History Film / TheGreatEscape

-->'''Bartlett''': The hell differences does it make? It's happened.

-->'''Mac''': "How could that happen? The surveyor took his-"
-->'''Bartlett''': "The hell differences does it make? It's happened.

-->'''Cavendish''': This is my uniform. I had to recut it when I lost weight. I dyed it with a bottle of boot polish to cover some oil smears I picked up when I was shot down.

--> '''Dietrich''': Fake forge papers and identity cards. Don't be so stupid.

* GuileHero: The Allied [=POWs=] obviously need to be smart, because being overly brass and confrontational may be rewarded with a visit to the cooler or a bullet to the back. Hendley the scrounger stands out among them.

** Ives in the cooler. Ives suffers a second one during the 4th of July celebration, [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide which leads to his suicide]]]].
* HeroicSacrifice: While waiting to pass through a Gestapo investigation checkpoint at a train station, Bartlett is spotted and recognized by Kuhn, one of Gestapo agents who had Barlett transferred to Stalag Luft III, but Lt. Cmdr. "Dispersal" Ashley-Pitt notices this and shoots him before he can take action. He immediately gets gunned down by the SS officers investigating the passengers

* IHaveMyWays: When asked where he got his hands on a copy of almost every Nazi identity paper possible, the scrounger Hendley response is that it's on loan. When asked about numerous fabrics he acquired for the tailors, his response is DontAsk. Actually that seems to be his usual answer for almost everything.

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: While it's not confirmed, one of the German officers seems to use an Arminius Revolver at the train station, they were not invented until 1960.

** At one point in the film, after quickly hiding the entrance to the tunnel [[spoiler: they later escape through,]] a guard specifically questions three of the [=POWs=] what they're doing there so late. (They, of course, lie) [[spoiler: Those same three prisoners, Sedgwick, Danny, and Willie, are incidentally the only three prisoners to make it into neutral territory, a 'home run,' so to speak.]]
** A few of the guys are upset when they sees the large suitcase that Sedgwick has elected to take with him through the tunnel, seeming to think it's impractical and might ruin his escape. [[spoiler:Sedgewick ends up being one of the few who actually gets away.]]
* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: Ramsey has a notable limp, and knows full well he'll never be part of the escape.

* LaResistance: The 'X' organization that arranges the titular escape, part of their goal is to disrupt Nazi operations by forcing them to start a manhunt for the escaped prisoners. Sedgwick is aided by members of the French Resistance movement after escaping and making it to France. They protect him from a drive-by shooting of Nazi officers and ultimately help him make his way to Spain.

-->'''Kuhn:''' If you escape again, and be caught. You will be shot.
* LastNameBasis: Everyone except Roger, Colin, Danny and Willy. Hendley and Mac also address each other as 'Bob' and 'Andy' respectively in a single scene.

* LetXBeTheUnknown: The resistance organisation is called the X organisation. Its leader is called Big X. TruthInTelevision: Security, obviously, was an issue, and calling something the X Organization would give no clues to its purpose. Same concept was used in naming the three tunnels Tom, Dick, and Harry.
* TheLoad: Bartlett insists on not taking Blythe along for fear he might become this due to his poor vision. Hendley offers to watch after Blythe and Blythe manages to avoid slowing them down for the most part, although he does wind up getting himself killed.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: The 50 are reported as "shot while escaping" and unlike the real thing, none of them are wounded. The allied prisoners are not fooled by the [[BlatantLies obvious lie]] and even von Luger is ashamed by the murders. (This was even more in play in real life, as the prisoners were shot a few at a time rather than one mass execution to further the fiction that they'd been trying to escape.)

** The spirited, mischievous and almost jovial first day of the Allies in the camp is counterpointed by the somber, grim and grizzled looks of the Russian prisoners used as [[WorkingOnTheChainGang forced labor]]. Even a death march is played during this scene.

* PatrioticFervor: The three American prisoners organize a festive, goodnatured 4th of July celebration, where with tongue-in-cheek [[BraveScot Mac]] agrees to Hilts' "Down the British!". Early on, Werner tries to use the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812 as a wedge between the British and Hendley, who dismisses it as propaganda.

** Bartlett and [=MacDonald=] sit directly across from two SS officers while on the train going away from the camp, and pass completely unnoticed until they reach they get off the train and are spotted by a Gestapo agent who knows Bartlett personally at the station checkpoint.

* SecurityBlindspot: Shortly after being transferred to Stalag Luft III, Captain Hilts observes the placement of the guard towers and realizes that they have a blind spot on a particular stretch of fence, and demonstrates it by hiding from them there. He is spotted by a patrolling guard, gets warning shots from another tower and is finally tossed in the cooler.

** Colin's love of ornithology provides yet another method for the prisoners to conceal their activities (in Colin's case, the forgery workshop) right underneath the Nazis' noses.

* FastTunnelling: The film at least shows a bit of the logistics: Where do you put the dirt you dig out from the ground, how do you make sure the tunnel won't collapse, and where do you get the materials to stabilize it [[note]]not to mention what happens when you don't[[/note]]? Especially if you're watched by Nazi soldiers.

* PrisonEscapeArtist: The inhabitants of the Nazi prison camp are the best escape artists among captured Allied soldiers, and Roger Bartlett (AKA "Big X") is the best organizer of escape attempts among them.

