in an outstanding cast.
• 58:29
  We could have easily swapped out Edinburgh, Garner, McQueen with
• 58:31
  Corburn, Pleasants and Bronson. Yeah, Corbourne's Australian
• 58:35
  accent is worth it in this segment alone.
• 58:37
  Definitely. Definitely.
• 58:38
  And Bronson's accent? Why?
• 58:40
  Why haven't we mentioned that yet?
• 58:41
  I did. I.
• 58:43
  Did we must get more food? But I think we'd all agree that
• 58:51
  the majority of the cast put in career best performances.
• 58:54
  Absolutely do. This episode of All the Right
• 59:03
  Movies are sponsored by Better Help.
• 59:05
  Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is
• 59:08
  hard. The good news is, therapy works.
• 59:11
  But what is therapy, exactly? It's whatever you want it to be.
• 59:14
  Maybe you're not feeling motivated right now and would
• 59:16
  like some tools to help. Or maybe you're feeling insecure
• 59:19
  and relationships are at work and not dealing well with
• 59:21
  stress. Whatever you need, it's time to
• 59:24
  stop being ashamed of normal human struggles and start
• 59:26
  feeling better. Because you deserve to be happy
• 59:29
  and now you don't have to worry about finding an in person
• 59:32
  therapist. Need you to help?
• 59:33
  Better Help is customized online therapy that offers video,
• 59:36
  phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist so
• 59:39
  you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to.
• 59:42
  It's much more affordable than in person therapy and you can
• 59:45
  start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours.
• 59:48
  Join the millions of people who have seen what online therapy is
• 59:51
  really about. It's always a good time to
• 59:53
  invest in yourself because you are your greatest asset.
• 59:56
  And a special offer to all ATRM listeners.
• 59:58
  You can get 10% off your first month of professional therapy at
• 1:00:02
  betterhelp.com/atrm. That's Betterhelp help.com/atrm.
• 1:00:10
  Thanks again to Better Help for sponsoring this episode of All
• 1:00:13
  the Right Movies. The middle.
• 1:00:21
  Into the second act, the war effort intensifies.
• 1:00:24
  Colin gets his camera hilts, is out of the cooler, but he'll be
• 1:00:27
  right back in it soon enough, and Roger closes down.
• 1:00:30
  Dick and Harry. Where, folks?
• 1:00:32
  And our attention on the mixed emotions felt during the frothy
• 1:00:35
  4th of July celebrations. Yeah, Westie, what are they
• 1:00:39
  doing with those potatoes? Well, I do not know.
• 1:00:41
  They're having a great time with it.
• 1:00:44
  There's some bits in this whole thing that you really have to
• 1:00:47
  take a back seat with, don't you?
• 1:00:48
  Because they are having a good time here.
• 1:00:50
  It's it's it's a really, really fun part of the film and you
• 1:00:53
  have to kind of suspend disbelief a little bit.
• 1:00:55
  The whole moonshine making sequence, that contraption is
• 1:00:58
  fucking wonderful. Whatever it is, it's mental.
• 1:01:01
  It's like something got a doc Browns garage, isn't it?
• 1:01:03
  It's just like, it's that moment where they're just peeling the
• 1:01:07
  potatoes on that and they're just kind of losing the spirit a
• 1:01:10
  little bit. And then the machine makes a
• 1:01:11
  noise and all come over and just put the finger and just have a
• 1:01:13
  taste. And they're like, shit, this is
• 1:01:14
  working. Yeah.
• 1:01:15
  Wow, this is this is going to work.
• 1:01:17
  Yeah. And then they go back and start
• 1:01:19
  like. I just.
• 1:01:20
  Love that little bit like, you know, it's that really good
• 1:01:23
  visual comedy and then when they try and it's that wow, wow, wow,
• 1:01:28
  there's explosives here the next day.
• 1:01:30
  Where's he getting fucking explosives from?
• 1:01:32
  Prisoner of war camp we live in. It looks amazing.
• 1:01:37
  Just blow the blowhole in the fence.
• 1:01:40
  Access to this kind of shit? Or in the Germans faces.
• 1:01:44
  Yeah, you've got loads of moonshine, which I would imagine
• 1:01:46
  is incredibly flammable. Yeah, Burn the whole place down
• 1:01:49
  and leg it. What's the front?
• 1:01:50
  Burn the guard towers down. Could have been moonshine on the
• 1:01:52
  night time and blow them up if you've got all access to this
• 1:01:55
  stuff. But it's just great, Willie's
• 1:01:57
  reaction to this, if we're going to do like an overacting moment
• 1:02:00
  when he's like, it's the 4th of July.
• 1:02:06
  But it's the reason. Really good on that flute.
• 1:02:08
  McQueen, like he's given it six. That one amazing on the drums,
• 1:02:13
  bouncing around like John Bonham, absolutely amazing.
• 1:02:16
  Paradigm was in there. The guy in the middle kind of
• 1:02:19
  play shit. So he's just walking around.
• 1:02:21
  It's the relationship, I think from the Queen and Ghana that
• 1:02:23
  we're talking about. You can see in this sequence,
• 1:02:25
  you can see that they're kind of respect each other and advancing
• 1:02:27
  of each other and two big personalities fill in the left
• 1:02:31
  and right of the screen. So it's just both of them have
• 1:02:33
  the place. You can tell this is pretty much
• 1:02:36
  ad libbed. I would, I would argue the toss
• 1:02:38
  that this was ad libbed. It's like don't get any on your
• 1:02:40
  clothes. No smoking well after you're
• 1:02:42
  drinking, no smoking while you're drinking.
• 1:02:44
  This thing you tell that's just really playful.
• 1:02:46
  Absolutely love that. But I do, I love this whole
• 1:02:47
  sequence which ends really dour, really kind of downbeat and
• 1:02:51
  brings you back the reality. But just for that one moment,
• 1:02:54
  it's a really nice place to be. Yeah, it is.
• 1:02:56
  Yeah, I mean, you've said there, Wesley, about the improvisation
• 1:02:59
  during this scene. There's that moment where Gough
• 1:03:01
  says Hills has made no taxation without representation.
• 1:03:05
  And that wasn't Adele by Joe Taylor and McQueen wasn't
• 1:03:08
  expecting. So if you watch it again, watch
• 1:03:10
  McQueen because he breaks character in the mouths.
• 1:03:12
  What towards Taylor? He's really thrown by Breaks
• 1:03:15
  character. Yeah.
• 1:03:16
  Yeah, it's a great line as well. Yeah, I do love the contrast in
• 1:03:20
  this scene. Absolutely joyous scenes with
• 1:03:22
  the moonshine. Everyone's getting pissed and
• 1:03:24
  slurring their words. Yeah, but you can just sense
• 1:03:27
  that something bad is about to happen and Danny can see it a
• 1:03:30
  mile off. Yeah, it's boiling underneath
• 1:03:31
  his nose. I like that the film cross cuts.
• 1:03:34
  The guards are in the barracks. Yeah.
• 1:03:36
  And then you've got the likes of Ives and Mac prancing around
• 1:03:39
  outside, toasting their success. They'll be walking down Argyle
• 1:03:42
  Street in a few weeks. Yeah.
• 1:03:44
  And that carries additional poignancy, considering what
• 1:03:46
  happens to Ives in a few minutes.
• 1:03:48
  I love. When Mac flicks his nose as
• 1:03:49
  well, it's so. Powerful it is.
• 1:03:51
  Yeah, it is lovely. Moment, yeah.
• 1:03:53
  And it's that sniveling little asshole Verner.
• 1:03:57
  I think this is his payback for the whole wallet camera
• 1:04:00
  incident. He could have let this slide,
• 1:04:02
  but he has to be a goody 2 shoes.
• 1:04:04
  And it's here where everything we've worked towards for the
• 1:04:06
  last 90 minutes, this is the 90 minute mark.
• 1:04:09
  It all fails. The timing of it couldn't be
• 1:04:11
  worse because we've been told a little while back that Dick and
• 1:04:14
  Harry are shut down. So we know what a set back this
• 1:04:17
  is. It just hits like a hammer blow.
• 1:04:19
  Considering the celebrations from the 4th of July scene, it
• 1:04:23
  really slams you back down to earth with a bang.
• 1:04:25
  Yeah. Yeah, because I think it's such
• 1:04:28
  a pivotal moment now, because it has essentially, it's all been
• 1:04:31
  fun and games up to now. It's been a lark.
• 1:04:33
  It's been a bit of a laugh, kind of thumb in the nose of the
• 1:04:35
  Germans. But there's been no consequences
• 1:04:37
  to anything so far. Numerous breakout attempts
• 1:04:40
  already no consequences apart from being slung in the cooler
• 1:04:43
  and you know the Germans are happy to let this big party play
• 1:04:46
  out and I think that's as far as the film can push that element.
• 1:04:50
  And now there has to be consequences and unfortunately
• 1:04:53
  it comes down to hives. I mean this pill guy.
• 1:04:55
  I mean he said himself he's going why happy after spending
• 1:04:58
  years in the bag Bartlett Mack and see if they want hilt about
• 1:05:01
  it. But it's not being too on the
• 1:05:03
  nose, you know going oh God, he's going to do something
• 1:05:05
  really bad. He kind of go what is why happy?
• 1:05:08
  What's I mean exactly he kind of dismiss it.
• 1:05:10
  But then and and I think Angus Lenny is really great in this.
• 1:05:13
  He's great because it's such an unusual combination as well to
• 1:05:17
  be paired up with hilts for this one.
• 1:05:19
  Like it's really odd couple Angus Lenny and Steve McQueen,
• 1:05:22
  but they work really well together.
• 1:05:24
  And the tragedy is he's getting so close.
• 1:05:26
  The tunnel is almost there. And as you see, he's having a
• 1:05:28
  whale overtime dancing the jig with Mac.
• 1:05:31
  But then the whistle goes and it's like shutters just come
• 1:05:33
  down over his eyes and something snaps inside and you can see it.
• 1:05:37
  It's like he's in a trance. I don't even think he realizes
• 1:05:39
  what he's doing in the tone of the music changes completely.
• 1:05:43
  So you know this, this tragedy coming and when he'll sees
• 1:05:46
  what's happening and he runs up full pelt and he does that jump
• 1:05:49
  and shoulder barge. Outrageous move.
• 1:05:52
  What an extravagant move that is.
• 1:05:54
  Doesn't need to be that extravagant and knock him to the
• 1:05:56
  ground. Probably not.
• 1:05:57
  Yes it does. Yes, it.
• 1:05:59
  Does OK, fair enough. It does.
• 1:06:00
  Yeah, of course it does. But it's the first tragic moment
• 1:06:04
  the film needs, and it changes the tone of the film and it
• 1:06:07
  changes hilts because it's really poignant when he goes to
• 1:06:10
  pick up Bibes's cap off the ground.
• 1:06:12
  And this is the one where he goes from being a maverick who's
• 1:06:14
  just making his own plans. You guys get on with your big
• 1:06:17
  attempt. I'm going to do what I want.
• 1:06:19
  But now he's a team player, you know?
• 1:06:21
  Let me know the exact information you need.
• 1:06:22
  I'm going out tonight. Yeah, I love that.
• 1:06:25
  I love Roger. Open up, Harry.
• 1:06:26
  We dig around the clock. Yeah.
• 1:06:28
  Come on. Yes.
• 1:06:30
  Love it. Ives was based on Jimmy Caddell,
• 1:06:33
  who was also shot dead trying to scale the fence in Style Out
• 1:06:36
  Buff 3. Desperate.
• 1:06:37
  Moving it. It really is an inevitable
• 1:06:40
  outcome as well. And when he's just hanging?
• 1:06:43
  There oh. God, stay.
• 1:06:45
  Just just how old's that frame? Just long enough?
• 1:06:47
  And it's like, yeah, that's what Hope feeling looks like.
• 1:06:50
  Yeah. Desperate.
• 1:06:51
  Yeah. It leaves it hanging.
• 1:06:53
  And it's. It's wonderful.
• 1:06:54
  It is so things are starting to get a little more serious now,
• 1:06:57
  with hilts desperate for Ives demise not to be in vain.
• 1:07:00
  Yeah. Danny's revealed his
• 1:07:04
  claustrophobia and Colin's eyesight is worse than we
• 1:07:07
  anticipated, but it's now or never for our chaps.
• 1:07:10
  It is the night of and I love what the writers and Sturgis do
• 1:07:14
  here. Regarding the characters.
• 1:07:16
  It's evident throughout the film, but none more so in this
• 1:07:18
  scene. To maintain clarity, a lot of
• 1:07:21
  our main protagonists have been paired up.
• 1:07:23
  This happens right at the start and it's seen all the way
• 1:07:25
  through the end. Roger and Mack, Danny and
• 1:07:28
  Willie, Handley and Colin, they've all shared scenes in the
• 1:07:30
  film and become kind of dependent on one another,
• 1:07:33
  particularly Danny and Willie and Handley and Colin for their
• 1:07:36
  limitations. And it really reinforces one of
• 1:07:39
  the themes of the film, sticking together, working together in
• 1:07:41
  the face of adversity. Just like hilts coming on board.
• 1:07:44
  Now he's a team player. That's how we'll win this bloody
• 1:07:46
  thing. Love that.
• 1:07:48
  I really like the linear mechanics of this section, the
• 1:07:51
  clear A to B nature of it. Again, it's just keeping things
• 1:07:55
  very simple and it's all in the visuals.
• 1:07:57
  As one person goes down the tunnel in the washroom, another
• 1:08:00
  is Wheeling their way through the tunnel while the other one
• 1:08:03
  is waiting at the end for hilts, a signal.
• 1:08:06
  The clarity of that is just breathtaking.
• 1:08:09
  We know that when Sedgwick goes down the tunnel, in a few
• 1:08:11
  minutes he'd be coming out the other side with hilts.
• 1:08:13
  What's in that piano? Very funny mate.
