The Story And Characters
The film runs for 165 minutes, though the titular escape and its aftermath do not actually occur until around two hours in. As a result of this, a considerable amount of time is spent both developing characters and building up to the event. It begins as the German authorities, tired of devoting manpower and resources to the recapture of Allied POWs, construct a new escape-proof camp, filling it with the most dedicated and persistent escapees from other facilities to put all of their rotten eggs in one basket. Amongst these is Bartlett (Richard Attenborough), who arrives separately from the camps other inhabitants with an escort of Gestapo operatives, who inform him that he will be executed should he attempt any further escapes. Defying them, he plans the escape of two hundred and fifty men to confuse and confound the enemy in an unprecedented manner, taking their attention and manpower away from the war's front lines. To do this, he proposes the construction of three tunnels (Tom, Dick and Harry) and assigns roles to an assortment of men, ranging from the digging of the tunnels to tasks such the creation of clothes, maps and forged documents, the acquisition of contraband materials and the distraction of camp guards. Hilts (Steve McQueen) serves as a selfish American prisoner that is initially unwilling to contribute to the escape, instead planning a number of individual escape attempts that result in him being recaptured and placed in solitary confinement. He nevertheless bonds with a Scottish prisoner called Ives (Angus Lennie) and becomes part of Bartletts scheme when his new friend meets an unenviable fate. Hendley (James Garner) serves as a scrounger, obtaining forbidden materials through both cunning and his friendship with a German guard. He shares a room with the somewhat odd Blythe (Donald Pleasance), who works as an expert forger of documents but becomes near-blind as a result of working in poor light, putting his prospects of escape in jeopardy. Danny (Charles Bronson) and Willy (John Leyton) are charged with digging the three tunnels, despite Dannys claustrophobia. Their actions are complemented by those of Sedgwick (James Coburn), who manufactures materials such as picks and air pumps for their use, Cavendish (Nigel Stock), who leads a choir of prisoners to mask the noise that they make, and Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum), who devises a way of dispersing the soil and sand they clear without suspicion. Despite the Germans finding one of the groups three tunnels, another is eventually believed ready for use, though it is discovered to be twenty feet short of woodland cover. Regardless, the decision is made to go ahead with the escape, and seventy six men get away before a seventy seventh is stopped. Pursued across Germany and France as they seek to make their way to the neutral countries of Spain, Sweden or Switzerland, the vast majority of the escapees are recaptured, though Blythe and Ashley-Pitt are both killed, the former despite being accompanied in his near-blind condition by Hendley and the latter sacrificing himself when Bartlett and his second-in-command MacDonald (Gordon Jackson) are recognised from afar by a Gestapo agent. Bartlett is eventually caught after a lengthy chase sequence, as Hilts fails in an attempt to cross the Swiss border on a motorbike. Only Sedgwick, Danny and Willy manage to reach freedom, with the former being led to Spain by the French Resistance and the latter two stowing away on a Swedish ship. The film then concludes on a dejecting (but true-to-life) note, as Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish and forty seven others are mercilessly gunned down in a field as reprisal for their actions, whilst Hilts and Hendley are returned to captivity once again. Despite its deviations from reality for simplicity and dramatic effect, the films story succeeds at being both triumphant and tragic, and despite its near-three hour run time, it never drags, remaining compelling from beginning to end as the audience become invested in its characters.