The Great Escape (1963) Reaction | First Time Watching
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- Опубліковано 24 вер 2022
- Several hundred prisoners of war plan to escape from the German camp where they're being held during World War II.
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David McCallum looks so young! I watched him in The Man from UNCLE but he is mostly in my brain as Ducky from NCIS now.
The movie changed the identities of the three men who actually made it to neutral countries but at least how they did was fairly accurate. Two Norwegian airmen made to Sweden by boat and ship, and a Dutch airman made it to Spain with help from the French Resistance.
Yes it's a "true" story. The Great Escape is a "Hollywood" version of the book by the same name written by Australian writer Paul Brickhill who was actually a POW at Stalag Luft III and helped dig one of the tunnels until he developed claustrophobia and was limited to helping the effort above ground. Because of his claustrophobia, he didn't participate in the actual escape. Many of the characters in the film were actual people, although there were no Americans that took part. Hitler was so angry over the escape he ordered those recaptured were to be executed. Some were returnrd to captivity, but 50 were executed. Two other WWII books written by Brickhill, "The Dam Busters" and "Reach For the Sky" were made into movies in Great Britain.
The Dam Busters movie is another classic. They made a movie from Reach for the Sky by the same name but I saw it so long ago I can't recall much.
The Dam Busters and Reach for the Sky are both wonderful films which, unfortunately, are never shown in the U.S. I had to order my copies from the U.K.
Wow, virtually no one does this one and I see it get requested pretty often. Hope this drives your numbers up! Good movie!!!
David McCallum went on to portray another pilot in the Colditz TV series which ran from 1972-1974 which is very similar to the great escape in a lot of ways only its set in an old German castle instead of a camp.
I first saw him as Ilya Kuryakin in Man from UNCLE.
Wow this is the first UA-cam reaction I've seen to this classic.
Just came to the comments to say the same thing… very excited! 😃
The ending isn't a downer. The bouncing ball at the end shows that these guys will never give up or give in.
That was exactly the intended effect.......
Steve McQueen caught up in the barbed wire was made into a poster. I use to have a boyfriend that had the poster. You can see all the frustration of being caught in Steve McQueen's face. I saw this movie when it first came out, always liked it.
Thank you so much for this reaction, i really enjoyed it. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. The Documentary (on the Special-DVD) is very interesting, in real the escape had a extra problem, the weather was not so good like in this movie. It was cold and the steam came out from the tunnel. What i absolutly love about this movie ist, that the actors are all from the country what they played in this movie (english plays english, germans plays germans and so on). Keep it up and stay well.
German native speaker here. For a Hollywood movie of the 1960s, this has one of the best German spoken by non-Germans I heard. Richard Attenborough could almost pass for an Austrian, and David McCallum's few lines were PERFECT.
Although it is not based on a true story, "Stalage 17" is a good POW movie with a great "who do it" story line.
Holden is great, but the movie is too much just a stage play. Bridge on the River Kwai is a much better film, and Holden is great in that too!
Nah, I'd say Stalag 17 is the vastly superior film, with Holden giving a much better performance. And it also benefits by not having (the otherwise great) Alec Guinness' unfortunate scenery chewing in Bridge on the River Kwai... his final scene in particular.
Another POW film is Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17 (1953) with an Oscar performance by William Holden.
longago igo: Stalag 17 is really a genuinely great movie. It's up there with 12 Angry Men, though a different subgenre of Drama. I second your nomination to react to it. I'd like to add 13 Rue Madeline with James Cagney.
Hmm... 17. 12. 13. Are Academy-level movies better with numbers in their title?
Haha, just kidding. But, they are all great films
You may recognize a young David McCallum in the role of Ashley-Pitt. David was soon to become a star as Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He currently appears at age 89 as Dr. “Ducky” Mallard in NCIS. At the time of this film, he was married to actress Jill Ireland, who later married Charles Bronson.
I was 7 or 8 when this movie was released. I'm pretty sure I saw it at the local drive-in theater.....& it's become one of my favorite films. Glad to finally see a reaction to it.
Super happy that you were aware that Chicken Run was inspired by this classic! 😉😂🐔
Fun trivia: One of the German motorbike soldiers chasing Steve McQueen was...Steve McQueen. They needed another rider who could handle the motorbike and had experience so McQueen did it and, of course, its edited in a way you don't notice.
