The film The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen was on TV (again) over Easter, not that that is particularly newsworthy, but I had a few issues with it, which I decided to summarise here. So, get the popcorn, take a seat, and strap yourself in for some World War 2 wisdom.
The Great Escape
McQueen effortlessly combines a Triumph, a fence, Chinos and the Alps to create the archetypal war movie
The Great Escape is a 1963 film based upon a true story of allied soldiers who attempted a mass escape from a PoW Camp located in Nazi Germany, during March 1944.1 However, that’s pretty much where the similarities end, since most of the rest of the actual escape is a work of fiction, including Steve McQueen’s character, despite the statement in the opening credits.
The opening titles are a little sketchy on specifics
Issues
Anyway, that’s not what I have issue with. I appreciate, that for a film to ‘work’ for a cinema audience, certain aesthetic and artistic licence is necessary. The combining of characters, or locations etc. to allow the story to flow more smoothly, are quite normal practices when transferring a story, to cinema. And so, as far as the film is concerned, the planning of, the work and the escape itself are true, but outside of that, stories abound purely for entertainment purposes.
Character
No, my issue is with Steve McQueen. Well specifically, his chinos. And additionally with Steve McQueen’s character in its entirety. So, not so much Mr McQueen himself, but his character in the film.
“Hey fella. Are they them magic chinos I heard about in that blog?”
Context
But, before I get into Steve McQueen and his magic wardrobe, a bit of context is necessary.
The first point to be made is, the film shouldn’t in any way be confused with the 1981 film Escape to Victory starring Michael Caine as an English PoW trying to escape… hang on, where have I heard this before?
Escape to Victory. Not to be confused with any other war film with “escape” in the title
Discussion
Actually Vikki does regularly confuse the two, so much so that when I watched The Great Escape the other evening as prep for this blog, she wandered into the room about halfway through, cup of tea in one hand, phone in the other, and the resultant conversation went something like this:-
Vikki: “So, what’s this you’re watching?”
Me: “The Great Escape.”
Vikki:- “Is it about the 2nd World War?”
Me:- “Yes. They’re in a Prisoner of War camp in Germany and they’re planning what will come to be known as “the great escape.””
Vikki:- “And the English, they’re the ones trying to escape?”
Me:- “Exactly. Actually, do you think I could I just watch it, you know, without the interruptions?”
Vikki:- “Yes, ok.”
Silence for a moment.
Gordon
Vikki:- “So, what’s he doing? Gordon whateverhisnameis? Why is he in it? He’s from Upstairs Downstairs, and that other programme, The…..Professionals. He can’t play football.”
Me:- “Who, Gordon Jackson?”
Gordon Jackson considers a game of keepy-uppy’s with Richard Attenborough
Vikki:- “Yes, and why are they digging a tunnel? Is that the escape plan?”
Me:- “No, I think they’re doing it to aerate the soil, so their vegetables will grow.”
She narrowed her eyes and looked quizzically at me.
Vikki:- “That’s a joke, isn’t it?”
Me:- “Vik, how long have you known me?”
Vikki:- “Well, I think we first met around 2004, so that’s….(counts on fingers)….21 years.”
Me:- “And after 21 years, you still don’t know if I’m telling a joke or not?”
Vikki:- “Well, I’m getting better at it. It would help if they were funny though.”
Me:- “Oww! Burn!”
Was that a joke just then?
Escape
Vikki:- “So, when do they play the football match then?”
Me:- “They don’t play football in this one. They just dig tunnels.”
Vikki:- “I think you’ll find they do, I’ve seen it before.”
Me:- “I think you’ll find they don’t. You’re thinking of Escape To Victory. It’s a completely different story.”
Vikki:- “Is it? But don’t they escape in that one as well?”
Me:- “Yes, as it happens, they do. Hopefully, in future they’ll combine the two films and call it The Great Escape To Victory.“
After a while all PoW escape films begin to look the same.
So, although these films shouldn’t be confused, they are. And I’m sure Vikki isn’t the only one.
TV
The second point to make about the film is although it’s probably been on British TV several times a year for the last 60 years, I’ve never watched it before. Not all the way through. I’ve seen parts of it loads of times, and loads of it, part of the time. Probably most of it some of the time, and some of it most of the time, but I’ve never sat down and watched all of it, from the beginning to the end, chronologically. Until now.
Spoiler Alert
If like me, you’re one of the 12 other people globally, known to have never seen The Great Escape, you may not want the specifics of the plot revealed. But I’m going to. So beware. And, because I’ve never seen the film before, this gives me a slightly different perspective on the film that others might not possess.
Three
Which brings me on to the third point of context. Although it’s called The Great Escape, only three people ever escape from Germany. Two make it to Sweden and one gets to Spain. Admittedly 76 PoW’s ‘escape’ the camp in one go but even that gets fluffed. Over 200 were supposed to get away but the tunnel wasn’t dug far enough and the escape was compromised.
Attenborough and McQueen discuss the vagaries of the metric system
Artwork
And my last point is the artwork for the film. It’s mostly Steve McQueen on a motorbike jumping a fence to escape the Germans. But when I got to that scene, which is right near the end, and the film is 172 minutes long (so a shade under 3 hours), he jumps over one fence, gets shot at, crashes the bike into another fence and gets captured, for the fourth time.
“McQueen” jumps the fence and evades the Germans…for about 30 seconds
Is that it?