• 1:08:19
  That sounds really, really basic, but to see it on screen
• 1:08:23
  is a beautiful thing. I think it's because there's
• 1:08:25
  been so much that's gone into this, and we can finally see
• 1:08:27
  that bearing fruit. And just on a very basic level,
• 1:08:31
  I think there's something utterly thrilling about these
• 1:08:33
  scenes on that rudimentary track that they've created, whizzing
• 1:08:36
  from one section of the other, tapping the wheels with a garden
• 1:08:40
  trowel. And that is a great visual as
• 1:08:42
  well. They haven't got huge spades or
• 1:08:44
  any equipment required for this huge undertaking.
• 1:08:46
  They've been using a tiny garden tool highlighting just how big
• 1:08:50
  of an undertaking it is. And no wonder it took almost a
• 1:08:52
  year. Yeah.
• 1:08:54
  Yeah, it's so disciplined, isn't it?
• 1:08:56
  Yeah, the execution is even the direction.
• 1:08:59
  Everything about this is just such discipline.
• 1:09:01
  Yeah, yeah. So as we've talked about,
• 1:09:03
  Charlie Bronson plays Danny, the Tunnel King, and he had
• 1:09:06
  previously worked as a minor in his youth, so he provided advice
• 1:09:09
  on removing the soil from the tunnel.
• 1:09:11
  And also like his character, Bronson was claustrophobic.
• 1:09:14
  And he was one of the many people in this film who had
• 1:09:16
  served. He was an aerial gunner for the
• 1:09:18
  US Army Air Force during World War 2 and received his Purple
• 1:09:21
  Heart because he was wounded in battle as well.
• 1:09:23
  Unbelievable. The real Tunnel King was was
• 1:09:26
  called Wally Floody, who acted as a consultant on the film,
• 1:09:30
  unlike Danny while he was transferred to another camp
• 1:09:32
  before the big push after the guards noticed some suspicious
• 1:09:34
  goings on. As the fucking should have.
• 1:09:38
  Doing their job at last. Yes, thank you.
• 1:09:40
  Open your eyes. So he wasn't able to take part
• 1:09:44
  in the actual escape, but he was a big part of it.
• 1:09:46
  Yeah, he was. Yeah, Flirty told Sturgis, his
• 1:09:48
  production assistant, that he knew the production was nailing
• 1:09:51
  the authenticity after he started to have nightmares about
• 1:09:54
  his prisoner of war experiences. Right.
• 1:09:57
  Oh wow. After the war, he received an
• 1:09:58
  MBE for his commitment to the cause.
• 1:10:01
  What a guy. Amazing.
• 1:10:02
  And Bronson on says what a real sneaky bastard when it comes to
• 1:10:06
  the ladies. Outrageous story onset.
• 1:10:10
  He met Jill Ireland who was married to David McCallum,
• 1:10:13
  That's Eric Ashley Pitt, and said to him, I'm going to steal
• 1:10:17
  your wife. Jokingly.
• 1:10:19
  Ireland was pregnant at the time as well.
• 1:10:22
  Oh really? And ended up having a
• 1:10:23
  miscarriage. Bronson wasn't joking though.
• 1:10:26
  Five years later, Ireland divorced McCallum and married
• 1:10:28
  Bronson. Wow, what a bastard.
• 1:10:31
  Doesn't care, does he? Give him a heads up to be fair.
• 1:10:34
  I had five years. Yeah, he said.
• 1:10:36
  Come on, I'm going to sort this out.
• 1:10:38
  Yeah. Everything that the Word Awards
• 1:10:40
  comes to this point. Yeah.
• 1:10:42
  It's Hilt who has to go out first.
• 1:10:44
  Obviously, it's the only way it works.
• 1:10:46
  Nobody else can do it. Of course.
• 1:10:47
  He's been out so many times. He knows the terrain.
• 1:10:49
  He knows exactly what he's doing and he knows how how far 20 feet
• 1:10:53
  is. I just love that just by looking
• 1:10:55
  at it. I don't know how far 20 feet is
• 1:10:58
  just by looking at something. I would say you're a bit out
• 1:11:00
  here, bro, but not in the trees, I'll tell you that much.
• 1:11:05
  But it's just this the way that X and Mac, the out of ideas and
• 1:11:10
  Mac's idea is, so we'll just delay it.
• 1:11:12
  But it's like all the papers are printed today.
• 1:11:13
  It's now or never. It's like it has to be done and
• 1:11:16
  Mac tries to cut in and it's the only time.
• 1:11:18
  Actually is. Cool, isn't it?
• 1:11:19
  He's like I'm trying. To think, I'm trying to think.
• 1:11:22
  Yeah, he's done enough thinking that he thought he could relax
• 1:11:25
  at this point and just get out of there.
• 1:11:26
  And he kind of, he's still got work to do.
• 1:11:28
  Yeah. And it's when health comes back
• 1:11:29
  in, he's like just one chance. And he just lays out and you're
• 1:11:32
  you're relieved because you're like, yeah, that's a really good
• 1:11:34
  fucking planner. When he's like, hold on to
• 1:11:36
  yourself, Bartley, you're 20 feet short.
• 1:11:39
  Don't get excited instead. But they're going to be watching
• 1:11:41
  the compound, not the woods. But you know, because you're in
• 1:11:43
  safe hands that when the first couple of people get out, Eric
• 1:11:46
  gets out first and he kind of he's in the woods and you go
• 1:11:49
  right, OK, this is going to work if.
• 1:11:50
  He's a plan. Yeah, but if I was helped, my
• 1:11:53
  I'm just for the way I am. I'll be like, look, if we get
• 1:11:55
  the rope, I'll tie it, I'll do the signal.
• 1:11:57
  But the first person who comes out replaces me and then someone
• 1:11:59
  else replaces him, and then we all get away that way.
• 1:12:01
  Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't have just stayed for
• 1:12:03
  every fucking. 250 men. That's just pulling on a rope
• 1:12:08
  every for 35 seconds or something.
• 1:12:10
  And it's Eric as well when he pulls on the rope and gives a
• 1:12:12
  signal and he's like, I'll see you in Victoria.
• 1:12:14
  It's a get out. Of the move plans.
• 1:12:19
  Roger Mac, we've got to tell every single person who gets to
• 1:12:21
  the end, Ready tells Henley. When he gets to the end right,
• 1:12:23
  Your funny feature what everyone's going to react to.
• 1:12:26
  Calm down. That would just be exhausting
• 1:12:29
  everyone who comes down that tunnel, right?
• 1:12:30
  Here's the plan. He's pretty few foot.
• 1:12:32
  Wait until he pulls on road. Fucking hell.
• 1:12:34
  Someone else tell them I kind of be bothered with this.
• 1:12:36
  The thing that gets me every single time is when it's like
• 1:12:39
  send down 30 feet of rope. Send down 30.
• 1:12:42
  Yeah, yeah. Like I just think of Chinese
• 1:12:44
  whispers and how wrong it could have gone.
• 1:12:47
  Yeah, the goes about like 30 cans of Coke.
• 1:12:49
  Like what at the top? What's going on then what do we
• 1:12:55
  need robe for? And the way I mean, the last
• 1:12:58
  thing I mentioned on this whole sequence, because it is
• 1:12:59
  fantastic and it's you feel the coldness of that air when he
• 1:13:02
  comes out and you totally feel like the environment and how hot
• 1:13:06
  it is in the in the tunnel. It's just it's like freshness
• 1:13:09
  and this excitement to get out there.
• 1:13:11
  But hilts getting out of there the first time.
• 1:13:13
  That is flamboyantly shit. I adore that.
• 1:13:18
  Get white chinos on. It's really, really not
• 1:13:21
  camouflage whatsoever. It's almost like a backflip out.
• 1:13:24
  It's amazing. Every time I see it, I'm like,
• 1:13:28
  this is so dramatically amazing. Is there anything this guy can't
• 1:13:31
  do? He's not going to get shot.
• 1:13:32
  Bullets would just whiz around him.
• 1:13:35
  He's like Neil before. Neil is incredible.
• 1:13:38
  There's nothing hurting. But I just love the way this is
• 1:13:40
  all set up. I love the way it's played out.
• 1:13:41
  I love the way it's problem solving.
• 1:13:43
  As intelligent as it's been all the way through the film and you
• 1:13:45
  see it in real time. Yes, grip.
• 1:13:47
  This is the moment where McQueen shines for me.
• 1:13:49
  He's magnificent in the. In the woods where the light
• 1:13:52
  just on the tree and he's just got the rope there.
• 1:13:55
  Yeah, because during the real escape, they also realised at
• 1:13:58
  the 11th hour that the tunnel had come up short.
• 1:14:00
  So there were neither woods near the guard tower.
• 1:14:03
  And the original plan was for a man to leave every minute, but
• 1:14:05
  this was changed to 10 per hours.
• 1:14:07
  That had to improvise. Yeah, 10 per hour on screen
• 1:14:10
  doesn't really scan, does it? So that's why they do it a
• 1:14:12
  little bit more sexy on film then it actually happened.
• 1:14:15
  Yeah, I mean, this whole thing I find really tense because of how
• 1:14:18
  drawn out it's become. You know, Sturgis doesn't rush
• 1:14:21
  through this scene. He makes you feel how long this
• 1:14:24
  would be to get every man out. And just when you think it can't
• 1:14:28
  get any worse, there's an area which is obviously hugely ironic
• 1:14:31
  because the people who want to get back and fight for are now
• 1:14:34
  hindering their plan. And I think what this sun does
• 1:14:37
  really well, even if you're not claustrophobic, it does sell.
• 1:14:40
  How terrifying this must have been to be stuck in that tunnel
• 1:14:43
  for so long. Anyway, getting really hot in
• 1:14:45
  there. You're 20 feet short now.
• 1:14:47
  The lights have gone out. You can just hear this barrage
• 1:14:49
  of gunfire above. And like, who are Danny?
• 1:14:52
  This is obviously the last thing he needs, particularly when
• 1:14:54
  Bartlett starts kicking off at him to get moved.
• 1:14:58
  He's having an absolute nightmare in this situation.
• 1:15:00
  And Bronson's so good. Like that scene where it goes in
• 1:15:03
  complete darkness and you just hear your Danny sobbing and
• 1:15:06
  whimpering like a little kid. Like, it's not what you expect
• 1:15:10
  from Charles Bronson, but it's so effective.
• 1:15:12
  Like, and the way he grabs that candle, like it's the most
• 1:15:15
  important thing he's seen in his life and just holds on to it.
• 1:15:18
  Yeah, it's a scene that's got a really clever twist for it
• 1:15:20
  because we've already seen Cedric get in the tunnel with
• 1:15:22
  his massive suitcase. You know what's in their piano.
• 1:15:24
  He's already been told that's not going to go through.
• 1:15:27
  So you're thinking, all right, this is what's going to bring
• 1:15:29
  this whole thing down on them. Isn't Etcetera trying to get
• 1:15:31
  that through somehow. But it's not him, it's
• 1:15:33
  Cavendish. He's just got a small case, but
• 1:15:35
  he just trips and he makes that noise.
• 1:15:37
  And I think the last thing that's really notable about
• 1:15:39
  this, the complete lack of music.
• 1:15:42
  I think it's a really interesting choice by Sturgis
• 1:15:44
  and Bernstein to not score this. Just let the audio individuals
• 1:15:48
  create the tension instead. Yeah, Because it's when
• 1:15:51
  Cavendish falls, and that's when the score starts to go.
• 1:15:54
  So that's when the release attention comes.
• 1:15:56
  Like the film and the real story, 76 men made it of fresh
• 1:15:59
  air. The 77th was made by a guard and
• 1:16:02
  the game was up. Imagine that man.
• 1:16:03
  I know six people have gone out and you must be thinking this is
• 1:16:06
  working. It's so tense in the film, that
• 1:16:08
  moment where he's lying on the ground and you're thinking the
• 1:16:12
  guy is so impatient, and then he just thinks, oh, well, I'm just
• 1:16:15
  going to go for it. And we know what's going to
• 1:16:17
  happen. It's.
• 1:16:17
  It's horrific. Yeah.
• 1:16:19
  Really great tension building. Well, it isn't 250, but 76 is
• 1:16:23
  better than nothing. But now the guards are alerted.
• 1:16:25
  And our boys 100. Yeah.
• 1:16:31
  The crew. An impressive roster in the
• 1:16:35
  crew. We're starting with the
• 1:16:36
  screenplay written by James Clavell and WR Burnett, 2
• 1:16:40
  prolific screenwriters and novelists responsible for some
• 1:16:43
  of the most beloved literature of the 20th century.
• 1:16:46
  What they work on The Great Escape.
• 1:16:48
  I think there's a lot going on in this film.
• 1:16:50
  Obviously a huge cast of characters, a true story which
• 1:16:52
  even now is so deep rooted in the cultural psyche, so 61 years
• 1:16:56
  ago would have been even more so.
• 1:16:58
  Very sensitive material. The escape plan is so elaborate,
• 1:17:02
  utilizing hundreds of prisoners doing a variety of jobs to make
• 1:17:05
  it work. If one cog breaks down, the
• 1:17:07
  whole thing falls apart. It's a large scale version of
• 1:17:10
  Ocean's 11. Yeah.
• 1:17:11
  I was going to say, I was going to mention that we like, it's a
• 1:17:14
  kind of guys doing a range of cars.
• 1:17:15
  Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot to contend
• 1:17:18
  with, but I really don't feel that in the writing.
• 1:17:21
  It's boiled down to a very simple narrative.
• 1:17:23
  We've got hundreds of prisoners of war who are going to tunnel
• 1:17:25
  the way out of the camp to freedom of that.
• 1:17:28
  Is it? Yeah.
• 1:17:29
  And I think you've got to not ask too many questions on the
• 1:17:32
  right hand side of the film here.
• 1:17:34
  We've discussed them. There are big questions about a
• 1:17:36
  lot of things that are going on. How did the guards not notice
• 1:17:39
  the huge piles of soil? I mean, it shows a few leg folds
• 1:17:42
  being dispersed, but three tunnels, those are some of that
• 1:17:46
  guards. How were they able to forge that
• 1:17:49
  many papers right under the very noses of the guards?
• 1:17:52
  And there are loads more, but you've just got to go with it.
• 1:17:55
  And what I think helps that is that it's set up right at the
• 1:17:58
  top. It's based on true events.
• 1:18:00
  You've got that information at the start.
• 1:18:02
  So I think you resolved with yourself, well, this is true.
