Digging for It

The Hollywood movie The Great Escape, released in 1963, almost 20 years after the World War Two exploit it purported to depict, is today remembered mostly for a bit of business that had little to do with the historical record and everything to do with an actor’s passion for motorcycles: what we remember is the apotheosis of Steve McQueen as superstar. Playing an American airman escaping from his Nazi captors, McQueen zooms about the German countryside on his bike, out-smarting and out-manoeuvring his pursuers. It is thrilling stuff. Alas, McQueen’s character does not make it to the Swiss border and is sent back to the prison camp “cooler” where his rebellious ways have made him a regular visitor. Directed by John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock) and adapted from Paul Brickhill’s 1951 wartime memoir, The Great Escape commemorated the audacious mass escape of 80 prisoners of war from Stalag Luft III on the evening and...