Now, I ought to say, I’ve seen the bike scene in the film, quite a few times but as I said, not in context with the rest of the film. So, I’m going to be honest and say, I was more than a little disappointed when the whole scene played out and McQueen didn’t even escape. I had believed, ever since the 1960’s that this scene was synonymous with The Great Escape, and effectively represented the allied flyers derring-do. And now I find, it wasn’t, and it didn’t.
Character
Then, to make matters worse I discovered Steve McQueen’s character didn’t even exist. No American’s took part in the escape itself (although they helped plan it and dig the tunnels). And, since this element of the story was a complete fabrication for the US film audience, McQueen could’ve escaped. But the film makers couldn’t do that, because they needed him to do his big final entry into the PoW camp, the last one to be picked up. Then he had to do his “too cool for school” walk to “the cooler” again (which I’ll come on to in a while), as the final scene.
Worse
And, to make matters worse still (is this even possible?) McQueen used a British Triumph TR6 Trophy motorbike during the chase, disguised as a German BMW. McQueen, to his credit, loved British bikes and all the scenes with him on a bike, except the jump at the end, were him riding. He even did some scenes where he played Germans chasing his character, also on motorbikes.
Steve McQueen on a Triumph BMW
Chinos
And this brings me on to the chinos. When he arrived at Stalag Luft III at the start of the film, he was wearing light chinos, desert boots and a leather jacket. Not really military garb but we’ll let than one go. He’s looking good and he exudes the personality of someone who’s going to mix it up with Herr Kommandant a little.
McQueen sporting the “magic” chinosHerr Kommandant – didn’t possess the requisite psychopathic tendencies the SS usually favoured
Magnets
Now, I’ve had a pair of light beige chinos for some years and I know for a fact that all Vikki has to do is say, “Dinner’s ready” and I’ll have food all over them. They attract dirt in much the same way a magnet attracts iron filings; trust me.
“Dinner’s ready!”
Daz
However, McQueen’s chinos appear to magically repel dirt and stains in a way I’ve only ever seen in a 1960’s Daz commercial. First he digs a tunnel under the fence, escapes, gets caught, then spends 20 days in “The Cooler” (solitary confinement) but when he’s released, those chinos are as clean as a whistle. It’s like the Germans washed and pressed them for him while he was doing ‘time’.
Only one allied PoW had access to a box of Daz in the whole of Nazi Germany
Papillon
Then he escapes again, gets caught again, and does ‘bird’ again. Result? Clean chinos. None of this happened when he was in the ‘cooler’ on Devil’s Island in Papillon. He came out in rags. Admittedly he was doing solitary for several years at a time, but still. This is Hollywood.
McQueen does solitary in Papillon. Note ragged apparel
Then he does the Great Escape…where doesn’t actually, you know, escape, but those chinos take one hell of a beating. He’s up to his knees in mud. He’s got an oily old bike on top of him. He’s caught in barbed wire and he gets dragged back to Stalag Luft III for his troubles. But guess what happens? The Germans wash and press his chinos while he’s in the back of the car.
McQueen crashes in The Great Escape. Note mud spattered chinos
And by the time he meets up with the British allies at Stalag Luft, he’s neat and tidy again.
Steve McQueen was so cool, even his trousers were able to defy the laws of physics
Virgil
But as for his character in the film, Captain Virgil Hilts, I found him to be a bit one dimensional. He mentions once, in an offhand way, that he rode trail bikes back in the US and as “The Cooler King” he goes into solitary confinement (the cooler) each time he escapes and gets caught, and it’s as if it’s a walk in the park for him. He comes out like he’s had a nice weekend at a Spa resort. So definitely not like Papillon then, when he was close to death every time he was released.
McQueen only left a 1 star review on Tripadvisor for the Spa facilities on Devil’s Island
He was like the naughty school kid who has to take the rap for being above all the nonsense others have to endure, so he wanders into the cooler with his baseball glove and ball, then spends the next 20 days chucking the ball at the wall. That’s all you need to survive solitary. And that’s clearly why he had such a difficult time in Papillon too.
McQueen as Hilts, with baseball glove and ball
Ives
However, his Scottish co-conspirator Flying Officer Archibald Ives goes insane in solitary and gets shot dead trying to escape by scaling the perimeter fence in broad daylight. But then he didn’t have the foresight to bring a baseball glove into the cooler with him, so it’s probably his own fault really.
Ives “eats lead” on the fence, McQueen is in the background
Performance
Having said all that, one Film Critic called McQueen the “outstanding performer” in a stellar cast, which he is. And it was this performance that cemented his reputation as a Hollywood “A” list actor. In the next few years he played the lead in The Cincinnati Kid, The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt. McQueen died in 1980 of cancer associated with asbestos exposure.
Reviews
As for the film itself, it had Elmer Bernstein’s whistling classic theme tune and received mainly positive reviews, but not from everyone.
The Great Escape grinds out its tormenting story without a peek beneath the surface of any man, without a real sense of human involvement.
Bosley Crowther – NY Times
Well, you can’t please everybody. And not one mention of the magic chinos either.
Opening credits and main theme
Book
The film was based upon the 1950 book The Great Escape by Australian author Paul Brickhill, and is available in paperback and to listen to on Audible.
4K
The Great Escape has recently been restored and was released on 4K Dolby Atmos Blu-Ray on 19th May 2025 by Arrow Films.
