The Great Escape (film) The Great Escape (film) The Great Escape is a 1963 American World War II epic film that depicts an escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from a German POW camp. The film stars Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough and features James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and Hannes Messemer. It was filmed in Panavision. The film is based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 book of the same name, a non-fiction first-hand account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. A heavily fictionalised
The Great Escape (film) tunnels. In 2014, the 70th anniversary of the escape, the RAF staged a commemoration of the escape attempt, with 50 serving personnel carrying a photograph of one of the men shot. In 2019, the RAF are planning another event for the 75th anniversary of the escape. There will be a screening of the film The Great Escape at London's Eventim Apollo Hammersmith hosted by Dan Snow. The film has resulted in the story and the memory of the fifty executed airmen remaining widely known, if in a distorted form. A fictional, made-for-television sequel, "", was released in 1988, with different