May I recommend a few other classics; Stalag 17, On the Waterfront, To Kill a Mockingbird, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, and Some Like it Hot!!!
Great suggestions, thanks!
@@Jen-Mom Please, Some Like It Hot...best comedy of all time IMO, and Marilyn Monroe was never better! Too few reactors are doing the classics many of us grew up with.
David McCullam was married to Jill Ireland, on the set she met Charles Bronson and they fell in love and got married until she passed away untimely from breast cancer.
The sentences by the German commander, saying to Hills, "it looks like you will see Berlin before I do" tells us he will probably be shot by the Gestapo, or send to the Russian front, in any case not a good outcome for him.
I currently live about 2 miles from the German version of the great escape from Island farm prisoner of war camp in Bridgend, South Wales.
The methods the German prisoners used were remarkably similar to their allied counterparts, the local doctor had his car stolen by two escapers who made it as far as Birmingham in England and like this story practically all were recaptured although some claim 3 prisoners made it back.
There was talk about the site being completely knocked down but local historians managed to stop that from happening completely and managed to salvage the hut that the Germans tunneled out from and salvage their original escape tools so schoolkids and tour groups can learn about it as a makeshift museum. I loved it as a schoolkid and hope they never knock it down
Donald Pleasance was an actual POW in WWII, he was a wireless operator in the RAF and flew in over 60 missions before his Lancaster bomber was shot down in 1944. He said that the set was a very accurate depiction of a German POW camp.
Charles Bronson was a coal miner before becoming an actor, and advised the production on the actualities of digging underground. Similarly to his character in the film, Bronson developed claustrophobia from his experiences as a coal miner. Unlike his character though, Bronson was fluent in Russian having spoken it as his first language from childhood.
James Garner based his "scrounger" character on his own experiences as a "self confessed scrounger" during his military service in the Korea War.
Hi, " Bronson served in the United States Army Air Forces as a bomber tail gunner during World War II. "
Great work!....glad to see the steady growth of the channel.
Fun Fact: David McCallum's song he composed entitled "The Edge" was sampled by Dr Dre for "The Next Episode" one of the biggest rap hits during it's time .... funny how things so vastly different intertwine
Classic films are generally slower paced, but there is SOOO much fantastic acting and story crammed in that you don't notice it easily. Casablanca is my #1 classic movie, but TGE is probably 2 or 3. So much fantastic camera and script work that it can be hard to really choose.
Man, I haven’t seen this movie in years! Thanks for the review!
Loved your reaction you guys!!! I have this in my collection! If you have a chance, check out THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961) another WWII film with Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn! You guys will love it too! 😊
Thanks! Adding it to the list.
Another good one is "Where Eagles Dare" with Clint Eastwood
“The Great Escape” is one of my favorite movies. I own it on DVD. And it is also very historically accurate. Of course there are some parts Hollywood took some liberties One of which was how they executed the 50. They did execute 50, but they didn’t do it as a group like in the movie. They drove one or two of them around in the car through the woods, stopped to let them take a leak by a tree, and then the SS walked up behind them and shot them in the back of the head, (like the cowards they were).
Here’s another interesting tidbit at the the movie doesn’t cover at all. When Hitler initially heard about escape, he wanted to execute ALL of them. Herrmann Goring said no because if the Americans found out they may retaliate with German POW’s. So Hitler actually actually said excuse 50% of them. Somehow the percentage mark was lost and an additional 13 or so prisoners were executed because of a missing punctuation. Very sad.
This one of those ever iconic war films. Others such as Ice Cold in Alex, and The Longest Day, also share that iconic status.... Of the much more recent war films *likely* to gain such status, I'd be tempted to say Saving Private Ryan, and 1917.......In complete contrast, the movie of the *only* successful escape of a German POW from a British POW camp, at Grisedale Hall, in the English Lake District, is here on UA-cam. The One That Got Away, starring Hardy Kruger as Franz Von Werra, a German fighter pilot, shot down in Kent during 1940. The story of his escape - and eventual return to Germany - is an interesting one, and a good watch. Incidentally, Hardy Kruger himself actually was a POW of the Americans during WW2....he was a former SS soldier.
we have the air making maching in trenton ontario air force museum
I was only 7 when this came out but I watched it on TV a couple of years later. NBC had "Saturday Night at the Movies" as a regular show and we watched it as a family because they were the first to show recent color movies on TV . Baths done and popcorn made we all sat around the TV to watch a movie. My parents felt that, since it was on prime time TV it would be OK for kids.