• 1:18:04
  This happened and you just you'll swallow anything at that
• 1:18:07
  point. Yeah, I think if you watch this
• 1:18:08
  film in real time over the space of a year, it would make sense.
• 1:18:14
  How did they do that? How to get rid of the soil?
• 1:18:16
  Because it took maybe one leg every day for about 6 months
• 1:18:20
  That you want to watch that? No, Nope.
• 1:18:22
  But the half of that, condense it somehow, you know what I
• 1:18:24
  mean? Of course, that's the whole
• 1:18:25
  point. Yeah, it's the speed of it.
• 1:18:26
  I'm impressed that the screenplay doesn't get bogged
• 1:18:28
  down in these tedious details though, which they could have
• 1:18:31
  easily done. The writers could have felt a
• 1:18:32
  weight of responsibility, considering the circumstances
• 1:18:35
  and the story that they're telling.
• 1:18:37
  And really, it doesn't make for sexy cinema if we're taken
• 1:18:39
  through the mechanics of exactly how this all worked.
• 1:18:43
  I mentioned earlier that you get given enough exposition to keep
• 1:18:45
  you at Bay and make the whole thing relatively believable.
• 1:18:49
  You've got a few questions, but I think just out of fondness,
• 1:18:53
  you think doesn't matter. Yeah, I won't question that.
• 1:18:56
  Yeah. So for a complex operation like
• 1:18:58
  The Great Escape, I think the writing is perfectly simple.
• 1:19:01
  Yeah, I think it tackles what might be the biggest challenge
• 1:19:03
  in the film, which is if you describe what happens in it to
• 1:19:07
  someone who hasn't seen it, and then you tell them how long it
• 1:19:09
  is, I think they'll be forgiven for saying something like, all
• 1:19:11
  right, so do they get away after like 45 minutes?
• 1:19:14
  And then it's two hours of being chased?
• 1:19:16
  But it's the opposite. So I think it's kind of
• 1:19:19
  piggybacking on what you're saying, Luke.
• 1:19:20
  It's like, how do you make that 2 hours exciting?
• 1:19:23
  And I think it does that by making you realize just how
• 1:19:26
  challenging these little details were.
• 1:19:28
  Like the dirt disposed, the air. It's some stuff to see it, But
• 1:19:31
  that was essentially life or death for them.
• 1:19:33
  That is a massive challenge. Like, shit, how do we get around
• 1:19:36
  this, the need to get rid of it? Because if they don't, they're
• 1:19:38
  screwed. They go nowhere it's the same
• 1:19:41
  when Bob reveals the scale of the operation like how on earth
• 1:19:44
  you're going to come up with enough clothes for everyone.
• 1:19:46
  How are you going to get the documents?
• 1:19:47
  And again, it gives you these little details to strip feeds
• 1:19:50
  men, sets everything up and then knocks down like 10 minutes data
• 1:19:53
  and like right, fine, great, go over there.
• 1:19:55
  So it's these things that sound insignificant, but from their
• 1:19:59
  perspective, the Pows perspective, it is absolutely
• 1:20:02
  massive and pivotal to them getting away.
• 1:20:04
  And I think the success of the rightness every time something
• 1:20:06
  comes up, like say, it just gives that solution.
• 1:20:09
  Like when you see Sedgwick coming up with the bellows, you
• 1:20:11
  go, yeah, OK, that's really clever actually.
• 1:20:13
  How are you going to make people be able to breathe in these
• 1:20:15
  nose? He's created that and that's
• 1:20:17
  really clever. And because of that, because
• 1:20:19
  it's this constant engineering, this constant invention to these
• 1:20:22
  details where if you sit and think, you go.
• 1:20:24
  Yeah, I wouldn't know what to do actually to to, to solve that,
• 1:20:27
  to see it being solved. That's just as entertaining as
• 1:20:30
  the last 25 minutes. Yeah, totally.
• 1:20:33
  Yeah, I think it's just the way they stitched all the characters
• 1:20:35
  together to add the excitement into the middle of that.
• 1:20:38
  The dialogue is great as well. I think that that's it's really
• 1:20:41
  believable of the time. I don't think it's, it could
• 1:20:43
  have been really pompous. It could have been really over
• 1:20:45
  the top. I think it could have
• 1:20:46
  overwritten the Nazi characters with their dialogue that could
• 1:20:49
  have overwritten the British. I think it's very, very hard to
• 1:20:51
  write something so complex and make it seem so simple.
• 1:20:54
  It doesn't feel like you've sat through nearly three hours of an
• 1:20:57
  espionage thriller. And like I've sat and I've
• 1:21:01
  watched this like 3 or 4 times this week, watched it again this
• 1:21:03
  morning and I have felt no sense of worry at all.
• 1:21:07
  Addressing all of the themes in this because it is laid down and
• 1:21:10
  doing all the President's men. I couldn't watch that enough
• 1:21:13
  because I just feel like so dark and it's so layered and I don't
• 1:21:16
  know what the fuck's going on. This is far, far more complex in
• 1:21:20
  its scale and its plot and everything that's attached to it
• 1:21:23
  and what actually happened, and it's based in real life.
• 1:21:26
  I should have been shitting myself, like, how are we going
• 1:21:28
  to do this justice? But I think The thing is with
• 1:21:30
  The Great Escape is it does itself justice.
• 1:21:32
  It's on the page there, just knows it's there.
• 1:21:35
  He puts it into a storyboard. It's visual.
• 1:21:37
  Everyone knows the part, the plane, everyone's happy with the
• 1:21:40
  dialogue apart from McQueen. And then that's really addressed
• 1:21:43
  and you can see it's brought back and it kind of saves
• 1:21:45
  itself. It's a very safe film, but at
• 1:21:47
  the same time very intelligent. And by saying safe doesn't mean
• 1:21:50
  it's bad. No, I think if you write a safe
• 1:21:53
  film, it takes a lot of effort to get it to the point that it
• 1:21:57
  would have been at at the screenplay.
• 1:21:59
  And we say this over and over again about when we come to
• 1:22:01
  write and it's like, is this a work in progress?
• 1:22:03
  How much for this is ad Lib? And I imagine if you read the
• 1:22:06
  Great Escape screenplay it's pretty much beat for.
• 1:22:09
  BI would imagine all. The characters have got layers.
• 1:22:13
  You kind of see where they're all coming from.
• 1:22:14
  You see all of the motivations and they're all different.
• 1:22:17
  The role, yeah, they're going for the one goal.
• 1:22:20
  But the vulgar, different backgrounds, they're all from
• 1:22:22
  different places. They all kind of know each, but
• 1:22:24
  everyone's got a personality and that's really hard to do just on
• 1:22:26
  the page. And I think they absolutely nail
• 1:22:28
  it. Yeah, yeah, it's absolutely
• 1:22:30
  magnificent, Yeah. The film is based on Paul
• 1:22:33
  Brickell's novel of the same name.
• 1:22:34
  He was an Australian fighter pilot who was a prisoner at the
• 1:22:37
  real Stalaglove 3. He was on the periphery of the
• 1:22:40
  escape plans, acting as a lookout.
• 1:22:42
  He wasn't involved in the escape due to his claustrophobia,
• 1:22:45
  right? Obviously there's a there's a
• 1:22:47
  pandemic of claustrophobia. Yeah.
• 1:22:49
  So the book you mentioned there, it was published in 1950?
• 1:22:52
  Yeah, it was adapted for live TV show The Phil Gore Television
• 1:22:56
  Playhouse in 1951. Sturge just loved the book and
• 1:23:00
  shopped it around Hollywood for around 8 years with no luck.
• 1:23:03
  That all changed after the success of The Magnificent 7 in
• 1:23:06
  1961. Which is.
• 1:23:07
  That's a great film. Yeah.
• 1:23:08
  If you haven't seen it, Jesus Christ, you should.
• 1:23:10
  Yeah, Sturgis was hot property after that, and The Great Escape
• 1:23:13
  was his next project after it was greenlit by United Artists.
• 1:23:16
  He could pretty much do whatever he wanted to after Magnificent
• 1:23:19
  Seven. Yeah, great film and.
• 1:23:20
  It was adapted by James Clavell and WR Burnett Law.
• 1:23:24
  Reportedly, there were 11 drafts of the screenplay by 6 different
• 1:23:28
  writers before Sturgis was happy with it.
• 1:23:30
  And it actually wasn't finished by the time filming began, with
• 1:23:33
  rewrite happening on set. And Sturgis later said, I'm not
• 1:23:36
  proposing that's a good way to make a picture, but it was the
• 1:23:38
  right way to make this one. Yeah, you can tell there's a lot
• 1:23:42
  of people involved in this. And trim the fat off it and see
• 1:23:45
  where it's going to go. I'm surprised Chris Columbus
• 1:23:46
  didn't have a fucking star with us.
• 1:23:51
  Sturgis also wasn't originally a fan of the title.
• 1:23:53
  He thought it was too celebratory, but from what it
• 1:23:56
  was, the work type of the film was the last escape, but the
• 1:23:58
  studio intervened and changed it back.
• 1:24:01
  Yeah, it's not as attractive. Is it the last escape?
• 1:24:04
  No, I think it's erroneous as well.
• 1:24:06
  It wouldn't have been the last. It's but downbeat as well, isn't
• 1:24:08
  it? It is downbeat.
• 1:24:09
  Now it's going to happen. Yeah, the great escape.
• 1:24:11
  Now we're talking. Yeah, I want to see one of those
• 1:24:13
  types of escape. Yeah, yeah, great.
• 1:24:15
  The film has been praised and derided in equal measure for the
• 1:24:18
  accuracy or the lack of in the story.
• 1:24:21
  On the one hand, real camp was also designed to be escape
• 1:24:24
  proof. The barracks were built on sand
• 1:24:26
  and raised from the ground to make tunnel, and difficult
• 1:24:28
  details like stripping the wood from the huts to shore up three
• 1:24:31
  tunnels and hiding the soil craftily dispersing it were all
• 1:24:34
  part of the real prep. And there were a reported 600 to
• 1:24:38
  1800 inmates that were involved in the planning of the escape.
• 1:24:42
  But the novel in the film don't actually make reference to the
• 1:24:44
  real fact that the majority of the inmates didn't plan on
• 1:24:46
  attempting to escape. Yeah, I think a lot of them were
• 1:24:49
  content with the work and conditions and living conditions
• 1:24:52
  and. There were a number of Canadians
• 1:24:54
  at the center of the escape plans, but they aren't part of
• 1:24:57
  the story at all. One of which was Wally Floody
• 1:24:59
  who spoke about the room Tunnel clink.
• 1:25:00
  What a name. Wally Floody.
• 1:25:02
  Bloody, and it's a mouthful, isn't it?
• 1:25:04
  It is a powerful. As was the biggest born of
• 1:25:06
  contention for most is that there are a number of erroneous
• 1:25:09
  Americans at the center of the plans in the film.
• 1:25:11
  In the real camp, there were a number of Americans who helped
• 1:25:14
  with the tunnel, but they weren't part of the actual
• 1:25:16
  escape because they were moved from left three months before
• 1:25:19
  the escape took place. Yeah, there were a number of
• 1:25:23
  scenes from the film that didn't happen at all, of course.
• 1:25:25
  But like we said, you know, watch a documentary for
• 1:25:27
  historical accuracy. Yeah.
• 1:25:29
  So with such sensitive subject matter, Bernette Clavell and the
• 1:25:33
  other one named writers have created something with an
• 1:25:35
  incredible lightness of touch. Next up is the iconic score by
• 1:25:42
  the legendary Elmer Bernstein, a man who also served in the US
• 1:25:47
  Army Air Forces during World War 2.
• 1:25:49
  Bernstein was brought on board. Haven't done the equally iconic
• 1:25:52
  score for the Magnificent 7, putting in some great work
• 1:25:54
  around this time. Oh yeah, Matt, your thoughts on
• 1:25:58
  his work in the film? Feels really influential on the
• 1:26:01
  likes of John Williams, because I think a lot of film scores
• 1:26:04
  back in the 60s there would be quite sparing.
• 1:26:08
  You'd get kind of two or three orchestral flourishes throughout
• 1:26:11
  the film, but not a lot more than that.
• 1:26:13
  Not probably generalized in a bit, but that's what it feels
• 1:26:15
  like. But I think Bernstein in this
• 1:26:17
  shows he can do a lot more. Like he's obviously got the main
• 1:26:20
  theme, but then he uses up in three or four different ways for
• 1:26:23
  the film. Sometimes it's celebratory,
• 1:26:25
  sometimes it's tense, sometimes it's poignant.
• 1:26:27
  And then there's moments where he moves away from using the
• 1:26:31
  orchestra to create music, like when Bartlett has been rumbled
• 1:26:34
  and he's escaping off the rooftops.
• 1:26:36
  That's all done with this really like ominous, dramatic piano and
• 1:26:39
  not much else. So there's a lot of variety in
• 1:26:42
  this and I think the variety kind of gets overlooked because
• 1:26:45
  obviously you've got to talk about the main theme.
• 1:26:47
  And I think that main theme is a piece of music where I think it
• 1:26:50
  needs saving from itself because it's been Co opted so often.
• 1:26:54
  There's so many different things.
• 1:26:56
  Like that fucking brass band. I used to follow the England
• 1:26:58
  football team around those guys. Fuck those guys playing it every
• 1:27:02
  time. Every time they play it I think
• 1:27:05
  you've actually seen the film because like, all but one
• 1:27:08
  Englishman dies in it and the Germans win.
• 1:27:10
  What the fuck does this got to do with football?
• 1:27:12
  And no. That's totally correct.
• 1:27:14
  It's so misplaced, it's unbelievable.
• 1:27:16
  It is, yeah. In a way that that's almost a
• 1:27:18
  compliment to the music, like how it's been like seized on in
• 1:27:21
  years like that because it's so good.
• 1:27:23
  But I think you've just got to divorce it from all that
• 1:27:26
  nonsense around it. Because once you do and you look
• 1:27:28
  at it just as a piece of music, it's just one of the most
• 1:27:31
  stirring pieces of music ever. It.
• 1:27:33
  Is, yeah. It's it's defiance in musical
• 1:27:35
  form. That's the best way I've
• 1:27:37
  described as the nice. The music makes you think.
