The Great Escape [1963]

Description: Home About Us Postage & Payment Returns Contact Add The Pom Shop to your Favorites and receive our email newsletters about new items and special promotions. General Interest The Great Escape [1963] DVD Special Features: Dolby 5.1 Sound Audio Commentary by cast and crew An American Icon History versus Hollywood" documentary The True Story of The Great Escape documentary Trivia Track Theatrical trailer Photo galleries From . A stirring example of courage and the indomitable human spirit, for many John Sturges' The Great Escape is both the definitive World War II drama and the nonpareil prison escape movie. Featuring an unequalled ensemble cast in a rivetingly authentic true-life scenario set to Elmer Bernstein's admirable music (who writes contrapuntal march themes these days), this picture is both a template for subsequent action-adventure movies and one of the last glories of Golden Age Hollywood. Reunited with the director who made him a star in The Magnificent Seven Steve McQueen gives a career-defining performance as the laconic Hilts, the baseball-loving, motorbike-riding "Cooler King". The rest of the all-male Anglo-American cast--Dickie Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, James Garner, Charles Bronson, David McCallum, James Coburn and Gordon Jackson--make the most of their meaty roles (though you have to forgive Coburn his Australian accent). Closely based on Paul Brickhill's book, the various escape attempts, scrounging, forging and ferreting activities are authentically realised thanks also to the presence on set of technical advisor Wally Flood, one of the original tunnel-digging POWs. Sturges orchestrates the climactic mass break out with total conviction, giving us both high action and very poignant human drama. Without trivialising the grim reality, The Great Escape thrillingly celebrates the heroism of men who never gave up the fight. On the DVD: The Great Escape special edition is indeed a special event. The anamorphic 2.35:1 picture is good if a tad grainy, and the remastered Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is a fitting vehicle for Elmer Bernstein's magnificent contribution. Accompanying the feature there's a reasonable cut-and-paste group commentary culled from interviews with various cast and crew, plus text trivia captions about the actors and the real-life camp. The second disc features a first-rate Granada TV documentary from 2001, "The Untold Story", which tells of both the escape itself and the subsequent post-war search for the Gestapo officers who butchered 50 of the 76 escapees. This has an appendix of further valuable interviews with survivors, and there's also an American making-of documentary, "Heroes Underground", which is good though annoyingly divided into separate chapters and featuring non-anamorphic clips from the film. Perhaps best of all though is the 25-minute life of American POW David Jones, "The Real Virgil Hilts", whose career both during and after the war is extraordinary and inspirational. A classic movie finally gets the DVD treatment it merits.--Mark Walker Shipping Shipping is free for all customers in Australia. Your package will be safely taken care of & posted from England by means of Priority Airmail, which is air freighted to your nearest Australia Post Distribution Center (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, or Perth), from where they are delivered to your address by Australia Post. Returns and refunds We operate a 30 day money back guarantee. If you are unhappy with the product for whatever reason, please contact us to arrange a return and refund. As shipping costs are not retrievable, we are unable to refund shipping costs. Feedback We use an automated eBay feedback response system. If you are happy with the product, please leave positive feedback and we will automatically leave positive feedback for you. If you are unhappy with the transaction for any reason, please contact us first to resolve. If you do leave negative or neutral feedback you waive your rights for support regarding any problems with us and open yourself up for possible retaliatory negative feedback. Please avoid making negative feedback remarks, contact us first if you have any problems! We are here to help! Contact Us Please contact us via eBay messages if you have any questions and our Customer Service team will be happy to assist you with any queries. Thank you. Home About Us Postage & Payment Returns Contact Copyright © 2017 The Pom Shop. All rights reserved.

Price: 30.58 AUD

Location: Priority Airmail from England

End Time: 2025-01-01T22:13:10.000Z

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