ESCAPE INTO THE STORY.
THE GREAT ESCAPE
I can just visit IMDB.COM and get the names of actors and their movie names etc., but I am a purist, I like unadulterated feelings and unadulterated emotions.
Shallow waters are for floaters, nobody is a floater here we are all divers.
Steve McQueen is bought in a military van to the new prison made especially for all those who have made many attempts to escape from German prisons. Steve McQueen gets down from the van in the new prison with his ball and catching glove and goes straight to the fence throws the ball near the outer fence checks out that it is charged with electric current and right in front of the watch tower guard, crosses the inner wired fence (warning fence) to pick up his ball, the new jailor pulls out his revolver, the watch tower guard, points his machine gun at him and the prisoners are all suddenly tense and every jail officer has their hands on their revolvers, the watch tower guard fires his gun near the feet of Steve McQueen, he is chewing his gum and the jailer announces 1 month solitary confinement (Cooler) for Steve McQueen.
The cooler is a small pen like dog house, where disobedient prisoners are sent to drill some sense in the prisoner and the daily rations are cut into half to make the person feel the pangs of hunger and get tamed. Like curfew of British Era in India, the curfew was made by British administrators in India to tame the non-cooperating Indians.
The role of devil of the prison is Steve McQueen, all the prisoners are from the allied forces meaning British and American, this story is based on the times of world war 2, this we all know was between Germany and Britain, so the prisoners are a bunch of American and British one of the Britishers is Richard Attenborough, later he became Sir Richard Attenborough, he is the organizer, his struggle is to unite all the allied prisoners into one disciplined civilized trained unit of men, he speaks to them and says we are all part of a trained military and air force, don’t divide ourselves on the pretext of laughing at each other how each of us got caught in the hands of Germans and stop trying to make individual efforts to escape, we all unite and plan like military and that may give us best chance to escape for all of us or some of us from this maximum security prison. This prison was supervised by (SS) secret service (Gestapo).
Germany under Hitler maintained 2 organized units in their national defense, one is the Nazi Army and the other is the (Gestapo) the secret service, the Nazi army was most tough as any army ever trained in the world, they overcame within a short time armies of France, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Holland, Yugoslavia and much of Europe, they reached up to st.Petersburg in Russia. Gestapo (SS) was an officer who used to report to Hitler directly or to very high commanding officers working under Hitler. No officer in this unit was more than 33 years old, so each Gestapo officer was automatically a superior or commanding officer of where ever or which ever unit he was present near, they were like roaming supervisors over the whole national defense systems of Germany.
Donald pleasance is the official forger who has vast knowledge of dyes, documents, symbols, emblems and has the keen eye to copy anything on paper in front of his be speckled eyes.
James Coburn and I don’t care a heck American, accidentally trapped in German hands, he is ready to make a buck anytime and any place the commercial man of the prisoners. He is selling Cigarettes and buying things for the escape unit. The currency of the prison is Cigarettes.
Charles Bronson, the mine specialist, he is the engineer who is given the charge of digging tunnel and securing it with wood and sticks to be wide enough tunnel for a man to crawl on his belly and pass long enough below the electric fence out in the open tree cover beyond the eyesight of the watch tower guard.
The goal is to reach Rome from inside Germany with whatever means and whatever clothes and whatever identification papers made out of the prison rations and prison supplies. Incidentally Rome was declared by all nations a neutral city for anyone wanting to escape the atrocities of war being waged in whole of Europe. Rome was then a city of refuge.
In this story the plans are shortened and so the length of the tunnel is shortened and the D DATE is brought forward and things happen when the news of commanding officer of the prison is going to be changed by Germans, the fun part is everybody pitches in their goal to escape the prison, the tunnel is dug with spoons and little metal pieces or some gardening tools cajoled out of the prison officers, the mud dug out from the tunnel is carried in trouser pockets and dropped in flower beds outside sleeping quarters, the fresh dug out mud is slowly mixed with dried outside mud by rubbing the feet tro and fro without letting the ever watchful guards know anything.
Good workable blazers are stitched with just needle and thread out of the blankets and bits and pieces of clothes found inside the prisons. The digging of tunnel sounds is camouflaged by practicing choir singing of national anthems by prisoners outside the wall of digging cabin. Everything was done in this film very efficiently.
Each simple scene is so thoroughly researched, scripted and filmed; it is a study in the art of film making for anyone and everyone in this whole world, the scene of James Coburn escaping quietly on a bicycle, the motor cycle ride of Steve McQueen, and the flight of Donald Pleasance are quiet exquisite. The escape and getting caught of Richard Attenborough and their execution by machine guns by Germans, each scene and every scene is a study into visual arts.
The film reel is not Eastman color; it is just Kodak color, still you do not feel one dull moment in this film. This film got many awards and accolades all these years, you can find out about in if you are interested. This it seems is a true story as credits of the film say in the end. Mind you the star cast was full of many super stars but no rivalry is visible anywhere between the actors inside the story of the film.
It is sad India cannot make a movie of this quality even after being the biggest film industry in the world. The direction is a study, the photography is a study, the script is a study, the plot execution (visual) is a study, and the acting is a study for each of these fields of film making.
A handsome is he who handsome does. Yo let us all escape to quality!!!