Saturday Night at the Movies was a big thing back then. That's how I first saw it too. And it was very impressive. Every boy in the neighborhood wanted to be Steve McQueen after it aired. And in hindsight this may have been the movie where I first got the inclination (subliminally, of couse) to become a chemical engineer after I grew up (as I've now noticed from closer scrutiny of this movie, watching it as an adult, that that was Hilts's profession in civilian life).
But the movie I remember most from that weekly TV event was the first airing of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. It is kind of lame by today's standards but that movie scared the bejeezers out of me at the time. And once again every kid in the neighborhood seemed to have been similarly traumatized. So much so, as I recall, that we'd all memorized the words "Gort Klatu Barada Nicto" on the off chance that someday we might be staring into the face of a ten foot tall robot getting ready to vaporize us if we got it wrong.
@@itt23r My most memorable was "With a Song in My Heart" starring Susan Hayward as Jane Froman . Classic biopic about a humble singer who rose to great fame, then was severely injured in a plane crash. She went on to entertain the WW2 troops anyway, even though she could hardly stand or walk without crutches.
As kids, we acted out just about every movie we saw. We lived in a neighborhood with a lot of kids and big yards. I know we did The Great Escape, just without actual tunnels.
I recommend Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17. Great movie with Oscar winning William Holden role.
This movie inspired the making of Hogan's Heroes tv show.
Did you notice that Bartlett (Big X) is Grandpa in Jurassic Park.
Fairly accurate, although the Gestapo executed the fifty British and allied officers in much smaller groups as they were supposedly being driven back to the camp and no Americans were involved in the escape. Even those who had served in the RAF were moved to the new American compounds well before the escape happened.
Another great WW 2 "escape" movie, though fictional, is "Von Ryan's Express", starring Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard.
I would HIGHLY recommend "Escape from Alcatraz" (1979) with Clint Eastwood. It's also based on a very true story. And not a lot of reactors have reacted to that movie, even though it's such a good historical drama. You and your mom may be the first! :)😊☺❤❤❤
Thanks! We'll add it to the list!
My wife's father was shot down over Hungary and arrived as a POW at Stalag Luft 3 about a month after The Great Escape. He only told a handful of funny stories about the experience. And when they watched the movie on TV, his kids (my future wife and her brothers) knew they were not to turn around and ask about it.
The best POW movie is 1953’s STALAG 17, with William Holden
Everytime I.watch this I laught at the 11 escape attempt and one trying to jump out on the way 😂😂
It always made me wonder if the Spanish guide supported Franco but hated the Nazis.
As I understand it the movie was fairly accurate for the most part, according to the actual prisoners who survived and were invited to the pre-release screening anyway. They only part they didn't like is when McQueen jumped the fence. I heard they booed when they saw it. The issue was there weren't any Americans in the actual camp and that combined with the director's decision to Hollywood up the movie with that jump scene was a bridge too far for them.
It'd be nice to be accurate, but if we're being honest, the film would suffer greatly without the McQueen and Garner characters.
@@Hexon66Oh I never said that I didn't like the way they Hollywoodized the movie. That was merely what the survivors said, But I think every boy in my neighborhood wanted to be Steve McQueen when they grew up after seeing him in that movie, when it was first aired on TV back in the mid '60s.
As for me I ended up becoming a chemical engineer, which I later discovered, in rewatching the movie as an adult, is what Hilts was in civilian life. It came out when he was being interrogated by the Camp Commandant at the start of the film. So it makes me wonder if that tiny tidbit of information didn't lodge into my subconscious somewhere and dictate somehow my career path. Did my mind somehow connect chemical engineering with jumping fences with motorcycles?
The only big error was for Hollywood storytelling purposes. They didn't halt other escape attempts while digging. One time they sent a bunch of prisoners out on a "work detail" with two fake guards. An hour later, they tried to send six more fake guards to "look" for the first group; only the second group aroused their suspicion. The problem was that they didn't know the authorizations were two-sided, so with the second group the gate guard flipped the orders over while checking and the jig was up.
The character Sedgewick (played by James Coburn) was Australian, not Canadian.
Based on true events from the novel by Paul Brickhill, who lived it.
