Great Escape (Ws)Great Escape (Ws)
In 1943, the Germans opened Stalag Luft North, a maximum-security prisoner-of-war camp, designed tohold even the craftiest escape artists. In doing so, however, the Nazis unwittingly assembled the finest escape team in military historybrilliantly portrayed here by Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson and James Coburnwho worked on what became the largest prison breakout ever attempted. One of the most ingenious and suspenseful adventure films of all time, The Great Escape is a masterful
Rating:  List Price: $ 14.98 Price: $ 2.90 Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 17
In 1897, Judith Collins is released from the sanitarium and returns to Collinwood, where Gregory Trask, hoping to seize control of the Collins family wealth, plans her murder. Evan Hanley conducts a ceremony to reunite Quentin Collins’ mind with his body, which has been taken over by Count Petofi. Secretly cured of his vampirism, Barnabas Collins reappears, claiming to be a British relative. Mesmerized by Josette’s portrait, Lady Kitty Hampshire begins to believe she is Barnabas’ lost love. Whe
Rating: List Price: $ 59.98 Price: $ 23.81
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(out of 246 reviews)
Review by Michael K. Beusch for Great Escape (Ws)
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The Great Escape certainly didn’t get its due when it was released — it wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture, Director or any of the Acting awards. In fact, it was only nominated for Film Editing! It seems, however, that the film doesn’t even get its proper due today as it was not on the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Film list despite its large following.The Great Escape is certainly one of the most memorable films I’ve ever seen. The cast includes the late great Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough (Director of Gandhi), Charles Bronson, James Coburn, James Donald (Bridge on the River Kwai), Donald Pleasance and David McCallum (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.). McQueen’s performance is riveting and makes the viewer miss him all the more. Garner, who actually was a “Scrounger” during the Korean War, is terrific. It’s also particularly nice to see a performance as a good guy from Pleasance and as a human being by Bronson (sorry, but Bronson truly wasted his talent in the Death Wish movies). And in an era when studios tried to substitute backlot sets for on location filming, the POW camp, which was built on location in Germany, looks completely authentic and makes the audience sympathize with the prisoners’ plight even more. The DVD heightens the experience by presenting the film letterboxed in clear, vibrant colors. In addition, the DVD edition includes a documentary on both the real story and the making of the film. This film is a classic and the DVD edition does it great justice and makes you realize what a mistake the AFI made by excluding it from its list.Here’s to “the fifty.”
Review by for Great Escape (Ws)
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I saw The Great Escape in the fall of 1963 when I was 8 years old. In my hometown during those days moviegoing was a family affair– wear nice slacks and shirt etc. Seeing this grand movie with the macho stars on a big screen with booming sound made quite an impression on me. Steve McQueen was simply the “King Of Cool” and he became my favorite film star. This movie has transcended generations — my 18 year old son recently viewed it and he was totally engrossed in this fantastic true story of men seeking freedom under the most desperate circumstances. He agreed with me that “they don’t make em like they used to” and that most of the films today can’t hold a candle to The Great Escape.The DVD is superb — the color and picture quality is first rate — looks just like when I saw it in the fall of 1963 at the old Capitol Theatre in Rome, NY. The featurette on the making of The Great Escape is a nice feature that I never saw before.
Review by Craig MACKINNON for Great Escape (Ws)
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This is one of the all-time classic war movies. The story of how the Nazis put “all the bad eggs in one basket”: they built a special camp in which they incarcerated the Allied pilots shot down over occupied Europe who had made escape attempts from other camps. Filmed on location in Germany (although the real-life camp was in Poland), the film has an authentic feel, with quaint German cottages and the foothills of the Alps rising in the background. Add in the plethora of nationalities (there are American, English, Scottish, Polish, Aussie, and Canadian prisoners among the inmates, all with authentic accents), the well-researched uniforms and camp layout, and some great cinematography, and you have a classic WWII film that stands the test of time.The performances are outstanding. Notable examples are James Gardner as a scounger and Charles Bronson (virtually unrecognisable) as the tunnelling expert. The big name (at the time) is, of course, Steve McQueen, here his usual brash self, fleeing a German squad on a merry motorcycle chase in one of the movie’s most famous scenes. More interesting for me, however, is the care the actors, directors, and screenwriters took to set up the escape – we are brought through the division of labour in the camp, the problems that must be overcome (such as incompatible dirt colours), and the clautrophobia of digging. (This seems to be proof that 10 screenwriters can occasionally produce a good movie, in spite of Roger Ebert’s “law” that quality of a screenplay is inversely proportional to the number of people working on it.) Finally, the musical score is rousing, sombre, or lighthearted when called for. It might be a little overbearing, but no more so than in The Empire Strikes Back, for instance.The DVD quality is low, hence the 4-star rating I’m giving to the movie in this format. The picture quality is okay – clear and crisp, but the sound is not particularly good. Why is it that video is always cleaned up so much better than sound? There are few extras on the DVD, but the “Making of” featurette contains a lot of information in its 24 minutes. For example, James Garner reveals how he was a scrounger in real life for his unit in Korea, the cinematographer talks about scouting locations, building sets, etc. One of the most useful featurettes I’ve seen.
