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Name: The Great Escape
Director: John Sturges
Genre: adventure, drama, war
Released: 1963
Duration: 2 h 53 min
Rating: 8.2

The Great Escape has an iRankMovies score of 85.6/100, based on a weighted combination of IMDb (×3.0), Rotten Tomatoes (×2.0), Metacritic (×1.5), and TMDb (×1.0).

The Great Escape (1963)

Put a fence in front of these men... and they'll climb it!

Release:1963

Runtime:2h 53m

Country:United States

Director:John Sturges

Language:English

Genre

AdventureDramaWar

See the best adventure movies →

Keywords

PrisonUniformSwastikaPrisonerBased On Novel Or BookNaziEscapeOptimism

iRank86

The Great Escape rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb8.2/10· 276K votes

Rotten Tomatoes94%

Metacritic86%

TMDb7.924/10· 3K votes

With 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 8.2/10 on IMDb and 86/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About The Great Escape

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

Cast of The Great Escape

Steve McQueen
as Hilts 'The Cooler King'
James Garner
as Hendley 'The Scrounger'
Richard Attenborough
as Bartlett 'Big X'
James Donald
as Ramsey 'The SBO'
Charles Bronson
as Danny 'Tunnel King'
Donald Pleasence
as Blythe 'The Forger'
James Coburn
as Sedgwick 'Manufacturer'
Hannes Messemer
as Von Luger 'The Kommandant'
David McCallum
as Ashley-Pitt 'Dispersal'
Gordon Jackson
as MacDonald 'Intelligence'
John Leyton
as Willie 'Tunnel King'
Angus Lennie
as Ives 'The Mole'

The Great Escape facts

Budget: $4M
Box office: $11.7M
Collection: The Great Escape Collection

Our take on The Great Escape

John Sturges's 1963 classic gathers Allied POWs into an audacious mass breakout from a Nazi camp, balancing ingenious tunnel-digging tension with rousing camaraderie and one unforgettable motorcycle dash. Big, entertaining and based on a true story, it's the ultimate escape adventure. If its blend of suspense and high spirits gripped you, seek out classic war adventures and prison-break thrillers built on ingenuity and grit.

Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026Methodology Data sources

Audience opinions

What the audience liked

•Audacious heist mechanics create tension and thrills throughout entire runtime
•Ensemble cast delivers spirited performances with ensemble camaraderie charm
•Sturges balances humor and adventure without compromising dramatic stakes

What the audience disliked

•Episodic escape sequence structure occasionally repeats familiar narrative beats
•Period warfare elements feel distant from modern audience emotional experience

Saga: The Great Escape Collection