The Great Escape

A notable film from 1963, The Great Escape features an all-star ensemble cast. The action takes us to a German World War II prison camp to witness a truly great escape in the making.

The screenplay is based on the true story of men who were able to escape a Nazi prison camp. It is a glamorized war film. You can expect no less from Hollywood for a film made during this time period. It is not rated, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing.

A long film of 2 hours 52 minutes, I didn’t feel that any part of it dragged. These brave and cunning men are building a tunnel to escape in the hundreds, and the ingenuity used to make this work is really extraordinary.

Hilts “The Cooler King” (Steve McQueen), although not the most important character, is always remembered in this film. McQueen’s bad boy kind of persona shines through in his role as Hilts. Also notable is Hendley “The Scrounger” (James Garner), able to sweet talk his way into obtaining any forbidden item they require in order to make the escape work. His scenes with young Nazi soldier Werner (Robert Graf) are believable, the fear of the young man in service to the Nazi’s used to Hendley’s advantage.

Liberties were taken with the story, but it is true that men escaped from this prison camp. Allied soldiers from Canada, Great Britain, and Australia, the U.S., the Netherlands, and Norway were all at the camp and participated in making the escape happen. I read that some German officers actually helped the prisoners acquire what they needed to make the escape as successful as it was. 

After you watch the film, look up The Great Escape on Wikipedia and read about the real men who inspired the film.

Have you seen The Great Escape? Did you like it? Are there other films set during the World War II era that you think are worth a watch?

The Great Escape (1963) Original Trailer

Shoplifters

Shoplifters was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2019 Academy Awards (lost to Roma). It is in Japanese with English subtitles, and is rated R for some sexual content and nudity. The film won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

This film is about family in all its permutations. Osamu Shibata (Lily Franky) has instructed his “son” Shota (Jyo Kairi) in the art of shoplifting. Also in the family is Osamu’s wife Nobuyo (Sakura Andô), Hatsue (Kirin Kiki), an elderly woman in whose home they all live, and Aki (Mayu Matsuoka), a young woman with ties to Hatsue.

One day, they come upon a girl, Yuri Hojo (Miyu Sasaki), who appears to be neglected and abused. They take her home and quickly become attached to her. Yuri relishes the attention and caring the family give her and doesn’t appear to miss her mother, who hasn’t even reported her missing. 

The Shibata family is very poor, despite Osamu’s job as a laborer, and Nobuyo’s work in an industrial laundry. Aki has a job at a “hostess” club, which is really some kind of a sex club for voyeurs. The grandmother receives a pension from her deceased husband. They cannot make ends meet, and the shoplifting in their eyes is essential to feeding and clothing all of them.

When Yuri’s mother finally reports her missing, it leads to a chain of events where secrets are revealed, and consequences paid for crimes committed. Shoplifters will make you think about what makes a family: biology or choice?

I very much enjoyed watching this film. The cinematography was beautiful, the heartbreak of the members of this makeshift family real and poignant. The performances were excellent. 

Did you see Shoplifters? Do you enjoy watching foreign films? What are some of your favorites?

Shoplifters - Official Trailer

The Bikes of Wrath

The Bikes of Wrath is a delightful documentary film about five young men from Australia who ride bicycles across the southwestern United States. Enraptured with the famous novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, they set out to bike from Oklahoma to Bakersfield, California, the same route the fictional Joad family took in their exodus from the Dust Bowl.

They undertook this trek in July. You heard me right. I live in New Mexico, and this is nothing short of foolhardy. But they persist in this 2600 km (1,612 mile) journey, taking only the same amount of money the Joad’s had with them on their trip.

This documentary was fascinating, and I’m so glad a friend asked my husband and I to go to our local art cinema to see it. It is much more than just a bike trip. Interspersed in the action are people they meet along the way reading excerpts from the novel, along with a look at how the Dust Bowl was created, as well as the hardships that followed. The people they meet are often themselves the descendants of Dust Bowl survivors. The documentary does a great job showing what this part of the United States is like culturally and economically.

The look at America through the eyes of these Australian men is enlightening, and sometimes heartbreaking. Class divides and prejudice continue to this day, not completely abolished with the passage of time.

Are you a long distance biker? Did you see The Bikes of Wrath? What did you think of the film? What other documentaries would you recommend?

The Bikes of Wrath - Trailer

The Age of Adaline

The Age of Adaline is a film about a woman who has stopped aging. There have been other films with similar storylines, but a good friend recommended it, so my husband and I watched it. I was so impressed! An unusual choice was using a narrator to fill in parts of the story that wouldn’t be explained by the characters. It works.

Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) was in a car accident at the age of 29, and mysteriously stopped aging. This created a difficult life for her in terms of relationships. Her daughter Flemming (played by Cate Richardson and then Ellen Burstyn as she grows older) goes through the aging process while her mother remains the same. It was fascinating to me that Adaline maintains the elegance of someone who was a young woman in the 1930’s. It suits her well.

Adaline has had a series of love relationships, never being able to remain in one for long due to her never growing old. She meets Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) who falls head over heels in love with her, and she reluctantly enters into a relationship with him even though she knows she’ll have to desert him eventually.

Ellis takes Adaline to his parents’ home for their 40th anniversary party. His father William (Harrison Ford) and his mother Kathy (Kathy Baker) welcome the mysterious Adaline into their home, and this is where it really gets interesting. I am not easily surprised in a film, but this development was perfect for the story.

I will not give any spoilers for this excellent film, and encourage you to watch it for yourself. The performances are stellar.The sets are outstanding, especially in the period parts of the film, and the music fits the action well. The film is rated PG-13 for a suggestive comment.

Did you see The Age of Adaline? What did you think of it? Have you seen other films where a character does not age, and how did you like them?

The Age of Adaline - Official Trailer