Review by Nix Pix for Great Escape (Ws)
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“The Great Escape” is a WWII story about a group of POW’s trying to escape from a German concentration camp. It stars Steve McQueen is Virgil Hilts, a American prisoner who delights in tormenting his Nazi captors with the prospect that one day he will successfully escape from their strong hold. Of course, his attempts result in his being placed in solitary confinement throughout the film. But escape plans really get underway when Big X (Richard Attenborough)plans to dig three escape tunnels under the camp. Although this plan of action is successful at temporarily outsmarting the Nazis, but with a victory that is short lived, the outstanding sequence in the film remains McQueen’s electric cross-country chase on a motorcycle. James Garder, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn and Charles Bronson round out the stellar cast.
THE TRANSFER: : Time has not been kind to the film elements. Although this 2-disc special edition DVD is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, thereby improving the over all resolution of the image, colors remain pasty and dated throughout most of the film. Flesh tones are either an unnatural looking orange or overly pink. Outdoor scenes often suffer from a muddy color scheme in which greens, browns, blacks and grays become undistiguished and filtered through a sort of milky haze. As a result, definition and fine details often suffer. There is considerable film grain present during the outdoor scenes as well as some age related artifacts. Edge enhancement is present in some of the wire and mesh detailing of the camp. Blacks are not very deep or solid. Whites are rather grayish for the most part. Truly, this is a just barely middle of the road visual presentation. The audio has been remixed to 5.1 but the dialogue remains hollow and strident sounding. The music has a better spread but it too seems to lack in tonal bass.
EXTRAS: Some very fine short featurettes narrated by Burt Reynolds that (for the life of me) I can’t figure out, why they weren’t woven into one comprehensive documentary. There’s also another 60 min. documentary that was previously available on the non-anamorphic DVD release. Some theatrical trailers, a stills gallery and an audio commentary round out the extras.
BOTTOM LINE: “The Great Escape” is a genuine classic and it comes highly recommended. But the transfer remains something of a disappointment, although it is a marked improvement over the original DVD release.
Review by M for Great Escape (Ws)
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I have rented this film several times. Unfortunately the rental companies such as Netflix don’t always have this great latest edition. There will never be another film such as The Great Escape. It would be a mistake to even try. Actually shot in Germany with an international cast. A cast of stars such as never have been seen in one motion picture. Especially of interest to me was the extras. Many of the cast members have passed away since this edition was put out That there words are on this DVD is a much appreciated plus..
Almost as interesting as the film is the commentary and exras. Being a long time fan of David MCCallum (now on CBS network NCIS), I was especially interested in his comments. Absolutely fascinating.
Maybe the motor cycle scene was put in for entertainment purposes. Wasn’t it a great moment! Did you know Steve McQueen played his own part and several of the Nazi’s on motorcycles.
Finally the Great Escape is based on a true story. This will tell you the reality from the fiction.
This is the edition to buy! They shouldn’t remake it. They couldn’t possibly make one as great as this!
Review by E. Hornaday for Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 17
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This box set, representing 40 episodes of the fabulous gothic soap opera Dark Shadows ironically concludes one of its most popular story arcs and begins one of its least popular ones.
For many episodes the core cast of the series has been portraying their own relatives and other characters in the Collinwood of 1897, after Barnabas Collins goes back in time using secrets from the mystical Chinese practice of the I Ching, or Book of Changes. Barnabas travelled back in time to save young David Collins living in modern-day (1960s) Collinwood who was being menanced by the ghost of Quentin Collins.
The introduction of Quentin, portrayed brillantly by David Selby, was a high mark for the show and rejuvinated its fan base. The story involving Quentin has all of the elements that made Dark Shadows a true classic, resulting in these DVD releases of its five-year run — the only soap opera in history to have such treatment.