• 1:27:40
  Just keep going, just trying. Just keep trying.
• 1:27:44
  Don't just because the odds are against you.
• 1:27:46
  Yeah, but you've got to divorce it from everything else.
• 1:27:48
  Yeah. It's wonderful.
• 1:27:50
  It's a character itself in the whole film.
• 1:27:51
  I think it's very, very powerful.
• 1:27:53
  It's used in a wonderful way to predict the motion and to not
• 1:27:58
  light the audience. I think it's one of them great
• 1:28:00
  scores that is very honest. And when you hear it, you see
• 1:28:04
  it. It's not trying to be something
• 1:28:06
  it's not. It's not trying to lead you down
• 1:28:07
  the garden path. It's kind of holding your hand
• 1:28:09
  throughout the whole film and telling you exactly how you
• 1:28:11
  should feel. Again, that seems very
• 1:28:12
  simplified and it seems very, it just seems very mechanical, but
• 1:28:16
  it doesn't seem that way when you put it all together.
• 1:28:19
  Yeah, it's got a very organic feel to it.
• 1:28:22
  It's got a very honest feel. It's very emotional.
• 1:28:25
  And I think the reason people picked up on this is because it
• 1:28:28
  has that legacy. It has that stiff up a lip and
• 1:28:31
  it's very defiant if you play this at a football match, for
• 1:28:33
  example. But it's very simple.
• 1:28:36
  It's not many notes. It's you could, you could pick
• 1:28:41
  that about a piano. Even if you don't play a piano,
• 1:28:43
  if you sit there for 20 minutes, I'm sure you'll find you'll.
• 1:28:45
  Find the notes. Yeah, you'll find them and it's,
• 1:28:47
  you know, it's not like they're going to England match and
• 1:28:50
  playing the Superman theme tune by John Williams.
• 1:28:53
  It's like it's, it's not bombastic, but it's just
• 1:28:55
  beautifully done because it is so simple and so memorable.
• 1:28:57
  You can break that down and make it heartbreaking.
• 1:29:00
  You can build that up and make it raucous.
• 1:29:02
  It's like a national anthem in itself without lyrics and it
• 1:29:06
  represents these guys very, very well.
• 1:29:08
  It represents their desire, it represents their ambition, it
• 1:29:12
  represents their complete denial of given up.
• 1:29:15
  Like Matt said, it is a March in itself and I think people will
• 1:29:18
  take that and use that because it does sit so well with the
• 1:29:22
  visuals. It's the same, it's the same
• 1:29:23
  colour to me that that music is the same colour as that 35 mil
• 1:29:28
  print. It's just an Eastman stock.
• 1:29:30
  It just looks like that when you listen to it, you can put it on
• 1:29:33
  and you transport it again because you hear a tiny bit of
• 1:29:36
  that music you pull back into this film.
• 1:29:38
  It is such an integral part of it.
• 1:29:40
  It's it's just wonderfully done by Bernstein, I think.
• 1:29:42
  Yeah, the main theme from the film is just one of the the
• 1:29:45
  biggest in movie history. It's so identifiable and just
• 1:29:47
  hearing at once, like redoing work for this episode, it just
• 1:29:51
  unlocks an earworm that you'll not be able to get rid of.
• 1:29:54
  For the last two weeks I've been stomping around the house every
• 1:29:57
  footstep grid with a note with this theme in the head.
• 1:30:01
  It's such a great marching song I've been stomping around.
• 1:30:06
  Shaking dirt out of your trousers.
• 1:30:08
  In the source fab with a wooden spoon.
• 1:30:10
  Yeah, yeah, it's a great marching song.
• 1:30:14
  It just evokes the army, the war, everything associated with
• 1:30:18
  it. It works on so many levels.
• 1:30:19
  And no, wondered. It's endured throughout the
• 1:30:22
  generations. Yeah.
• 1:30:23
  And with the theme as big as this, it naturally overshadows
• 1:30:26
  the other work that Bernstein created in the score.
• 1:30:28
  Similar to what I said about Jaws a few episodes ago, there
• 1:30:31
  are some wonderful moments of restrained elegance.
• 1:30:35
  That ominous cue that generally plays with the nighttime
• 1:30:37
  establishing shots of the camp. Yeah.
• 1:30:40
  Love that. Yeah.
• 1:30:41
  All that gloriously rousing music when Hindley and Colin are
• 1:30:44
  in the plane. Oh, yeah.
• 1:30:46
  Amazing. Listen closely.
• 1:30:47
  You can get overshadowed, but the other pieces are.
• 1:30:50
  You'll be richly rewarded if you listen now for them, and if you
• 1:30:53
  listen to the score in its entirety.
• 1:30:55
  It is. It's stir and stuff.
• 1:30:56
  Bernstein wrote the main theme for the film, as we've
• 1:30:59
  discussed, and use motifs from it as themes for like the main
• 1:31:02
  characters for each one of them, which I think is really, really
• 1:31:04
  clever, really well done, something Williams loves to do
• 1:31:06
  as well. Yeah, obviously a smart man.
• 1:31:09
  It's not just pieces of music that sound good.
• 1:31:11
  It works on many levels, like I said, and links all the
• 1:31:14
  characters together. Actually, on the main theme,
• 1:31:17
  John Leighton, who plays Willie in the film, was also a singer.
• 1:31:21
  He had a few hits in the early 60s and bizarrely scored a hit
• 1:31:25
  by applying lyrics to the main theme from this film.
• 1:31:28
  Really. Yeah.
• 1:31:30
  And a departure from kind of the central themes of this film.
• 1:31:33
  The lyrics concerned the narrator's outrageous
• 1:31:36
  infidelities. Just boasting about all the
• 1:31:39
  chicks that he's shagging. Really.
• 1:31:43
  Yeah. It's unbelievable.
• 1:31:44
  In fact, why don't we play it so you can hear how rageous it is?
• 1:31:49
  Let's go for it. Mabel, I love you.
• 1:31:56
  Mabel, I love you as much as I am able, but I'm crazy for
• 1:32:04
  little Daisy. She is the one girl for me.
• 1:32:12
  I made a pickle but it's a dollar two and it go that when
• 1:32:19
  I'm kissing go on kissing, she is the one girl.
• 1:32:25
  For me that Bernstein was furious when he heard that.
• 1:32:29
  Like what the fuck are you doing?
• 1:32:30
  Just pissing all over his work of art.
• 1:32:34
  It's just really obvious, right? But as well I do definitely.
• 1:32:41
  Oh God, that was wonderful. Yeah, awful, awful choice.
• 1:32:44
  I think just in bad. Just in bad.
• 1:32:47
  Really bad luck. On John Leyton, he is also the
• 1:32:52
  last remaining actor from the film.
• 1:32:53
  That is as of November 2024. Right.
• 1:32:56
  OK. Oh, really?
• 1:32:57
  OK. And as we're on the music for
• 1:32:59
  the film, we've got this question from Steven Brewer and
• 1:33:01
  ATRM Patron. Hi, Steven.
• 1:33:04
  Hi, Stephen. Hello Stephen.
• 1:33:05
  Stephen says The Great Escape is one of the great movies, a Boy's
• 1:33:08
  Own style romp celebrating cheeky ingenuity and triumph
• 1:33:11
  against the overwhelming might of a literal evil army.
• 1:33:14
  That it is. My question is, has there ever
• 1:33:18
  been a score or musical theme that does more heavy lifting
• 1:33:21
  than this one? Great question.
• 1:33:22
  Yeah, and I mentioned it just now.
• 1:33:24
  I think the obvious choice is the main thing from Jaws.
• 1:33:27
  Any John Williams stuff to be honest.
• 1:33:29
  That's the top of my list. Anything by John Williams, to be
• 1:33:31
  fair. I think anything by any of
• 1:33:33
  Morricone as well. His music is bigger than
• 1:33:35
  anything on screen. Yeah, but I'll see.
• 1:33:38
  The main theme from the long Good Friday does a bang up job
• 1:33:43
  of emphasizing the power and menace that Harold Shan brings.
• 1:33:46
  It's massive, but it also kind of underpins how fragile his
• 1:33:50
  world is and how easy it is to unpick when it comes booming in
• 1:33:54
  at the start when he's walking through Heathrow.
• 1:33:56
  Perfection. Yes, I was trying to think of a
• 1:33:58
  little bit more recent films. I'm trying to think of the
• 1:34:01
  scores that that I could actually just buy and just
• 1:34:04
  listen to and it would transport as bad as that world.
• 1:34:06
  I think The Great Escape definitely does that.
• 1:34:09
  Interstellar definitely does that.
• 1:34:11
  OK, Yeah. I think Interstellar, listening
• 1:34:13
  to that as an album is just as good as the film itself.
• 1:34:16
  I think it's a wonderful, wonderful soundtrack.
• 1:34:18
  Lord of the Rings, that's incredible.
• 1:34:20
  Really picks that whole thing up, makes it really, really
• 1:34:23
  epic. Any John Williams, I mean, look
• 1:34:25
  what he does for Superman. He just you just see a little
• 1:34:28
  bit of that S between beneath his shirt.
• 1:34:31
  It's like, yes, I mean 100%. Yeah, I focus on the fact that
• 1:34:35
  he said heavy lifting, which I've always an interest me of
• 1:34:38
  phrasing this question. So yeah, I've gone from music
• 1:34:41
  where I think if the film didn't have it, it would be such a
• 1:34:45
  lesser film. So Wesley's mentioned it
• 1:34:48
  already, but I would say the main theme from Superman the
• 1:34:51
  movie, because overall I'm not much of a fan of that film.
• 1:34:54
  I think it's OK. I'm not a great fan of it, but
• 1:34:56
  that music. It.
• 1:34:58
  Makes me think it's it's better than it probably is that film.
• 1:35:01
  Nothing John says, you know, you will believe a man can fly just
• 1:35:04
  listening to that music. And he's absolutely right.
• 1:35:07
  And then the other one, I would say ET because kind of if you
• 1:35:11
  watch ET at the end, there's barely any dialogue.
• 1:35:14
  It's all visual. And then it's all of John
• 1:35:17
  Williams music at the end of that film doing the heavy
• 1:35:19
  lifting. That's what makes you cry.
• 1:35:21
  It it is the music at the end of that film.
• 1:35:23
  Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it
• 1:35:25
  becoming ingrained in popular culture.
• 1:35:27
  And Bernstein himself said it became so ingrained he could
• 1:35:30
  have lived off the residuals and the royalties for the rest of
• 1:35:32
  his life. Yeah, wow.
• 1:35:33
  Because it's been Co opted like you said, man.
• 1:35:35
  It's been Co opted all over the place, Yeah, but he did carry on
• 1:35:38
  working prolifically throughout the decades.
• 1:35:40
  He did the music for Space Hunter and Westie will be
• 1:35:43
  forever grateful for that. Absolutely wonderful stuff.
• 1:35:46
  I don't think that Bernstein gets the credit of his there's
• 1:35:49
  really you've got your John Williams, we've mentioned him,
• 1:35:51
  you've got your Monaco as well. And I'd put Bernstein in that
• 1:35:54
  bracket. If you look at his filmography,
• 1:35:56
  if you get 30 seconds, the man never stopped working.
• 1:35:59
  A true movie legend. Yeah, unbelievable.
• 1:36:04
  Last one, our crew list is cinematography by Daniel L Phap.
• 1:36:08
  I don't care fat God damn it, I have a dab.
• 1:36:10
  Damn man, geographical. Rd.
• 1:36:14
  Two weeks from everywhere. Two years from everywhere.
• 1:36:16
  Fat was a man who had just picked up an Oscar for his work
• 1:36:18
  on West Side Story and who was also near in the end of his
• 1:36:21
  career. Westie your thoughts on Fat.
• 1:36:25
  I think it's just really, really wonderful.
• 1:36:27
  It's got this beautiful kind of glow to it, really diffused glow
• 1:36:32
  to it. And it's it just makes it so
• 1:36:34
  magical, almost dreamlike in its approach.
• 1:36:38
  It doesn't have these really hard contrast, the edges.
• 1:36:41
  It doesn't feel like it's edgy. It really adds to all of the
• 1:36:44
  performances because it's just like a painting and the way that
• 1:36:47
  it's lit and the way that it's shot.
• 1:36:48
  It was shot on Eastman 50T film like 5 to 50, which was
• 1:36:52
  discontinued and a year before this.
• 1:36:54
  So this would be one of their last films like shot on that
• 1:36:58
  actual film. It looks like West Side Story.
• 1:37:00
  It's got that look to it. It's got this real theatrical.
• 1:37:03
  Laws, doesn't it? Yeah, it's like an oil paint
• 1:37:05
  kind of torched off 35 milliwatt anamorphic as well.
• 1:37:08
  That adds to the scale. It adds to the depth in the
• 1:37:11
  frame. It just gives it this real
• 1:37:13
  grandeur. There's not a lot of clean over
• 1:37:15
  the shoulders. Everything's got somebody in the
• 1:37:17
  frame, everything's got something that's going on.
• 1:37:19
  It keeps it visually very entertaining.
• 1:37:21
  Thing I can say about the cinematography is that I just,
• 1:37:24
  I'm in all of it because it's just entertaining.
• 1:37:26
  I don't worry about how it was done.
• 1:37:28
  This film is 50 T, right? So that means it's a really slow
• 1:37:32
  film. You need a lot of light.
• 1:37:33
  Right. To get any kind of exposure on
• 1:37:36
  on like A50T film. So he's putting loads of lights
• 1:37:39
  in there. It would have been really,
• 1:37:40
  really hot at the time or really, really uncomfortable to
• 1:37:43
  shoot them. Tunnel scenes and he's doing
• 1:37:45
  candlelit scenes. Yeah, the look of this film
• 1:37:48
  absolutely 100% matches the content and matches the tone and
• 1:37:52
  matches the pace. It works on every level for me.
• 1:37:54
  It's a wonderful, wonderful piece of work.
• 1:37:56
  Yeah, yeah. What I'm impressed by with Fapps
• 1:37:58
  work is the expression he shows and the story he tells with the
• 1:38:02
  camera, the visual language. Like on the night of the escape,
• 1:38:05
  Roger and Matt moved from 1 hood to the other.
