One of the most acclaimed war films of all time, John Sturges’ The Great Escape, finally reached Blu-ray on Tuesday. While seeing Steve McQueen in high definition is always a joy, the Fox/MGM Blu-ray isn’t as stunning as you might expect for a film of this stature.
The Great Escape is the story of the incredible escape by the prisoners of Stalag Luft III, built by the Germans in 1943 as a new prison that would keep all the escape artists in one place. It was designed to be impossible to escape from, but the team managed to do it. While Sturges and (credited) writers James Clavell and W.R. Burnett were true to the method, they meshed characters together to create single entities, that moviegoers would love, with amazing skill. Sure, the Americans weren’t able to take part in the escape in real life because they were transferred months before, but they didn’t let a fact like that get in the way.
By making Americans a major part of the escape, we get to enjoy some wonderful turns by McQueen and James Gardner. But the British actors are no slouches either. Richard Attenborough pulls off a stunning performance as Bartlett, the mastermind behind the plan. Other members of the all-star cast include James coburn and Charles Bronson, two actors who previously worked with McQueen and Sturges on Magnificent Seven.
Sturges is definitely an underrated director. Aside from The Great Escape, he directed stunning ensembles in Magnificent Seven and in Bad Day at Black Rock. His terrific pacing with the help of editor Ferris Webster (the only person on the production nominated for an Oscar, incredibly) keeps the audience at attention for all 172 minutes. Their work on the iconic motorcycle chase is breathtaking. Then again, when the man who invented cool - McQueen - is on the bike, there’s little reason to expect it to be anything but exciting.
The Great Escape was a United Artists production, which means that it’s an MGM title and was distributed on Blu-ray by Fox. There’s nothing new on the disc, so if you have the 2-disc DVD set from a few years ago, you’ve seen everything here. Still, it’s some good content, including a commentary and a very thorough History Channel feature that compares fact to the film.
As for the video and audio, it’s a bit underwhelming. The three-hour film is squeezed onto one disc with the extra content and it’s clear that MGM and Fox didn’t do a major restoration on it. I’ll say though that the audio is fantastic, presented in 5.1 sound. Elmer Bernstein’s iconic score sounds clear and you won’t have any problems understanding dialogue. I also wish we could have gotten at least a menu, since you can only get to the special features with the pop-up menu.
The Great Escape is one of the most acclaimed war films of all time and justly so. It’s incredible entertainment. I would have loved to see a bigger, better edition, but if you don’t have it on DVD, this is the way to go. Anytime a classic hits Blu-ray, we should celebrate.