Simply Perfect

Powerful

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The Great Escape: The Untold Story (2001) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Well-produced story of the actual POW escape that is best remembered today for the classic film THE GREAT ESCAPE. Actual survivors Jimmy James, Alex Cassie, Jack Lyon, Colin Kerby-Green and Les Brodrick recall their days at the camp and their memories on the actual escape. Fans of the film as well as history buffs are really going to enjoy this hour-long documentary for a number of reasons. One of the biggest is simply the fact that the story itself is just amazing and something truly heroic. This documentary also goes into great detail about the events after the men were captured and how fifty of them were put to death by orders from Hitler. It's rather shocking to hear how these murders were carried out and just as heartbreaking hearing from some of their children and wives. The documentary certainly doesn't hold any punches and we even get a few reenactments from the interrogation of the German soldiers who shot the escapees. THE GREAT ESCAPE: THE UNTOLD STORY doesn't go into great details about the event but I think it does do a very good job at giving you the basic events that happened and it's certainly all the more impressive getting to hear the stories from those who were involved.

This is an amazingly good documentary about the actual 'Great Escape'--the one portrayed years later in a major motion picture. The film is narrated by Derek Jacobi and consists of recreations, interviews and various artifacts/archival footage. I was really surprised with the interviews. A couple were with men who had escaped but were captured and returned to prison (this only occurred with a very few men). A few were with surviving children talking about their fathers who were murdered by the Germans after they were recaptured--and these interviews were quite sad and touching. The most telling interview was the man at the very end who wistfully said "...was it all worth it? I don't think so"--mostly because it resulted in the butchering of many good men.Overall, an exceptional documentary--and better than the four-part one also included on the Bonus Disc which accompanies the film "The Great Escape". The only other film I know about this interesting bit of history is an episode of "Nova"--which I will try to locate and review at a later time.

Bringing the Germans involved in this story - The Great Escape - to justice was the number one aim of the Brits looking for war criminals when WWII concluded. Why did this get top priority? .Because 50 British airmen were "murdered in cold blood" by the Gestapo after this famous escape attempt.Details of that prison break are given in this documentary that accompanies the two-disc Special Edition DVD of "The Great Escape."Some of those details are very interesting but on the whole, this 51-minute "feature" can get a slow, a little dry, but if you're really into the history of what happened, you should find this intriguing enough to stay with it. Some of it, especially near the end with stories about the murdered men, are heartbreaking.This documentary includes interviews men who were in the camp at that time and were still alive, obviously, when these interviews took place fairly recently. Relatives are also interviewed and even Germans who were involved in the massacre that followed.It was the coldest March in 30 years and there was snow on the ground on the night of the escape but they couldn't postpone it because the fake passports were all dated, so they had to go ahead despite the weather. I mention the weather but it played a key role in everything that happened, according to some of the things I learned watching this. The coldness also cost the Allied soldiers after the escape as many had to turn themselves in or face freezing to death in the outside.How much that cold weather influenced what happened, and a number of other facts, such as why 50 people were killed (orders from Hitler) make this a decent documentary. It's nice to know, too, that much of the movie is not made up, as so often happens in films.

The Great Escape was excellent film for it's time but the actual events of that escape are far more interesting than any film as this documentary shows. The real story tells a much darker, reality-based tale of escape and survival, documenting the atrocities committed during that time.While the Great Escape was brave, daring and heroic for those involved, it just may not have been worth it as this documentary sheds light on the facts and doesn't glorify the events as the much-celebrated film does. If there was ever a Great Escape remake, this is the story to tell. The true story.