* ThwartedEscape: Painfully. Hendely and Colin have several of them including the train jump, and the attempted theft of the aircraft, although the real escapees didn't manage to start it and were caught on the ground. Roger Bushell had, by his own account, crossed over the Swiss border and back into Germany, through becoming lost in the dark, during a previous escape. The lorry theft is another. At one point the POW leaders allow the Americans to try an easily thwarted escape just so the Germans don't get suspicious of their bigger planned escape.

* CoveringForTheNoise: The prisoners of war disguise the noise they are making whilst mining out a tunnel, by having a couple of stooges drive a giant stake into the ground outside as mentioned above, in full view of the Nazi guards. They later switch to choir practice right outside.

The film is largely accurate but [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] added a historical American character, and, for security reasons, omitted all mention of the help the escapees received from outside the camp. It also contains a series of continuity errors relating to the real-life segregation of American prisoners part-way through the tunnel digging; Hilts is given a couple of lines which are references to this (based on the book) while he, for no explained reason, is left there. The other American prisoners do not appear, so the whole thread is meaningless in context.

** The whole issue about the camp being full of escapers is this. In real life, the "bad boys" were sent to the Colditz prison; the name "Stalag Luft" signifies a camp for Air Force officers, which virtually all pilots and most aircrew were. The later [=NCOs=] were simply lumped in with the rest. Stalag Luft III was actually a much bigger complex than the film depicts.

* AlasPoorVillain: Von Luger's villainhood is [[PunchClockVillain mild]] in the first place, especially compared to the Gestapo, but in any case he leaves the picture with respectworthy dignity -- the implication being he's going to be sent to [[ReassignedToAntarctica the Russian Front]], court-martialed, [[YouHaveFailedMe or worse]], and that things will go FromBadToWorse for the [=POWs=][[note]]The real commandant, Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau, was an ardent anti-Nazi who only joined the Lufwaffe out of a sense of patriotism toward his country, and then tried to retire due to poor health before being put in charge of the camp. He would have been court-martialed in the wake of the escape, but feigned mental illness and was eventually taken prisoner by the British while commanding an infantry unit in the Polish town of Sagan. After the war, when the massacre of the 50 was being prosecuted, he was defended by the freed camp prisoners as an honorable man who followed the Geneva Convention scrupulously, and had the respect of the senior Allied officers in the camp. He provided evidence in the trials, and was eventually repatriated.[[/note]].

** The movie also removes a large amount of help the prisoners obtained from the Allied Intelligence services, which sneaked information and some gear through the Red Cross care packages. Some of this information was classified at the time the movie was made.

* CoveringForTheNoise: The prisoners of war disguise the noise they are making whilst mining out a tunnel, by having a couple of stooges drive a giant stake into the ground outside, in full view of the Nazi guards. [[PlotHole What excuse the stooges had on hand to satisfy any inquisitive Nazis is anyone's guess.]] They later switch to choir practice right outside.

** An early scene has SBO Ramsey tell Oberst Von Luger to his face that he ''will'' be attempting to prove the Germans wrong about the camp being escape-proof, as is his sworn duty as a POW officer.

* DescriptionCut: Bartlett and other leaders decide that Hilts and Ives can go ahead with their quicker and less elaborate escape plan; their reasoning is that a lack of escape attempts might make the Germans suspicious, but they also concede that Hilts's plan is clever enough to actually work. On the other hand, Ramsey notes, if it ''doesn't'' work Hilts and Ives are going to be in the Cooler for a while. Immediately cut to Hilts and Ives, covered in dirt, being led back to prison.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: After delivering Roger to Von Luger, Gestapo Agent Kuhn leaves, but not before telling Roger what will happen should he make another escape.
-->'''Kuhn:''' If you escape again, and be caught. You will be shot.

** The escape took place during a bitterly cold March. The entire area was covered in snow.

* SecurityBlindspot: Shortly after being transferred to Stalag Luft III, Captain Hilts observes the placement of the figuard towers and realizes that they have a blind spot on a particular stretch of fence, and demonstrates it by hiding from them there. He is spotted by a patrolling guard, gets warning shots from another tower and is finally tossed in the cooler.

* SecurityBlindspot: Shortly after being transferred to Stalag Luft III, Captain Hilts observes the placement of the guard towers and realizes that they have a blind spot on a particular stretch of fence, and demonstrates it by hiding from them there. He then deliberately gets caught before the guards can realize his discovery, and is tossed in the cooler.

* BackhandedApology: When inspecting the prisoners tend to their alleged 'gardens' The pause in Colonel von Luger's "I am sorry the soil is not better suited... for you men's purpose" apology to Big X raises Eric's suspicions that von Luger may be aware that they're not using the soil for the gardens. [[spoiler: It's likely he wasn't. ]]

** After Hilts details his and Ives' escape plan, Mac's reaction is that it's "so stupid it's positively brilliant". Unfortunately, it still doesn't work.

* BlindMistake: Hendley is tipped off to Colin's deteriorating vision when Colin mistakes him for Roger.

** Von Luger respects his prisoners as fellow soldiers and officers doing their duty and fighting for their country.
** In the book, it's noted that he was the one who pulled the strings to get Bartlett sent back to Stalag 3, rather than being killed, stating that [[MyCountryRightOrWrong the Gestapo don't represent Germany]].

* PatrioticFervor: The three Americans organize a festive, goodnatured 4th of July celebration, where with tongue-in-cheek [[BraveScot Mac]] agrees to Hilts' "down the British!" Early on, Werner tries to use the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812 as a wedge between the British and Hendley, who dismisses it as propaganda.

* DrivenToSuicide: Ives.