The Great Escape - Criterion Collection Laserdisc Preservation

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

The action-packed world of John Sturges is populated by men facing impossible odds--not invincible Hollywood heroes, but genuine, masculine characters with discernible flaws and palpable dreams. Their humanity is a reflection of the warmth of the director.

Steve McQueen stars in this classic war drama based on the book by Paul Brickhill. During World War II, a collection of hardened Allied prisoners are kept in an escape-proof German camp. Led by Big X (Richard Attenborough), the men formulate a plan for a mass breakout, digging three tunnels named Tom, Dick and Harry. The team behind the escape includes near-blind forger of passports Colin Blythe (Donald Pleasence), claustrophobic Danny Velinski (Charles Bronson) and the independent American ‘Cooler King’ (McQueen).

BLU-RAY EDITION 1963 171 MINUTES COLOR MONAURAL 2.35:1 ASPECT RATIO THE GREAT ESCAPE is under exclusive license from MGM Home Entertainment TM 2021 by MGM Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2021 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1273L. ISBN - 1-55940-168-0.

Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2021.

Elmer Bernstein, and stuntman Bud Ekins l The original theatrical trailer l Military photos of the historical Stalag Luft III prison camp, the Allied prisoners, and the German guards l Over 250 production photos l Excerpts from the script by novelist James Clavell Audio: English LPCM 1.0 / Audio Commentary Mono 1.0 Subtitles: English Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

1963

SPECIAL FEATURES l Audio commentary by director John Sturges, composer

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 95

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

The action-packed world of John Sturges is populated by men facing impossible odds--not invincible Hollywood heroes, but genuine, masculine characters with discernible flaws and palpable dreams. Their humanity is a reflection of the warmth of the director.

Steve McQueen stars in this classic war drama based on the book by Paul Brickhill. During World War II, a collection of hardened Allied prisoners are kept in an escape-proof German camp. Led by Big X (Richard Attenborough), the men formulate a plan for a mass breakout, digging three tunnels named Tom, Dick and Harry. The team behind the escape includes near-blind forger of passports Colin Blythe (Donald Pleasence), claustrophobic Danny Velinski (Charles Bronson) and the independent American ‘Cooler King’ (McQueen).

Audio: English LPCM 1.0 / Audio Commentary Mono 1.0 Subtitles: English Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

1963 171 MINUTES COLOR MONAURAL 2.35:1 ASPECT RATIO THE GREAT ESCAPE is under exclusive license from MGM Home Entertainment TM 2021 by MGM Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2021 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1273L. ISBN - 1-55940-168-0.

Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2021.

1963

SPECIAL FEATURES l Audio commentary by director John Sturges, composer Elmer Bernstein, and stuntman Bud Ekins l The original theatrical trailer l Military photos of the historical Stalag Luft III prison camp, the Allied prisoners, and the German guards l Over 250 production photos l Excerpts from the script by novelist James Clavell

BLU-RAY EDITION

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 95

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

The action-packed world of John Sturges is populated by men facing impossible odds--not invincible Hollywood heroes, but genuine, masculine characters with discernible flaws and palpable dreams. Their humanity is a reflection of the warmth of the director.

Steve McQueen stars in this classic war drama based on the book by Paul Brickhill. During World War II, a collection of hardened Allied prisoners are kept in an escape-proof German camp. Led by Big X (Richard Attenborough), the men formulate a plan for a mass breakout, digging three tunnels named Tom, Dick and Harry. The team behind the escape includes near-blind forger of passports Colin Blythe (Donald Pleasence), claustrophobic Danny Velinski (Charles Bronson) and the independent American ‘Cooler King’ (McQueen).

DVD EDITION 1963 171 MINUTES COLOR MONAURAL 2.35:1 ASPECT RATIO THE GREAT ESCAPE is under exclusive license from MGM Home Entertainment TM 2021 by MGM Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2021 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1273L. ISBN - 1-55940-168-0.

Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2021.

1963

SPECIAL FEATURES l Audio commentary by director John Sturges, composer

Elmer Bernstein, and stuntman Bud Ekins l The original theatrical trailer l Military photos of the historical Stalag Luft III prison camp, the Allied prisoners, and the German guards l Over 250 production photos l Excerpts from the script by novelist James Clavell Audio: English LPCM 1.0 / Audio Commentary Mono 1.0 Subtitles: English Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 95

Locked behind barbed wire, the men who lived The Great Escape tunneled their way toward freedom with nothing but guts, perseverance and ingenuity. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes.

