The Great Escape (1963) is a thrilling conservative account of Allied prisoners of war planning to escape from a brutal Germany prisoners' camp in World War II. It starred the Republican Steve McQueen, and is ranked as the 18th greatest war film of all time.[1]
The movie was slighted by liberals at the Academy Awards, receiving no Oscars and nominated only for a minor award (Best Film Editing).
The story was first told in a book The Great Escape, in 1950,[2] which is based on a true story.
From its description:[2]They were American and British air force officers in a German prison camp. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, forged passports, faked weapons, and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes. They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from German surveillance. It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred men--every one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and night for more than a year.