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The Great Escape

The Great Escape

Put a fence in front of these men... and they'll climb it!

19637.92h 53m

Overview

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

Directed by John Sturges
Written by James Clavell, Paul Brickhill, W.R. Burnett
Produced by John Sturges, James Clavell
Box OfficeBudget: $4.0MRevenue: $11.7M

Top Cast

Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen

Hilts 'The Cooler King'

James Garner

James Garner

Hendley 'The Scrounger'

Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Bartlett 'Big X'

James Donald

James Donald

Ramsey 'The SBO'

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson

Danny 'Tunnel King'

Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence

Blythe 'The Forger'

James Coburn

James Coburn

Sedgwick 'Manufacturer'

Hannes Messemer

Hannes Messemer

Von Luger 'The Kommandant'

David McCallum

David McCallum

Ashley-Pitt 'Dispersal'

Gordon Jackson

Gordon Jackson

MacDonald 'Intelligence'

Themes & Keywords

prisonuniformswastikaprisonerbased on novel or booknaziescapeoptimismfreedommachinegunswitzerlandshowerdystopiabaseballworld war iiprisoner of warclaustrophobiaattempt to escapebarbed wirebased on true storyprison guardprison escapetragedysolitary confinementmotorcyclealps mountainsbritish officer1940sluftwaffesoldiershopefulprisãosegunda guerra mundial

About The Great Escape

The Great Escape is a adventure, drama, war film released in 1963 exploring themes of prison, uniform, swastika, prisoner, based on novel or book, nazi. Directed by John Sturges, it stars Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough. The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

Movies Similar to The Great Escape

Discover titles like The Great Escape — ranked by similarity and community votes

We found 15 movies similar to The Great Escape

If you enjoyed The Great Escape, you'll love these handpicked recommendations. Each title below shares similar themes, tone, and storytelling style. Our algorithm analyzes genres, keywords, director filmography, and cast connections to find the closest matches. Whether you're looking for the same emotional depth, narrative structure, or visual style, these picks are curated to deliver the best viewing experience for fans of The Great Escape.

Where Eagles Dare
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World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.

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The Germans believed that no man could escape from Colditz Castle, set as it was in the heart of the Reich, 400 miles from any neutral frontier. This film, based on Pat Reid's epic novel, tells the story of how the British, French, Dutch and Polish prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Colditz set out to prove their captors wrong.

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Hart's War(2002)

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When Col. William McNamara is stripped of his freedom in a German POW camp, he's determined to keep on fighting even from behind enemy lines. Enlisting the help of a young lieutenant in a brilliant plot against his captors, McNamara risks everything on a mission to free his men and change the outcome of the war.

The Pianist
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The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

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Papillon(1973)

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A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.

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Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.

Escape from Alcatraz
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San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

Cool Hand Luke
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When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

The Dirty Dozen
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12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.

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When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

The Island on Bird Street
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Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.

Slaughterhouse-Five
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Billy Pilgrim, a veteran of the Second World War, finds himself mysteriously detached from time, so that he is able to travel, without being able to help it, from the days of his childhood to those of his peculiar life on a distant planet called Tralfamadore, passing through his bitter experience as a prisoner of war in the German city of Dresden, over which looms the inevitable shadow of an unspeakable tragedy.