It’s weird to see Steve McQueen pop up again in the same monthly theme after Papillon. Musta been typecast as the Escapist, apparently. But he’s just one of a pretty varied cast, a few American actors among the Brits and Germans and one little Scot. WWII, don’t you know. A Prison Camp. Though that seems mislabeled. Camps are for fun, right? This camp? Not so fun. Based on a book that says its the obligatory True Story, mostly. Well, let’s just call it a compilation of true stories. Kinda.
A shitload of P.O.W.s are shipped to the same remote German location, a new facility erected (heh, erected) just for them. The worst of the Allie escapers, giving those Nazis a bad name what with all the escapings from their prison camps and all. This is a new facility, state of the art German constructions and plannings, complete with ...gardening tools and shuffleboard courts? Well, let’s just say these few hundred prisoners are a bit of the malcontented, and don’t exactly want to make it easy for them Nazis!
This is a lot of characters all distilled down to doing a prison break. Will it work? Seems the initial plan by the Germans to put all the rotten eggs in one basket wasn’t maybe the best idea? But those muthahfuckahs are vigilant. And efficient. But so are their prisoners. It’s not a bad story to watch it play out, some tensions here and there. Some interesting plottenings and strategeries. Polite Fuckin Brits though. But after a little moonshine, I guess they’re kinda okay. From time to time. At least they were there for a bit. Now? Sad tea-drinkin koonts. Get Better, Britain. We pray for your speedy recovery. Where were we? Oh yeah, Prison Break! Some nice roles by James Garner, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance and James Coburn among the prisoners. Decent sped-up playout of the original timeline. But it is the difference between a great escape and The Greatest Escape, which belongs to one Snake B. Plissken. Twice.