• 1:38:07
  It's just a static shot, but it's perfectly framed and
• 1:38:09
  highlights the fine margins that the prisoners have to keep
• 1:38:12
  within. As soon as the door of the hood
• 1:38:15
  shuts, the spotlight pans passed.
• 1:38:17
  Yeah, one second. Either side of that, they would
• 1:38:19
  have been caught. Yeah.
• 1:38:21
  You know, obviously he's collaborating with Sturgis, but
• 1:38:22
  that is really great visual storytelling.
• 1:38:24
  I love the contrast that he imprints on the film with the
• 1:38:26
  color palette as well. The daytime scenes are glorious,
• 1:38:30
  sun drenched compared to the grimy reality of the tunnels.
• 1:38:34
  Metaphorically there's light at the end of those tunnels, but he
• 1:38:36
  contrasts that with the daytime scenes.
• 1:38:38
  Love that. And when the story opens up and
• 1:38:40
  the prisoners are free, the frame completely opens to reveal
• 1:38:43
  this wide world of different colours that they've been
• 1:38:45
  missing out on being cooked up in that camp.
• 1:38:48
  Those wonderful long takes and McQueen on the bike.
• 1:38:50
  Incredibly impressive for something shot 61 years ago.
• 1:38:53
  They all just like postcards on every single scene you go to.
• 1:38:56
  It's like that's a postcard of a train.
• 1:38:58
  That's that's a postcard of a town in Germany.
• 1:39:01
  Of course it is, yeah. And finally, those shots in the
• 1:39:04
  tunnel are amazing. They were one sided, the tunnels
• 1:39:07
  to allow a Dolly track to be built alongside.
• 1:39:09
  Yeah. And that allowed for those
• 1:39:11
  awesome shots of the prisoners tunneling and whizzing through.
• 1:39:13
  That's thrilling stuff. Yeah.
• 1:39:15
  That really brings that to life. Yeah.
• 1:39:18
  Matt, your thoughts on FAP here. I've just missed the days when
• 1:39:21
  you got those big credits filmed in Panavision.
• 1:39:23
  I love it, love stuff like that back then, really great.
• 1:39:27
  Again. It's similar to you look, it's
• 1:39:28
  the use of colour here because the colours really pop and they
• 1:39:31
  have to because the majority of the film is in basically a
• 1:39:34
  really drab and dingy surrounding.
• 1:39:36
  And I think some films would embrace that and that's fine if
• 1:39:39
  you go on for a realistic edge, but this isn't, this is an
• 1:39:41
  adventure, so it's got to have colour to it.
• 1:39:43
  And despite the fact everyone is dressed in dark Blues or greys
• 1:39:47
  or Browns, it still feels vibrant and normally what the
• 1:39:50
  cinematography makes this film feel like.
• 1:39:53
  And I do mean this as a compliment, makes it feel like a
• 1:39:55
  comic book. Like every image in this film
• 1:39:58
  feels designed to be read as a comic book.
• 1:40:00
  Like flipping through the pages. Yeah.
• 1:40:02
  Every shot is framed from maximum visual information and
• 1:40:06
  dramatic impact. You know, like when the
• 1:40:07
  hammering that stake into the ground, just a big close up of
• 1:40:10
  that. And it does feel like you could
• 1:40:12
  read this film from the from the visual to lawn.
• 1:40:15
  There seems to be very few close-ups because I don't think
• 1:40:17
  you get many close-ups in the comic book.
• 1:40:19
  It's all about the cinema trophy really selling this as a visual
• 1:40:23
  LED story. Nothing that does that really,
• 1:40:25
  really well. Yeah, it does.
• 1:40:27
  So exceptional crew work on The Great Escape.
• 1:40:30
  I think we'll all agree. Yeah, and we must give a shout
• 1:40:32
  out to Alan Kay Wood and Bert Hendrickson for their
• 1:40:35
  magnificent production and costume design.
• 1:40:37
  Respectively. All right, both amazing.
• 1:40:42
  The end. Our boys are out on civilian
• 1:40:47
  territory and are now trying to maintain their anonymity while
• 1:40:50
  making their getaway. Starting with the train.
• 1:40:53
  You know, let's keep things inconspicuous.
• 1:40:55
  Let's split up. Nope.
• 1:40:56
  Pretty much half the escapees are waiting for that train, but
• 1:41:00
  trying to not look like they know each other.
• 1:41:02
  Great. All right.
• 1:41:04
  Roger and Mark Henley and Colin Ashley Pitts, who does an
• 1:41:08
  incredible job of looking like a Nazi with those wiring
• 1:41:11
  spectacles. Blonde man.
• 1:41:13
  Wonderful. Yeah, because filming had
• 1:41:16
  wrapped in the camp after two months and then they moved to
• 1:41:18
  the Germantown of Fussen, which is near the Austrian border.
• 1:41:21
  Yes, Sturgis's original plan was to film in various locations for
• 1:41:24
  the post escape scenes, but he was running out of money and
• 1:41:27
  decided that Fussen had everything he needed to have his
• 1:41:29
  casting. Seemingly disparate locations.
• 1:41:32
  Train station, a river, the countryside, the town itself.
• 1:41:36
  It was everything that he needed.
• 1:41:38
  Then when they get on the train, of course the only seat for
• 1:41:41
  Roger and Mac is opposite 2 Nazi offices.
• 1:41:43
  Yeah, they even have the audacity to wake one of them up
• 1:41:47
  and move his legs from the seat. And you can feel the pulse
• 1:41:49
  starting to rise here because they all get tested in one way
• 1:41:54
  or another. And when those guards get on,
• 1:41:56
  checking papers, shit, Colin is never going to be able to talk
• 1:42:00
  himself through this one looking the other way.
• 1:42:04
  And I love that Henry gives everybody the signal before
• 1:42:07
  making his getaway with Colin. Yeah, yeah, Henny's going
• 1:42:10
  through the Cartier saying telly who and that is what the RAF
• 1:42:13
  used to warn their comrades when they spotted a German.
• 1:42:15
  Right, OK, Yeah, didn't know that I.
• 1:42:18
  Didn't know that. Brilliant.
• 1:42:19
  I love that Roger and Matt keep their cool when they're showing
• 1:42:22
  their papers. Matt couldn't sound more
• 1:42:24
  friendship. He tried.
• 1:42:25
  He turns into Alan Dillon at some point.
• 1:42:29
  He's fantastic. And there's a lovely little
• 1:42:32
  detail when Ashley Pitt hands over his papers.
• 1:42:36
  He's unflappable, but as the guards leave him, he lets out a
• 1:42:38
  huge sigh of relief and drops his papers through.
• 1:42:40
  She and nerves love that nice little detail.
• 1:42:44
  And he is. Sturges keeps everything
• 1:42:46
  exciting by cross cutting to the other guys like Hiltz and
• 1:42:49
  Sedgwick and their attempts of escape as well.
• 1:42:52
  Yeah, because what I love about that, it always puts a smile on
• 1:42:54
  my face when I see this because the methods of escape for
• 1:42:57
  everyone, they're so stereotypical.
• 1:42:58
  Like McQueen, the American coolest fuck string and barbed
• 1:43:02
  wire over Rd. so you can capture German motorcycle and then Rev
• 1:43:05
  away all the rats waiting for the train.
• 1:43:07
  And then you've got Danny and Willie stealing the boat to make
• 1:43:11
  their getaway and it just looks like the most chilled out day
• 1:43:14
  they've ever had in their lives. It's like a date it.
• 1:43:17
  Is, you wouldn't think just escape from a prisoner of war
• 1:43:19
  camp. It's really tranquil, this
• 1:43:21
  bucolic river. The soundtrack is really
• 1:43:24
  romantic, like it is like it did.
• 1:43:26
  Then you think, to be fair, after everything they've gone
• 1:43:29
  through in the tunnel in particular, they deserve another
• 1:43:32
  bit of peace and quiet. And it's wide open.
• 1:43:34
  Air as well. Yeah, well, that's, I mean, the
• 1:43:36
  amount of times you see lawsuit in particular getting trapped by
• 1:43:39
  the tunnel collapse, Yeah. You just think, yeah, they
• 1:43:42
  deserve this. Actually, they deserve to get
• 1:43:44
  the easiest escape out of this. Love that.
• 1:43:47
  And it's the same eccentric again, quite comical.
• 1:43:49
  James Coburn nor the tough guy just gets away in a bicycle,
• 1:43:53
  just pedaling away. Not a care in the world.
• 1:43:55
  Got to remember, these are the only three that do get away.
• 1:43:58
  Yeah, in the getaway in the most sedate, undramatic manner
• 1:44:02
  possible. But they're the only three that
• 1:44:04
  get away. And then talking about Cedric, I
• 1:44:07
  do just quickly want to mention this.
• 1:44:08
  How funny is that scene when he's in France reading that
• 1:44:11
  massive newspaper in the cafe to hide from the Nazis?
• 1:44:14
  I love that. Getting really confused when the
• 1:44:16
  way that says there's a phone call for him, for me, and then
• 1:44:19
  he sees them talking behind the barn, It clicks.
• 1:44:21
  All right, Yeah. And then the resistance right up
• 1:44:23
  in there wipe out the Nazis, love.
• 1:44:25
  That's. Great.
• 1:44:26
  Tim Gibbs, one of the stuntmen on set, worked with McQueen
• 1:44:29
  during production, and one of the first jobs was a stunt where
• 1:44:31
  Hilt steals the motorbike using the old wire across the road
• 1:44:34
  trick. Oh yeah, classic.
• 1:44:36
  During the first take, Gibbs overcooked the slide and went
• 1:44:38
  flying into the cameraman, breaking the cameraman's leg in
• 1:44:41
  the process. Ouch.
• 1:44:43
  Well, Gibbs got up and sculpt off set thinking, shit, yeah,
• 1:44:47
  I've really fucked up here. He left that carnage behind him,
• 1:44:50
  but Sturgis shouted for him to come back and he was certain he
• 1:44:53
  was going to get the boot. But Sturgis loved it and asked
• 1:44:56
  him to do exactly the same thing for the next day.
• 1:44:58
  He said he didn't care about the cameraman's broken leg.
• 1:45:01
  The sight of a mode by Hurtland towards the camera would thrill
• 1:45:04
  audiences. Do the.
• 1:45:06
  Game wrong. But Gibbs did his best not to
• 1:45:09
  hit the cameraman on the second attempt.
• 1:45:11
  Bridge of the leg. I'll go from that wonderful
• 1:45:16
  sequence when Hedley and Colin jump off that train.
• 1:45:18
  Imagine jumping off a train blind.
• 1:45:21
  It's terrifying. Yeah, Jesus, just give me a big
• 1:45:24
  push. Yeah, just give me a big push
• 1:45:26
  and go off. And it's just that it's that
• 1:45:27
  great shot and you can see they've got maybe one or two
• 1:45:29
  chances to get this right because that train can't go back
• 1:45:32
  and forwards. It's going to cost a lot.
• 1:45:33
  Yeah, it's great. And it's very, very erratic,
• 1:45:36
  that camera move. It just goes follow them down,
• 1:45:38
  make sure you get them in shot and they do.
• 1:45:40
  And the hide by the hit and it's just wonderful.
• 1:45:42
  And Colin turns around. It's not stopping.
• 1:45:44
  On that jump from the train, the German National Railroad Bureau
• 1:45:47
  were instrumental in helping Sturges with these scenes.
• 1:45:50
  Platforms were added to the train carts to accommodate the
• 1:45:52
  lightning rigs for the interiors.
• 1:45:54
  Nice. And another was added so the
• 1:45:56
  camera crane would swing out and capture the footage of Handling
• 1:45:59
  and Colin jumping from the train.
• 1:46:01
  But during the sequence, the crew had a narrow escape when
• 1:46:03
  they were informed that the crane was about to slam into an
• 1:46:06
  oncoming pole and the Manchester swept at the last minute.
• 1:46:09
  You can tell that they worked on actual train tracks.
• 1:46:13
  Yeah, with a live train schedule that just did it when when there
• 1:46:16
  was a lull on the tracks. Pretty forward thinking for a
• 1:46:19
  time. And you can tell, which is
• 1:46:20
  unusual for a film from this era, that there's passing
• 1:46:23
  countryside. And that's for real.
• 1:46:25
  Yeah, yeah. Love that it looks amazing.
• 1:46:27
  The continuity works as well. It all just kind of seems it's,
• 1:46:30
  well, it's really seamless. It's just great.
• 1:46:32
  You just think, right, well, they're OK.
• 1:46:34
  I'm going to stop worrying about them now.
• 1:46:36
  Yeah, it moves on, but then you get Hilt and you get him and
• 1:46:40
  he's in his nuts in uniform, he's stolen the bike and he just
• 1:46:44
  sees he's got to go through this moment.
• 1:46:46
  And if he gets through this checkpoint, I think he's done.
• 1:46:49
  He's sound. He's absolutely made it.
• 1:46:51
  And he could have got through it by just not by just pretending
• 1:46:55
  not to hear that officer. Just don't turn around.
• 1:46:57
  Yeah, just Rev your bike a little bit louder and just just
• 1:47:00
  go slowly through and just daunt me.
• 1:47:02
  But he circles round just a fucking kick him in the face.
• 1:47:05
  Kick him in the chops. It's.
• 1:47:08
  Only reason he goes right, He knows he can't speak German.
• 1:47:11
  He's not even going to fucking try because he's too proud of an
• 1:47:13
  American pilot to even bother with that.
• 1:47:15
  He's not even going to shoot the Luger.
• 1:47:17
  Only if he has to shoot it, he'll shoot it.
• 1:47:19
  That's not an American made weapon.
• 1:47:20
  I'm not bother with that. That's when his covers blown and
• 1:47:22
  it is really, really exciting because you just think This is
• 1:47:26
  why Steve McCoy means in the film then.
• 1:47:27
  Yeah, Yeah. And even the the shots from the
• 1:47:29
  back, you can see. So in control of that bike, he's
• 1:47:32
  so in control of audiences. And the camera is just wide and
• 1:47:36
  high and shows everything because there's no close-ups.