THE GREAT ESCAPE
I can just visit IMDB.COM and get the names of actors and their movie names etc., but I am a purist, I like unadulterated feelings and unadulterated emotions.
Shallow waters are for floaters, nobody is a floater here we are all divers.
Steve McQueen is bought in a military van to the new prison made especially for all those who have made many attempts to escape from German prisons. Steve McQueen gets down from the van in the new prison with his ball and catching glove and goes straight to the fence throws the ball near the outer fence checks out that it is charged with electric current and right in front of the watch tower guard, crosses the inner wired fence (warning fence) to pick up his ball, the new jailor pulls out his revolver, the watch tower guard, points his machine gun at him and the prisoners are all suddenly tense and every jail officer has their hands on their revolvers, the watch tower guard fires his gun near the feet of Steve McQueen, he is chewing his gum and the jailer announces 1 month solitary confinement (Cooler) for Steve McQueen.
The cooler is a small pen like dog house, where disobedient prisoners are sent to drill some sense in the prisoner and the daily rations are cut into half to make the person feel the pangs of hunger and get tamed. Like curfew of British Era in India, the curfew was made by British administrators in India to tame the non-cooperating Indians.
The role of devil of the prison is Steve McQueen, all the prisoners are from the allied forces meaning British and American, this story is based on the times of world war 2, this we all know was between Germany and Britain, so the prisoners are a bunch of American and British one of the Britishers is Richard Attenborough, later he became Sir Richard Attenborough, he is the organizer, his struggle is to unite all the allied prisoners into one disciplined civilized trained unit of men, he speaks to them and says we are all part of a trained military and air force, don’t divide ourselves on the pretext of laughing at each other how each of us got caught in the hands of Germans and stop trying to make individual efforts to escape, we all unite and plan like military and that may give us best chance to escape for all of us or some of us from this maximum security prison. This prison was supervised by (SS) secret service (Gestapo).
Germany under Hitler maintained 2 organized units in their national defense, one is the Nazi Army and the other is the (Gestapo) the secret service, the Nazi army was most tough as any army ever trained in the world, they overcame within a short time armies of France, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Holland, Yugoslavia and much of Europe, they reached up to st.Petersburg in Russia. Gestapo (SS) was an officer who used to report to Hitler directly or to very high commanding officers working under Hitler. No officer in this unit was more than 33 years old, so each Gestapo officer was automatically a superior or commanding officer of where ever or which ever unit he was present near, they were like roaming supervisors over the whole national defense systems of Germany.
Donald pleasance is the official forger who has vast knowledge of dyes, documents, symbols, emblems and has the keen eye to copy anything on paper in front of his be speckled eyes.
James Coburn and I don’t care a heck American, accidentally trapped in German hands, he is ready to make a buck anytime and any place the commercial man of the prisoners. He is selling Cigarettes and buying things for the escape unit. The currency of the prison is Cigarettes.
Charles Bronson, the mine specialist, he is the engineer who is given the charge of digging tunnel and securing it with wood and sticks to be wide enough tunnel for a man to crawl on his belly and pass long enough below the electric fence out in the open tree cover beyond the eyesight of the watch tower guard.
The goal is to reach Rome from inside Germany with whatever means and whatever clothes and whatever identification papers made out of the prison rations and prison supplies. Incidentally Rome was declared by all nations a neutral city for anyone wanting to escape the atrocities of war being waged in whole of Europe. Rome was then a city of refuge.
In this story the plans are shortened and so the length of the tunnel is shortened and the D DATE is brought forward and things happen when the news of commanding officer of the prison is going to be changed by Germans, the fun part is everybody pitches in their goal to escape the prison, the tunnel is dug with spoons and little metal pieces or some gardening tools cajoled out of the prison officers, the mud dug out from the tunnel is carried in trouser pockets and dropped in flower beds outside sleeping quarters, the fresh dug out mud is slowly mixed with dried outside mud by rubbing the feet tro and fro without letting the ever watchful guards know anything.
Good workable blazers are stitched with just needle and thread out of the blankets and bits and pieces of clothes found inside the prisons. The digging of tunnel sounds is camouflaged by practicing choir singing of national anthems by prisoners outside the wall of digging cabin. Everything was done in this film very efficiently.
Each simple scene is so thoroughly researched, scripted and filmed; it is a study in the art of film making for anyone and everyone in this whole world, the scene of James Coburn escaping quietly on a bicycle, the motor cycle ride of Steve McQueen, and the flight of Donald Pleasance are quiet exquisite. The escape and getting caught of Richard Attenborough and their execution by machine guns by Germans, each scene and every scene is a study into visual arts.
The film reel is not Eastman color; it is just Kodak color, still you do not feel one dull moment in this film. This film got many awards and accolades all these years, you can find out about in if you are interested. This it seems is a true story as credits of the film say in the end. Mind you the star cast was full of many super stars but no rivalry is visible anywhere between the actors inside the story of the film.
It is sad India cannot make a movie of this quality even after being the biggest film industry in the world. The direction is a study, the photography is a study, the script is a study, the plot execution (visual) is a study, and the acting is a study for each of these fields of film making.
A handsome is he who handsome does. Yo let us all escape to quality!!!
posted by smisbahuddin at 7:20 AM
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