They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from the German “ferrets” who prowled the compounds with nerve-wracking tenacity and suspicion.

It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than 600 men -- every single one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and every night for more than a year. Never has the human capacity been stretched to such incredible lengths or shown with as much determination and courage.

It all really happened. In the motion picture we made about it, we used as much of the actual detail of physical things and of technique as we could possibly cram in, and as many players reflecting the endless variety of character and emotion of the real men as dramatization would allow. They provided the movie with tremendous excitement, humor and upbeat vitality.

Then the way it really happened turned to terrible and brutal misfortune. Only three made it to freedom, and as an escape, this enormous effort would have to be considered a tragic failure. But this was a story about far more than trying to get 220 men to freedom. It was about freedom itself. I liked to think of it as a microcosm of why our

(collective) side won, but it was put much better by George Harsh, an American who was part of it all, in his introduction to Paul Brickhill’s book.

“It is the story of achievement against impossible odds,” he said in part.” And it proves something that I believed then and know now -- there is nothing that can stop a group of men, regardless of race, creed, color, or nationality, from achieving a goal once they agree as to what that goal is. The aftermath may be sheer, stark tragedy -- that lies with the gods -but the point is, men working together can accomplish anything . . . In one magnificent gesture the seventy-six ragged, verminous men of all nationalities who climbed out of that stinking hole in the ground in Silesia on that windy March night in 1944 thumbed their collective nose at the entire Third Reich and all it stood for. They triumphed, through the only means left to them, over an idea that was rotten from the core out.”

We tried to consolidate this indomitable spirit into the character of Virgil Hilts as, at the end of the picture, he is thrown into the “Cooler” again -unwilling even to think about defeat, much less concede it. The Great Escape was a very successful movie and I take great pride in my part in making it. But that pride is nothing compared to what I feel about having belonged to one of the societies in the world that produced men such as these.

-- JOHN STURGES

Locked behind barbed wire, the men who lived The Great Escape tunneled their way toward freedom with nothing but guts, perseverance and ingenuity. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes. They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from the German “ferrets” who prowled the compounds with nerve-wracking tenacity and suspicion. It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than 600 men -- every single one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and every night for more than a year. Never has the human capacity been stretched to such incredible lengths or shown with as much determination and courage.

It all really happened. In the motion picture we made about it, we used as much of the actual detail of physical things and of technique as we could possibly cram in, and as many players reflecting the endless variety of character and emotion of the real men as dramatization would allow.

They provided the movie with tremendous excitement, humor and upbeat vitality.

Then the way it really happened turned to terrible and brutal misfortune. Only three made it to freedom, and as an escape, this enormous effort would have to be considered a tragic failure. But this was a story about far more than trying to get 220 men to freedom. It was about freedom itself. I liked to think of it as a microcosm of why our

(collective) side won, but it was put much better by George Harsh, an American who was part of it all, in his introduction to Paul Brickhill’s book.

“It is the story of achievement against impossible odds,” he said in part.” And it proves something that I believed then and know now -- there is nothing that can stop a group of men, regardless of race, creed, color, or nationality, from achieving a goal once they agree as to what that goal is. The aftermath may be sheer, stark tragedy -- that lies with the gods -- but the point is, men working together can accomplish anything . . . In one magnificent gesture the seventy-six ragged, verminous men of all nationalities who climbed out of that stinking hole in the ground in Silesia on that windy March night in 1944 thumbed their collective nose at the entire Third Reich and all it stood for. They triumphed, through the only means left to them, over an idea that was rotten from the core out.”

We tried to consolidate this indomitable spirit into the character of Virgil Hilts as, at the end of the picture, he is thrown into the “Cooler” again -- unwilling even to think about defeat, much less concede it. The Great Escape was a very successful movie and I take great pride in my part in making it. But that pride is nothing compared to what I feel about having belonged to one of the societies in the world that produced men such as these.

-- JOHN STURGES

. All Rights Reserved.

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The Great Escape Criterion Collection - Laserdisc Preservation Great Escape, The: Special Edition #95 (1963) [CC1273L] https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/03595/CC1273L/Great-Escape-The:-Special-Edition Blu Ray - Region A/B/C DVD - Region All Audio: English LPCM 1.0 / Audio Commentary Mono 1.0 Subtitles: English Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

Artwork Criterion Blu Ray Case - Inlay 273mm x 160mm Standard Blu Ray Case - Inlay 269mm x 148mm Standard DVD Case - Inlay 272mm x 182mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Blu Ray Disc Art 115mm x 115mm