• 1:47:39
  There's no quick cuts. There's no like, oh, you see his
• 1:47:42
  face now. It's it's like you're watching
• 1:47:44
  John Wick now. You know, you've got the raid
• 1:47:46
  where it's just got like, that's your wide shot.
• 1:47:48
  Like old boy in the corridor sequence.
• 1:47:51
  You know, he's doing it and it holds on it.
• 1:47:53
  McQueen was the first one who didn't says I can do all of
• 1:47:56
  this. Yeah, McQueen would have said.
• 1:47:57
  Make sure you catch that. That is me.
• 1:48:00
  Exactly. And you can see that in this
• 1:48:02
  sequence, like he does the kick, he does the spin around because
• 1:48:04
  he's shown like, well, yeah, I can.
• 1:48:06
  I can ride the bike with one leg.
• 1:48:07
  OK. He does it again.
• 1:48:09
  When he gets up to that big cabin, he starts hitting the
• 1:48:11
  side of it. In that moment where he kicks
• 1:48:14
  the Nazi officer, the he obviously he doesn't know
• 1:48:17
  German. He was asked where he was going.
• 1:48:19
  Right. Just as simple as that.
• 1:48:21
  Yeah, Yeah. Not ways you pay, but as well
• 1:48:24
  just wait where you're going. If you just learned a little bit
• 1:48:26
  of Germany, but just being like going to get a slice of pizza,
• 1:48:29
  that's fine. See you there.
• 1:48:30
  No problem. So things aren't looking great
• 1:48:32
  for our boys in this seemingly impossible mission.
• 1:48:37
  The final stretch in The Great Escape, stuffed full of movie
• 1:48:40
  iconography hilts. Roger and Mac are coming up.
• 1:48:43
  But firstly, I'm talking about Henley and Colin and their
• 1:48:46
  desperate attempts of escape. It is a little bit Weekend at
• 1:48:50
  Bernie's with Henley, Cotton, Colin around town a little bit
• 1:48:57
  because he's just looking the way the other way all the time.
• 1:49:01
  I think much like McQueen earlier, it's a strange move by
• 1:49:05
  Henley to disarm the guard of the plane hanger A roll forward
• 1:49:08
  to sweep his legs. Yeah, very strange move.
• 1:49:11
  Oh, but effective, I suppose. Yeah, it works, yeah.
• 1:49:14
  Yeah, they're still the plane, and then they're away.
• 1:49:16
  Yeah, and if you know your plans, and I'm sure everyone
• 1:49:18
  does, you'll notice that the planes in this hangar are
• 1:49:21
  American, 86 Texans, but painted in Luftwaffe colours.
• 1:49:25
  The Germans actually use this model as part of their training,
• 1:49:28
  and the aircraft would have been captured by the Germans.
• 1:49:30
  Right. OK.
• 1:49:31
  Yeah. So there's a lot of details in
• 1:49:33
  here that do get overlooked, I believe.
• 1:49:36
  However, in reality there were no escapes made by stolen
• 1:49:39
  vehicles, no motorbike jumps, no stolen planes or push bikes for
• 1:49:43
  that matter. Yeah.
• 1:49:44
  Shame. Shame.
• 1:49:45
  Yeah. I'm glad that you did use
• 1:49:47
  artistic license for the film because that's where the
• 1:49:49
  jeopardy ramps up, particularly here.
• 1:49:52
  Yeah. And what I love about these
• 1:49:53
  final moments is the enormity of the task really begins to dawn
• 1:49:57
  on you as the walls are closing in.
• 1:49:58
  You begin to realize that it was just a doom mission from the
• 1:50:02
  outset. Yeah.
• 1:50:03
  And three men making it a safety is an utter miracle.
• 1:50:06
  You can't just steal a German plane and expect to get away
• 1:50:09
  with it. No.
• 1:50:10
  Hindley and Colin are sitting ducks up there and could have
• 1:50:12
  easily been shot down, but for a moment the outlook is very
• 1:50:15
  bright. They've taken to the open skies
• 1:50:18
  and the music, like I said before, is magnificent.
• 1:50:20
  You really think they're going to make it 20 more minutes to
• 1:50:23
  the Swiss border? But then things changed.
• 1:50:26
  In an instant they start to lose power and have no choice but to
• 1:50:29
  crash land. It's an amazing stunt.
• 1:50:32
  You know, half measures when the wings snap off.
• 1:50:35
  Yeah, and Sturges assistant Robert Reillier, He was a pilot
• 1:50:39
  and he offered his services during the scene when Henley and
• 1:50:42
  Colin comedy the plane. He simulated what it was like to
• 1:50:45
  lose power and drop down to the tree line.
• 1:50:47
  But he said that a farmer saw the plane coming down, clocked
• 1:50:50
  the Nazi symbols on it and threw his rake at.
• 1:50:53
  It. Great.
• 1:50:57
  Still not over in the 60s. No, no, not at all.
• 1:51:00
  It wasn't the only cause called Relia has he landed in a field
• 1:51:03
  which belonged to a German aviation official and was
• 1:51:06
  arrested. Oh, really?
• 1:51:07
  And he was a pilot during the crash landing scene as well.
• 1:51:10
  And he actually knocked himself unconscious during the crash.
• 1:51:13
  And he later woke up in a hospital with agonizing back
• 1:51:15
  pain. It's not surprise.
• 1:51:18
  Suffering for his art, but it works a treat on screen.
• 1:51:20
  Yeah, it looks unbelievable. Does.
• 1:51:22
  And then, of course, you get the heartbreaking moment when Colin
• 1:51:24
  buys it. Yeah.
• 1:51:26
  He can't see in front of his face, so he can't see the
• 1:51:28
  approaching Germans. And what a bad way to go out.
• 1:51:31
  Shot in the back. Handley's devastated.
• 1:51:33
  And he's not the only one. Thank you for getting me out.
• 1:51:36
  Niagara Falls. Yeah.
• 1:51:38
  Heartbreaker. And when Handley makes it back
• 1:51:40
  to the camp, he concedes that Roger was right all along about
• 1:51:42
  Colin. Awful realization.
• 1:51:46
  Really hits. Yeah.
• 1:51:47
  I mean, then we're going to the other duo that we've got.
• 1:51:49
  It's Roger and Mark and Eric is the hero here.
• 1:51:53
  I don't care what anyone says. What a moment.
• 1:51:55
  This guy, he notices him, he scopes him out.
• 1:51:58
  He went to the train, he's at his bag.
• 1:51:59
  He's trying to just, you know, he's scared of getting
• 1:52:02
  recognized and he's home clear. Really.
• 1:52:05
  I think he could just manipulate the situation, maybe get back on
• 1:52:08
  the train, maybe go in opposite direction.
• 1:52:10
  He knows what's going on. He knows he's going to be
• 1:52:12
  questioned. He knows he's going to be
• 1:52:13
  recognized, but it's when he just says Bartlett and he knows
• 1:52:16
  how it is and he's like he's not going to let that land, that
• 1:52:19
  land at all. If he'd said Mac, I think he
• 1:52:22
  might just be in like airfare. That's a bit crappy.
• 1:52:28
  He doesn't really do anything. But from get pissed and dance
• 1:52:31
  with eyes and eyes dies and they're not just like he's
• 1:52:33
  hanging on the coat tails of Roger all the way through the
• 1:52:35
  fucking film. No good ideas.
• 1:52:37
  He's just there constantly. Well, I think it's brilliant.
• 1:52:40
  What do you think, Roger? Before anyone makes a decision
• 1:52:42
  about what I think because my opinion means nothing, fine.
• 1:52:47
  You know, they just, they get through there.
• 1:52:49
  French is great and then you get that fucking dude who looks like
• 1:52:53
  Goldfinger. Good luck, Good luck.
• 1:52:59
  It's like it's this taken again. It's a good luck, thank you.
• 1:53:04
  And it's a mark, fuck sake. And you said it as well.
• 1:53:09
  You set it up and you've knocked it down.
• 1:53:11
  But if I was bothered I'd be on the bus.
• 1:53:13
  Fuck this. Guy.
• 1:53:14
  Don't know who that guy is. Good.
• 1:53:16
  Good luck. Used to me, bro, I'm French as
• 1:53:19
  fuck. It makes no difference
• 1:53:23
  whatsoever to me. But he's there and they stay
• 1:53:26
  together and the run through and I just get a lot more frustrated
• 1:53:30
  with Mark as a character because you just he's just on the
• 1:53:32
  coattails of Roger and Roger's far, far more important.
• 1:53:35
  Yeah. And then on the rooftops, which
• 1:53:37
  is great shots. Great about that.
• 1:53:39
  And I just love the way you feel like he's got away and he's done
• 1:53:43
  it and he gets that paper. And then you just hear hair,
• 1:53:45
  Bartlett. And he turns around and he just,
• 1:53:47
  well, it's actually that bit just before that when he's just
• 1:53:51
  fixes his hair. And then he's walking up the
• 1:53:52
  street and they're just like, you're, you're English.
• 1:53:54
  He's like, yeah, Englander. Yeah, that's great.
• 1:53:56
  It's still. Configuring, isn't he?
• 1:53:58
  Yeah, he's great. Brilliant bit of a mathematical
• 1:54:00
  because you buy that 100% and the way he just walks from the
• 1:54:03
  side of the car as well when they get back in it as if to
• 1:54:05
  just be like how dare you do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:54:08
  just. Got this bombastic nature about
• 1:54:10
  him and it's really, really, really good delivery.
• 1:54:12
  But when he's just standing with that paper and he said, I've
• 1:54:15
  heard you're Germans very good and you're French too.
• 1:54:17
  Yeah, that's. What?
• 1:54:18
  I love that. He's done now.
• 1:54:19
  He's got him. He's absolutely done.
• 1:54:22
  One of my favorite deliveries of the whole film is this guy.
• 1:54:27
  And he's like your arms up. So dramatic and just so
• 1:54:34
  pointless, but at the same time just great because you want
• 1:54:37
  someone like that to capture the main guy.
• 1:54:39
  You want someone like that. He's a little bit funny, but at
• 1:54:42
  the same time, you know, he's got this confidence too.
• 1:54:45
  Heartbreaker when they're in the back of that, you know, still
• 1:54:48
  there, right? So we sat next to Mac and
• 1:54:51
  Cavendish or whatever his fucking name is.
• 1:54:53
  Liability. Yeah, idiot, right?
• 1:54:54
  He's there as well. All the fucking idiots are
• 1:54:56
  there. And Roger must be sitting
• 1:54:58
  thinking, Jesus Christ, if I hadn't bothered with these guys,
• 1:55:00
  I wouldn't even be in here because they deserve to be in
• 1:55:03
  here. And the first thing Max says to
• 1:55:04
  him say, what's what's bothering you there, Roger?
• 1:55:08
  What do you feel? You think Dick head like I'm?
• 1:55:11
  Here I'm here. What's bothering us?
• 1:55:14
  Let's let's think. Good luck.
• 1:55:16
  Thank you, knob head. Like that's what's fucking
• 1:55:20
  bothering us. That's it just really winds up
• 1:55:24
  and it just then this, this really tender moment where it's
• 1:55:26
  like, oh, but I didn't block like 76 papers, just really
• 1:55:30
  worried about everybody else. And he's just just like, no, we
• 1:55:33
  wouldn't have got this far without you.
• 1:55:35
  Yeah. But again, it's just a really
• 1:55:37
  lovely way that it's played out by Sturgis, it's really
• 1:55:39
  beautifully acted by Attenborough, It's really,
• 1:55:41
  really beautifully well played. And they just stand there and he
• 1:55:43
  goes, you know what, that kept me alive.
• 1:55:45
  I don't think I've ever been happier.
• 1:55:48
  And what a time to go. And then you just deters it, you
• 1:55:50
  know, Mac? And then it's awful and it's
• 1:55:54
  done great again beautifully with that silhouette as well.
• 1:55:58
  I want to just cut to that silhouette and what's there just
• 1:56:00
  does as he does in the whole film.
• 1:56:02
  He doesn't make you feel bad because them gunshots are as
• 1:56:06
  probably as limited as the can be on the sound design.
• 1:56:09
  Every time I see them walk on that bus I just feel so anxious.
• 1:56:16
  MacDonald was based on an American named George Harsh, a
• 1:56:19
  medical student. He murdered someone in the 20s
• 1:56:22
  and was given a life sentence but then given a full pardon
• 1:56:25
  after saving a fellow inmates life by performing abdominal
• 1:56:28
  surgery. Yeah, he was plagued with guilt
• 1:56:30
  of the murder and the traumas of spending 15 years incarcerated,
• 1:56:33
  12 in jail, three in a prisoner of war camp.
• 1:56:36
  He shot himself on Christmas Eve in 1974 but survived.
• 1:56:40
  He had a stroke soon after, leaving him paralyzed.
• 1:56:42
  And Wally Floody, as we've mentioned, the Tunnel King, he
• 1:56:46
  brought them back to his Canadian home and cared for him.
• 1:56:48
  And he died in a veteran's wing of Sunnybrook Medical Centre in
• 1:56:51
  1980. Unbelievable story.
• 1:56:54
  What a life, man. You know.
• 1:56:56
  I was pissed off because there was no Twiglet theft and
• 1:56:58
  Morrison's this afternoon. Author of the novel Paul
• 1:57:05
  Brickell claimed that over 5 million Germans were involved in
• 1:57:08
  the search mission for the escape. 76 of the 76 like in the
• 1:57:11
  film 3 made it to safety, but there were two Norwegians and a
• 1:57:15
  Dutchman as opposed to an Englishman, a Paul and an
• 1:57:17
  Australian. Yeah, 73 were captured like the
• 1:57:20
  film. 50 were executed like the film.
• 1:57:23
  And this was a violation of the Geneva Convention, which forbade
• 1:57:26
  the killing of PO WS for attempting to escape.
• 1:57:29
  And contrary to what we see in the film, the killings were done
• 1:57:32
  either in pairs or one at a time, and then after the RAF
• 1:57:36
  conducted a three-year manhunt to find the killers.
• 1:57:39
  Yeah, so several Gestapo were brought to justice as part of
• 1:57:42
  the Nuremberg Trials. Some were sent to prison, some
• 1:57:45
  were sentenced to death. Yeah, sadly, the last surviving
• 1:57:49
  participant in the actual escape, Dick Churchill.
