A classic

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since it is such a huge classic, I was really eager to check it out again. To be honest, the first time I watched it, even though I did like this movie, I didn’t really blow me away though. Well, I’m glad I gave it a second shot because it is in fact such a solid and entertaining WWII feature. First of all, the cast was pretty neat (Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn) and they all delivered some solid performances, especially Steve McQueen who was at the top of his game at the time. And, of course, it is a fun movie, that’s for sure but, after rewatching it, I was actually surprised that most of it was actually pretty realistic. Sure, some of the details were not really convincing. For example, even though it was supposed to be a high-security prison, there was barely any checks from the guards but, still, most of it made sense. Furthermore, I was also positively surprised by the ending. Indeed, even though the whole thing was rather light, the ending was actually pretty dark (they were actually planning to have 250 inmates to escape, 75 got out, 50 got shot and only a handful actually managed to really escape after all). Anyway, to conclude, even though it is still not one of my favorite WWII movies,  it is a genuine classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.