It's a prisoner of war camp, they are, so far following the Geneva Convention. The German commander is more of an old school military man, than a ruthless Gestapo. It will be his downfall.
My father’s favorite movie we used to watch it every year on channel 56 Boston
It's a great movie. I hope to see you guys react to more oldies/classics. So many great movies from 30s to 60s.
Yes!!
James Coburns character was not Canadian, but Australian.
This movie is usually played every Christmas here in the 🇬🇧
A classic movie based on a true story with an absolutely stacked cast.
Nice reaction😀👍
Hello Jen, based on a true story. After the escape these prisoners were moved to Spandau Prison. Lieutenant Speirs of Band of Brothers was later after the war became Commandant at Spandau which housed Nazi war criminals.
Hi, during the motorcycle chase scenes, Steve McQueen in his German uniform was one of the German motorcyclists that were chasing " Hills (Steve McQueen) ". For safety reasons Bud Eakins made the Switzerland Border Fence Jump.
Based on the incredible true story of of a daring escape from a Nazi prison camp, though the characters were fictionalized, everything you're about to see actually happened.
Apart from the fact that there were no Americans in the compound, they escaped from. They had their own compound and even those serving in the RAF were moved there, although they did play a part before they were moved. No motorcycle and no plane attempts, either - put in to spice up the ending and keep the American studio bosses happy. Sadly the fifty executed was true. Overall the basics are true. The Famous 'Wooden vaulting Horse' escape was made from the same camp, a different compound slightly earlier.
The initial response of this film from the studio was negative, as it did not have a "happy" ending. People pushed and a level of realism set in. War is hell, and a story like this could not possibly have a truly happy ending. Some make it out, some are recaptured, and some of those are executed. It's as real as it was.
Stalag 17 with William Holden is the predecessor by ten years and is a fine film in itself. Its success inspired the idea of making The Great Escape. TGE itself inspired the comedy gold "Hogan's Heroes" for seven seasons on CBS "IN COLOR!" and the WWII POW camp genre was fulfilled.
This was made in 1963, DEATH WISH was the early 70s
Thanks for the video!! See you later!! Stay safe.😊
More reactions to Steve McQueen movies, I recommend Bullit, The Getaway and The Towering Inferno.
OMG i just heard you reference Supernatural my favorite show of all time..and I'm an old lady..seen a lot..but man that was the best. Of course Jensen Ackles doesn't hurt & by no fault of his own..turned me into a tv cougar. ..Roar..sorry. Anyway love your channel & both of you so cool.✌
Thank you.
If you would like to take a look at less well known movie starring Charles Bronson please take a look at "Hard Times" (1975), it even co-stars one of his comrades from "The Great Escape".
Big X = Roger Bushell, a South African
King Rat is another good WWII POW movie you might like.
Have you watched the other great WW2 POW movie, Bridge on the River Kwai?
Not quite vodka, more like moonshine.
Although a Fascist nation, Spain remained neutral during the war.
Hello
David McCallum and Charles Bronson weren’t very friendly on this film. David was married to Jill Ireland and she began an affair with Bronson on this film. He eventually married her. Kind of a bit awkward….
Spain was neutral in WWII
All this is all the more amazing given that it was a true story... and still not the most amazing story of that war
FACT Americans where never in this prison camp, the American actors where in it only for the American movie goers
Americans were in the camp and helped with the escape plans but were transfered to a camp of their own a few weeks before the break.
@@rickkennett8505 no they where not. Only British where in that camp
@@gregkirby9059 Yes, American prisoners were in that POW camp until shortly before the break. Don't believe me? Look it up.
@@rickkennett8505 I thought it was just a typo, or poor spelling. But maybe he's asking "where the Americans" stayed in the camps. 😉 It's always nice to give the benefit of the doubt.
@@gregkirby9059Yes they were. Do some proper research.
Tom, Dick, Harry. Rearrange their order, and you have Tom(s) Harry Dick
THIS CAMP IS SITUATED IN POLAND , NEXT TO SMALL TOWN ŻAGAŃ .
There is a commemorative stone with a sentence in Polish: - "TO ALLIED AIRMEN, PRISONERS OF STALAG LUFT III , PARTICIPANTS OF THE GREAT ESCAPE "
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III ( Translate form polish to any language please ) .
ua-cam.com/video/EEMW2svLTF8/v-deo.html