• 1:57:52
  He died in 2019 at the age of 99.
• 1:57:55
  Well, because we're recording this in November, it just gives
• 1:57:58
  kind of remembrance, the extra prominence that these stories
• 1:58:01
  need to be maintained because there's nobody around to tell
• 1:58:03
  them. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:58:05
  Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, the question
• 1:58:07
  is, how do you end this film in a satisfying man after, like,
• 1:58:11
  these events? And so you've got to talk about
• 1:58:13
  hills here because, oh, yeah. Is there anything as
• 1:58:16
  cinematically glorious as Steve McQueen on a motorbike, given
• 1:58:19
  the Nazis that absolute run around?
• 1:58:22
  I mean, this is Mike Nibson. And I can't help but laugh when
• 1:58:24
  you ride up to the fence, he looks to both sides, and it's
• 1:58:27
  like literally the whole German army is after him, pouring over
• 1:58:31
  the hill to get him. And then they jump over the
• 1:58:33
  fence. I mean, yes, by today's
• 1:58:35
  standards, you've got Tom Cruise hanging off the side of players
• 1:58:38
  and George Miller really killing dozens people in Fury Ord.
• 1:58:42
  So it might look a little OK to modern audiences, but it's still
• 1:58:45
  an incredible stunt. And Sturgis knows that, you
• 1:58:48
  know, he keeps it in a wide, he doesn't cut away.
• 1:58:52
  It's sore triumphant. But no matter how many times
• 1:58:55
  I've seen it, there's always that little bit of me that
• 1:58:57
  thinks he might make the second one, he might make it, he might
• 1:59:00
  make that 2nd jump. And my heart is well and truly
• 1:59:04
  in my mouth every time when they shoot him now because you think
• 1:59:07
  they're just going to gun him down anywhere and he's caught in
• 1:59:09
  defence. And thankfully they don't.
• 1:59:10
  And I'll just love the little Patty gives them all a bike that
• 1:59:13
  little, like, affectionate Tubby gives because it got him so far
• 1:59:16
  and so close he nearly made it. And then, yeah, you've got to
• 1:59:20
  wrap this up. And I think this is so well
• 1:59:22
  judged by searches because the previous 20 minutes has been so
• 1:59:25
  tragic. How do you end this?
• 1:59:26
  You can't send the audience out on that note.
• 1:59:29
  You've got to send them out with a bit of hope and a bit of
• 1:59:32
  optimism. So Hilts has brought back sees
• 1:59:35
  one Luger being driven away, realises he did get lucky and
• 1:59:38
  not being shopping. And he sees the new commandant.
• 1:59:41
  And I love that little smirk. He gives him no dialogue.
• 1:59:43
  He's basically saying you're the new guy going to make your life
• 1:59:46
  a live in hell. And I can't read it.
• 1:59:48
  Yeah, I love that. And then as he marches off to
• 1:59:50
  the cooler again, I don't think there's been a more perfectly
• 1:59:54
  timed moment than when Gough throws him his mate.
• 1:59:57
  And as soon as he catches it, the drums kick in and the music
• 2:00:01
  ramps up. It's to the frame, it's perfect.
• 2:00:04
  It's absolutely magnificent. And then he's in the cooler, but
• 2:00:08
  the guards walking off and all he was there, but off, but off
• 2:00:12
  but off. The baseball being thrown
• 2:00:14
  against the wall. It's just.
• 2:00:17
  Yes. Yeah, hilt thought process,
• 2:00:20
  isn't it? You start to think again what
• 2:00:22
  you. Can do How do I get out of this
• 2:00:23
  how we're? Going to get out of this.
• 2:00:24
  Time. I love it it.
• 2:00:25
  Ends on just such a note of defiance, which is exactly how
• 2:00:29
  it should end. Yeah, that stunt, I mean, that
• 2:00:32
  scene has gone down in movie legend.
• 2:00:34
  McQueen actually performed his own stunt, so you can see him
• 2:00:37
  there as the minimal cuts in the scene.
• 2:00:39
  I think the queen wanted everyone to know that it was
• 2:00:41
  him. However, there is one and only
• 2:00:43
  one stunt that he didn't perform.
• 2:00:45
  That's the main piece. The piece to resistance, yeah.
• 2:00:48
  Yeah, the insurance company wouldn't allow McQueen to go
• 2:00:50
  through with it, so McQueen drafted in his old friend,
• 2:00:53
  stuntman Bud Ekens. McQueen had actually tried it in
• 2:00:56
  his own time and crashed, so the concern was legitimate.
• 2:00:59
  Yeah, of course. We mentioned Tim Gibbs a moment
• 2:01:02
  ago and he was involved as well and he said we spent a long time
• 2:01:06
  finding the perfect dip in the ground to launch the motorcycle
• 2:01:09
  of the barbed wire. Wood and I had a few practice
• 2:01:11
  runs riding up from the tip and it wasn't an easy stunt.
• 2:01:14
  Eggens told Gibbs that he was going to try it once and only
• 2:01:17
  once, and if he didn't pull it off, it was Gibbs his turn.
• 2:01:20
  So he was shitting himself. But thankfully he pulled it off.
• 2:01:23
  But he was really reluctant to. It was just a standard Triumph
• 2:01:26
  motorcycle that he kind of tarted up to look like a German
• 2:01:28
  motorcycle. However, according to second
• 2:01:30
  unit director Robert Rally, McQueen and Gibbs pulled the
• 2:01:33
  jump off on camera as well and claims that the scene in the
• 2:01:36
  film could be either of them. Yeah, it does look like McQueen
• 2:01:39
  in that shot, It looks like. And famously, it isn't the only
• 2:01:44
  time McQueen appears in this iconic scene.
• 2:01:46
  He has a second appearance because he plays one of the
• 2:01:48
  German guards that are chasing hills and allegedly the German
• 2:01:51
  student drivers could not keep up with them.
• 2:01:54
  Yeah, I mean, that's silly because it isn't in the same
• 2:01:58
  shot. They don't have to keep up with
• 2:01:59
  them. You just have to edit it to make
• 2:02:01
  it look like they're keeping up with them.
• 2:02:06
  Whenever there was a law in filming as well, everyone from
• 2:02:08
  the cast and crew were given 5 inch strings of black rubber to
• 2:02:11
  tie together. So the rubber was tied to
• 2:02:13
  barbless wife at the camp and the hill to cheer scene as well.
• 2:02:16
  So there any downtime? James Garner, Steve McQueen, the
• 2:02:20
  tea boy, everybody just looked in and did this constantly,
• 2:02:24
  right? Amazing.
• 2:02:25
  Wow. So Danny and William make it on
• 2:02:26
  board a ship. Sedgwick makes it to Spain with
• 2:02:28
  the resistance. It was a thrilling adventure,
• 2:02:31
  but the human cost devastating. Yeah.
• 2:02:33
  Was it worth the price? Well, it depends on your point
• 2:02:35
  of view. Reception and awards.
• 2:02:43
  Prior to the release of The Great Escape, United Artists
• 2:02:45
  tried to squeeze out as much money from the film as possible.
• 2:02:48
  Yeah, they were a little unsure on the runtime and wanted to
• 2:02:51
  reduce to increase the potential for ticket sales.
• 2:02:54
  Sturgis wasn't happy with this, so UAE asked them for a large
• 2:02:57
  amount of interest on a $1 million overage.
• 2:03:00
  And to cover this, Sturgis went to the Pacific National Bank for
• 2:03:03
  a loan. They requested to say cut the
• 2:03:05
  film first before the signed it off the love the film but had
• 2:03:07
  questions as to how the prisoners got civilian clothes.
• 2:03:10
  That's why we have that seemingly unnecessary scene
• 2:03:13
  where Griffith is Taylor is talking Roger through his men's
• 2:03:15
  fashion selection which fucking love that scene.
• 2:03:17
  They've been cut before the bank screened the film.
• 2:03:20
  Instead just put it back in to keep them happy, which keeps me
• 2:03:22
  happy. Thankful for that crazy scene
• 2:03:24
  though. In near 3 hour film, I don't
• 2:03:28
  really think we need that. Reminds me of that bit of an
• 2:03:31
  airplane when I can make a brooch.
• 2:03:35
  Brilliant. It kept United Artists at Bay
• 2:03:39
  though, whose worries were misplaced on a rather
• 2:03:41
  conservative budget of 3.8 million.
• 2:03:44
  The same year, Cleopatra cost over 31 million.
• 2:03:47
  The Great Escape returned 11.7 million worldwide, making that
• 2:03:50
  the 10th highest grossing film of the year.
• 2:03:53
  It was a little light on awards nominations.
• 2:03:55
  It was nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes but
• 2:03:58
  lost out to Otto Preminger, the Cardinal.
• 2:04:00
  It won 1 Oscar from it's one nomination, Ferris Webster for
• 2:04:04
  Best Editing. Right.
• 2:04:06
  However, McQueen did win Best Actor at the Moscow
• 2:04:09
  International Film Festival for his efforts, so not all in vain.
• 2:04:13
  Fair enough, School International Film Festival.
• 2:04:15
  The very famous Moscow. National Film.
• 2:04:17
  Festival. Yeah, of course you can.
• 2:04:19
  The reviews were generally positive at the time, Time
• 2:04:21
  magazine said produced director John Sturgis has created Classic
• 2:04:25
  Cinema of action. There's no sermonising, no soul
• 2:04:28
  probing, no sex. The Great Escape is simply great
• 2:04:32
  escapism. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 2:04:34
  Nice answer. However, the New York Times said
• 2:04:36
  The Great Escape grinds out its torment and story without a peek
• 2:04:40
  beneath the surface of any man, without a real sense of human
• 2:04:43
  involvement. It's strictly mechanical
• 2:04:45
  adventure with make believe men. OK Maplewood men based on real
• 2:04:50
  life man very believable as men. Yeah.
• 2:04:54
  Wow. No EBER review for this one,
• 2:04:56
  unfortunately. Far too early for his take.
• 2:04:58
  Yeah, but in a retrospective review, Leonard Bolton said that
• 2:05:02
  the large international cast is superb, but the standout is
• 2:05:04
  McQueen. It's easy to see why they
• 2:05:06
  cemented his status as a superstar.
• 2:05:08
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now we've boast the high
• 2:05:11
  numbers of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.2 out of 10 on
• 2:05:14
  IMDb. Messing with the big boys.
• 2:05:16
  Oh yeah. In the years since, it has been
• 2:05:19
  bestowed with a number of accolades.
• 2:05:21
  It is 19th on the AFI's 100 years, 100th Thrills list.
• 2:05:25
  It's frequently listed as one of the greatest war movies ever
• 2:05:28
  made and in Auk poll in 2006, The Great Escape came third in a
• 2:05:34
  list of films that TV watchers would love to see on Christmas
• 2:05:36
  Day. It was beaten by It's a
• 2:05:39
  Wonderful Life in The Wizard of Oz.
• 2:05:40
  However, it did come out top in The Men, Only Paul the Lads.
• 2:05:45
  Of. Course it do.
• 2:05:47
  It's a Boxing Day film man. It's not Christmas Day on
• 2:05:49
  Christmas Day. Boxing Day definitely 100%.
• 2:05:52
  So success on most fronts for The Great Escape.
• 2:05:54
  And I'm going to end this segment with a quote from the
• 2:05:57
  BFI which claimed that The Great Escape is the epitome of the war
• 2:06:00
  is fun action film. Amen to that.
• 2:06:03
  Yes, sequels and influence. There is a little known sequel
• 2:06:12
  to the Great Escape ATV movie from 1988 entitled The Great
• 2:06:16
  Escape to the Untold Story. I imagine that none of you have
• 2:06:20
  seen this. No, now I say a sequel in the
• 2:06:23
  broadest possible sense because it's a sequel in name only
• 2:06:26
  really, due to a number of really confusing elements.
• 2:06:29
  It tells the same story as the original film but uses real
• 2:06:32
  names of the prisoners, right? It also tells the story of the
• 2:06:35
  manhunt for the killers of the 50 as well.
• 2:06:37
  Donald Pleasants is in the cast, but he plays a German soldier
• 2:06:41
  instead of Colin, which is strange.
• 2:06:45
  It was directed by Judd Taylor, who plays golf in the original
• 2:06:48
  film. OK.
• 2:06:49
  It's does Christopher Reeve, Ian McShane and Ron Lacy is Winston
• 2:06:53
  Churchill. He can play both sides of the
• 2:06:55
  battle, obviously. What you would talk about?
• 2:07:00
  It's just been released in its original form on DVD and
• 2:07:02
  Blu-ray. If you are curious, it's out
• 2:07:05
  there. OK.
• 2:07:06
  Sequels aside, the film has an undeniable legacy.
• 2:07:09
  Yeah, being one of the most beloved films ever made.
• 2:07:11
  Westy, where do you see the Great Escapes legacy and
• 2:07:14
  influence? I mean, I see its legacy and
• 2:07:16
  influence and a lot of films, I mean a lot of films that have
• 2:07:19
  come since. I mean, we could talk about its
• 2:07:22
  impact and Sturgis impact on Tarantino for a start.
• 2:07:25
  I mean, I know we always lyrical about Tarantino, but to actually
• 2:07:28
  reference it in the middle of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• 2:07:32
  and to recreate it with Rick Dalton in there shows its power
• 2:07:36
  and shows how big it was and influential it was in Hollywood
• 2:07:39
  at the time. You know, the Tower Infernos, a
• 2:07:41
  massive ensemble. Castbridge Too Far that was
• 2:07:43
  spoke about feels like an unofficial sequel.
• 2:07:46
  I see a lot of this in The Shawshank Redemption.
• 2:07:49
  Any film that came after this that puts entertainment before
• 2:07:52
  real life has been influenced by The Great Escape.
• 2:07:54
  Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean, it's almost too big to
• 2:07:57
  mention really, isn't it? Yeah, It's been referenced in
• 2:08:01
  countless films, TV shows, video games.
• 2:08:03
  I think Bernstein scores one of the most identifiable in movie
• 2:08:06
  history, not least because you can hear that brass band playing
• 2:08:09
  it. Like you said, mastered every
• 2:08:11
  England football match. It's in that great lineage of
• 2:08:14
  war movies from the era. And I think the torn paved the
• 2:08:17
  way for the boys own adventures of the likes of The Dirty Dozen
• 2:08:20
  and where Eagles there. Yeah.