The plot revolved around Quentin and a werewolf curse that was placed on him by a grieving gypsy, Magda Rocozzi (portrayed with memorable gusto in an Emmy-calibre performance by Grayson Hall), who blamed him for the death of her sister who was Quentin’s wife. The plot became more complicated with the arrival of the sinister Count Andres Petoffi (also protrayed with brilliance by core cast member Thayer David), who possessed supernatural powers and was being hunted by the gypsies.
To escape the gypsy threat forever, Petoffi, whose power primarily rested in one of his hands, plotted to travel to the year 1969, from whence Barnabas came, after forcibly switching bodies through supernatural means with Quentin.
In this box set of episodes, Petoffi is foiled and is apparently killed in a fire during a life-and-death struggle with the ghost of the warden of Dartmore Prison, who Petoffi brought to life to successfully dispatch his former servant, Aristede.
The witch Angelique, portrayed by Lara Parker, who placed the curse of the vampire on Barnabas 100 years prior, actually helps him defeat Petoffi in episodes included in this box set.
Quentin, whose curse is being held at bay by a supernatural portrait of himself, leaves Collinwood and moves to New York City to join his love, Amanda Harris. He is earlier devastated by the accidental death of Beth Chavez who falls from Widows’ Hill when fleeing from Quentin whom she erroneously believed was Petoffi.
Barnabas, who goes back farther in time to prevent the death of the love of his life, Josette, is suddenly captured by two robbed figures representing the Loviathan people who appear with an altar that depict a multi-headed serpent called the Naga.
Thus begins a story line that will consume far too many episodes. Similar to Damien in the Omen, Dark Shadows ends up with its own demon seed, an inhuman being that grows to adulthood in weeks and can change from man to beast and represents pure evil. The story introduces actor Chris Pennock, who portrays the adult demon, and who stays with the show playing other characters until its cancellation.
This box set also brings back talented character actor Dennis Patrick, who had earlier in the series protrayed Jason McGuire, a “friend” of the long-lost husband of the show’s matriarch, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (played by famed movie actress Joan Bennett.) In the classic Dark Shadows’ tradition of a notable cast twist, Patrick now portrays that long-lost husband, Paul Stoddard!
Review by P. Ambrose for Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 17
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These four discs are so hot they scream play me over! From this amazing serial these are some of the wicked and twisted highlights. Figuring out who is posessing this character in this time period while backstabbing the young man that now has his old eccentric gypsy body – and all the complicated motivations – this is a television joy ride. Until “Lost” – nothing on television ever commanded so much viewer faith. The writer’s took an icredibly large story arc and created an amazing and absorbing, time traveling, supernaturally romantic story – this set has some of the best episodes.
Review by Chloe for Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 17
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It’s amazing I’m the only one that seems to be displeased with MPI’s shoddy packaging of the Dark Shadows series. I have had to send for replacements of my DVD sets countless times throughout the past couple of months. I don’t like the way they cram the DVDs in frail holders which constantly has resulted in the tabs coming loose & falling in the case. The tabs which contain the DVDs are NOT secure & I’ve been discovering more & more that there are usually a couple of tabs missing.
I LOVE Dark Shadows & have been very pleased with the packaging & care put into collections 1-14. Unfortunately MPI seems to have laxed since then & have shown little regard for how they package & market these sets. The trouble had began with volume 15 onwards & I’ve been having trouble ever since. DVDs become dislodged & slide back & forth within the case due to their ever-broken holder tabs. I can’t tell you how many discs have been badly scratched on account of this! This is NOT a result of the DVDs journey to me, it’s most certainly due to MPI.
I read that Amazon had discontinued their line of volumes 1-8 from (Dark Shadows) *The Beginning* series for awhile (they’ve since started issuing them again) as customers complaints were very similar to mine of the inferior care put in to their DVD sets.
I’m very upset that MPI is cheap in their care of marketing these sets & felt compelled to pass my experience with this matter along to others who may be experiencing the same trouble.
Review by Violet J. Flach for Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 17
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Dark Shadows remains my favorite television show. I watched it years ago but never got to see all of it because I was going to school when it was on. Now that I am a senior, I have purchased the DVD’s and totally got hooked once again. I highly recommend the entire run.
Review by Ibsen Freak for Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 17
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A wonderfully addictive program- and if you’re reading this, you’re probably as addicted to Dark Shadows as I am. However, the interview with George DiCenzo has got to go- this man is hyper arrogant and self obsessed and is probably one of the most sickening examples of self glorification I have ever seen. His self promoting diatribes are painful to watch. Why doesn’t Count Petofi silence this guy?