• 2:08:22
  And I think this is the defining role in Steve Mcqueen's career
• 2:08:25
  Gone far too soon. He's almost been canonized in
• 2:08:28
  the movie world. And that image of him with the
• 2:08:30
  baseball and the cooler is one of cinemas defining images.
• 2:08:34
  It is. What about you, Matt?
• 2:08:35
  Very much the same, very much a real legacy and influence from
• 2:08:39
  this. In terms of legacy, we've
• 2:08:40
  mentioned music that arguably is the biggest legacy of all,
• 2:08:44
  because you might not have seen this one for 20 years, you might
• 2:08:46
  not have seen it at all, but you'll recognize that music
• 2:08:49
  straight away. You even forget that it's part
• 2:08:51
  of this film. Yeah.
• 2:08:52
  Exactly. That's how recognizable it's
• 2:08:54
  become. And yeah, the film that's
• 2:08:56
  cemented McQueen is a movie star and the breakthrough for so many
• 2:09:00
  others? Pleasant, Coburn, Bronson.
• 2:09:02
  We've mentioned them all. Yeah, this may not have been the
• 2:09:05
  film that made them a star in the way that it did McQueen, but
• 2:09:08
  it put them on the way. It put them on the map, it gave
• 2:09:11
  them something to build on. So.
• 2:09:13
  Started fires, didn't. It started fires.
• 2:09:15
  It's, you know, one of those ensembles where you watch it and
• 2:09:18
  you go, now that's a cast. And that can sound a bit silly
• 2:09:21
  because, you know, technically 99% of films are ensemble.
• 2:09:25
  But there's something special about this cast, about the fact
• 2:09:29
  that you've got these worlds which are quite small, but
• 2:09:31
  they're all filled by actors who would go on out decades for
• 2:09:34
  proper stardom after this. So a huge legacy for a film that
• 2:09:37
  has been taken to the hearts of movie goers around the world for
• 2:09:41
  decades? Absolutely.
• 2:09:46
  All the right movies ranking. As we're in the clearing, we're
• 2:09:50
  making a run for it, but not before we give you our summary
• 2:09:53
  and score for The Great Escape. No, we're 20 feet short. 20 feet
• 2:09:56
  short over the USD. I mean, yeah, it's not going to
• 2:10:00
  be a difficult one for me. There's many films that are
• 2:10:03
  better than The Great Escape, and you could study them as
• 2:10:06
  films and culturally they'd be really, really important.
• 2:10:10
  But I think this film is so important to me because of how
• 2:10:13
  it makes me feel. And I'm not addressing that
• 2:10:15
  purely on nostalgia, I'm addressing that on everything
• 2:10:18
  that was spoke about all the way through this episode and how we
• 2:10:21
  all agree on it. I can't really find a fault with
• 2:10:24
  it. I think was made with such care,
• 2:10:26
  with such dignity. The whole thing has just got
• 2:10:29
  this element of class. There's nothing cheesy about it.
• 2:10:31
  You can't laugh at certain situations that you're not
• 2:10:34
  supposed to take it deadly seriously.
• 2:10:36
  But it has such a wonderfully light touch that you can show
• 2:10:39
  this to anyone. It's one of the most accessible
• 2:10:41
  films ever made about a genre that shouldn't be accessible.
• 2:10:45
  It's one of the most exciting films ever made about something
• 2:10:47
  that shouldn't necessarily be that exciting.
• 2:10:50
  It's a member of my family, always will be.
• 2:10:53
  And for that reason, I kind of give it any less than the full
• 2:10:56
  marks because it's a 10 all the way through.
• 2:10:58
  Every single scene for me is A10.
• 2:11:00
  It's just a joy. Wow, yeah, one fantastic.
• 2:11:04
  Well, I draw comparisons to The Great Escape to Goodfellas that
• 2:11:09
  gets criticized for glorifying the mafia.
• 2:11:11
  This is almost the same for prisoner of war camps.
• 2:11:14
  It certainly papers over the cracks of the war is hell more
• 2:11:17
  teeth that we would find most common in cinema in the decades
• 2:11:20
  that followed. Yeah, however, it's a rollic and
• 2:11:23
  good adventure from start to finish.
• 2:11:25
  You watch this, You don't watch The Deer Hunter on Boxing Day.
• 2:11:28
  I don't. I don't ever watch The Deer
• 2:11:30
  Hunter again. I mean, I do.
• 2:11:33
  I know. You do.
• 2:11:33
  You came over and it was on. You're like fucking Deer Hunter
• 2:11:36
  I. Know just casually just making
• 2:11:38
  dinner. Yeah.
• 2:11:39
  Got Deer Hunter on just in the background.
• 2:11:42
  Yeah. Unbelievable true story this
• 2:11:49
  film, the dawn and runtime, it's a breeze and for a film in one
• 2:11:53
  location for the 1st 2 acts, that's really impressive.
• 2:11:56
  Yeah, that is helped in all small part by Sturges work on
• 2:11:59
  orchestrating this incredible ensemble cast.
• 2:12:01
  One of the best ever constructed.
• 2:12:03
  The film plays around with the truth for sure, but that really
• 2:12:06
  doesn't matter to me. It is justifiably one of the
• 2:12:09
  most beloved films ever made. However it isn't an absolute
• 2:12:12
  favorite of mine. So I am shaving some of the big
• 2:12:16
  10 and given the Great Escape 9.5 out of 10.
• 2:12:19
  It's fair enough. Yes.
• 2:12:21
  What about you, Matt? It's so effortless in how
• 2:12:24
  entertaining it is, and I think that's why it holds up so well
• 2:12:28
  over six years later. And it's quite a marvel how it
• 2:12:32
  can be such breezy fun for so much of its runtime, but shot
• 2:12:36
  through with inevitable tragedy and looming failure at the same
• 2:12:40
  time. And the balance is perfect.
• 2:12:42
  You couldn't have the 1st 2 hours being as grim as the last,
• 2:12:45
  it would be unwatchable and you couldn't have the last hour
• 2:12:48
  being as fun as the first day because I would be dishonest to
• 2:12:50
  what really happened. It's a tricky thing to do and I
• 2:12:54
  think Sturgis pulls that off so effectively, helped by that
• 2:12:57
  incredible score. The cast is obviously excellent.
• 2:13:00
  I mean this might be the ultimate guys being guys movie
• 2:13:03
  just cannot do it. All the lads together and it
• 2:13:07
  bounces along with such pace. Every scene comes along and you
• 2:13:10
  go oh it's this bit, I love this bit.
• 2:13:12
  Oh this is the bit after that that.
• 2:13:13
  This bit's great as well. Yeah, maybe the right and false
• 2:13:16
  in the simple stereotypes. You know, the Americans are
• 2:13:19
  cool, They're making moonshine. The British, they're sitting
• 2:13:22
  around making tea. But ultimately, it's probably
• 2:13:25
  the best of its kind. And for a film of the genre to
• 2:13:28
  have so many iconic moments in it, that is something special.
• 2:13:32
  So for me, Big X, Big 10. Love it, lovely. 3 very positive
• 2:13:38
  scores, but that's not the end of it.
• 2:13:41
  Our 4th and final score comes from our PO WS on X, held
• 2:13:45
  against their will by an evil dictator.
• 2:13:49
  Before I reveal the score, here's some mini reviews that
• 2:13:52
  I've picked out. Coquita at Coquita chatter said
• 2:13:54
  maybe it sugar coats the subject matter, but nevermind.
• 2:13:58
  All I need to hear is the first few notes of the score and I'm
• 2:14:01
  hooked to the end. Again, Probably my favorite
• 2:14:03
  movie ever, 10. I love the use of maybe there,
• 2:14:06
  maybe a sugar coat, maybe. It definitely does.
• 2:14:10
  Steve McCullough at the Stevie Mac.
• 2:14:13
  That name will be familiar to you 2 fellas.
• 2:14:16
  Steve has followed us for many a year and he is a patron of ours
• 2:14:19
  for many a year as well. So, hello, Steve.
• 2:14:22
  Hello, Steve. From Steve McQueen to Steve
• 2:14:24
  McCullough, he says. Maybe my favorite movie ever.
• 2:14:28
  First so when I was about 8 and I've seen it easily over 100
• 2:14:31
  times to the point I can quote nearly every line.
• 2:14:34
  An easy 10 only because I can't score it 250.
• 2:14:39
  That's. Very good.
• 2:14:41
  Yeah. Ben at Texan, Benito said.
• 2:14:43
  I saw this movie as an 11 year old and was in thrill for three
• 2:14:46
  hours. If it's on TV, I'm watching it.
• 2:14:48
  Unbelievable cast, incredible testosterone, fuel, teamwork,
• 2:14:52
  ingenuity and desire for freedom.
• 2:14:54
  Yeah, yeah. And finally, from Stu Mattingly
• 2:14:57
  at Stu mat 76, he kept it short and sweet by sin to the 50.
• 2:15:03
  Very nice. So Add all of that positivity
• 2:15:05
  into report stirred around. What do you think The Great
• 2:15:08
  Escape averaged out of 10 on XI? Mean big X it's high, isn't it?
• 2:15:12
  I'm going to say, I'm going to say 10, you know, Oh, I.
• 2:15:15
  Mean there's no one dislikes this film.
• 2:15:17
  Surely everyone loves it. Yeah, I'm going to go 10 as
• 2:15:20
  well. I think I might just get that.
• 2:15:22
  Yeah, Big 10. Oh, Big 10.
• 2:15:23
  Well, it actually received a big time. 9.5 out of 10.
• 2:15:27
  Oh. That's.
• 2:15:28
  Probably the best you can wish from that.
• 2:15:30
  Just missing out on top spot. Yeah.
• 2:15:32
  Shame. Shame.
• 2:15:33
  So overall, that gives The Great Escape a huge score of 39 out of
• 2:15:38
  40. Yeah.
• 2:15:39
  Very well deserved. Join us next time on all the
• 2:15:41
  right movies. In two weeks, we'll be back as
• 2:15:44
  John, Matt and Westy are diving deeper than ever into The
• 2:15:48
  Terminator 40 years in existence.
• 2:15:50
  What a film, right? Chaps?
• 2:15:53
  Another massive 1. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm really
• 2:15:55
  looking forward to getting involved with this one.
• 2:15:56
  I didn't do it first time round, didn't do it.
• 2:15:59
  So it's about time we've got a really, really deep dive on it.
• 2:16:03
  Outside of our classic podcast, we've got all manner of other
• 2:16:05
  shows. There are regular episodes of
• 2:16:08
  Showreel coming out every two weeks.
• 2:16:09
  Alternative to this show, The latest episode of our movie
• 2:16:12
  review show The Watch List came out last week and next week
• 2:16:15
  we're talking about two Ben Stiller comedy extravaganzas,
• 2:16:18
  There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents.
• 2:16:20
  Yes. So that is on our exclusive
• 2:16:23
  podcast double feature. You can listen to that and The
• 2:16:25
  Watch List and every single podcast that we've ever created,
• 2:16:28
  everything we mentioned at the top at patreon.com/all the Right
• 2:16:32
  Movies. If you had a rollic and good
• 2:16:34
  time listening to this episode, we'd love it if you could read
• 2:16:37
  us favourably on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pod Chaser or any
• 2:16:41
  streaming platform you use. As it's a five star podcast, a
• 2:16:45
  five star rating really is the only sensible choice.
• 2:16:47
  Of course it is not be silly, just get 5 stars up there.
• 2:16:50
  Just say great guys, great. Guys love those boys.
• 2:16:55
  Great podcast, wonderful. I'd love to be cooked up in a
• 2:16:58
  POW camp with those boys. 5 star.
• 2:17:00
  There you go. Yeah, that's he wouldn't be
• 2:17:02
  escaping. Would have a job to do, Yeah.
• 2:17:04
  We'd entertain you of. Course we would.
• 2:17:06
  Of course we would. And nestled in between, all of
• 2:17:08
  our podcasts were active on social media all day every day.
• 2:17:12
  Yeah, on X, formerly Twitter. We are at AT right movies loads
• 2:17:17
  of incredible behind the scenes images, clips and interviews.
• 2:17:20
  And of course, our now legendary making of movie threads.
• 2:17:22
  Just like our podcast, all the behind the scenes stories we
• 2:17:25
  tell come from the cast and crew or a verified by at least three
• 2:17:29
  sources. So go check them out.
• 2:17:30
  You'll be glad that you did. Yep.
• 2:17:32
  On Instagram and Threads, we are at all the under score right
• 2:17:35
  movies. On TikTok, search at all the
• 2:17:37
  Right Movies. Join our Facebook group, which,
• 2:17:40
  let's be honest, it's a wonderful time.
• 2:17:42
  All of us hunkered down together in the trenches, yeah.
• 2:17:45
  Yeah, indeed. Great convos.
• 2:17:46
  And lovely discussion on there. On Blue Sky, we are at all the
• 2:17:49
  right movies.com. Our following is going up by the
• 2:17:52
  boatload over there, so get in there quick, yeah.
• 2:17:55
  It seems like a lovely new platform.
• 2:17:56
  Basically excited about that one.
• 2:17:57
  Yeah, we are on YouTube as well. Watch our videos if you'd love
• 2:18:00
  to see our faces the money makers.
• 2:18:03
  If you could subscribe, like and comment on our videos that will
• 2:18:06
  be jolly good. Youtube.com/all the right movies
• 2:18:10
  and our website is All the right movies.com.
• 2:18:13
  Yes. And that is a wrap, everyone.
• 2:18:15
  That's it. We've turned it out of the camp
• 2:18:17
  and we're now going to a border bust of freedom.
• 2:18:20
  Good luck. Thank you.
• 2:18:21
  Oh, shit. Come back for the Terminator in
• 2:18:27
  two weeks. Thanks for listening everyone.
• 2:18:29
  Thank you guys. Thanks.
• 2:18:30
  Guys. Remember, stay French whenever
• 2:18:32
  you can. French as fuck.
• 2:18:35
  French as fuck.