Rent The Great Escaper (2023)

Watchable Heart-warm True-Story WWII Veteran Britflick with the great Michael Caine & Glenda Jackson - The Great Escaper review by PV

There is a certain breed of British film director who has started often as an actor for the BBC and gone on to direct (back when white males were allowed on BBC training schemes) and then who make these sort of low-budget twee British films often with BBC/BFI/Lottery money. Like SWIMMING WITH MEN, MADE IN DAGENHAM and more, made by some of the same team.

The films that result are fine for what they are - TV-drama-style films, heart-warming of course, family viewing, mildly amusing, often with a heartwarming MESSAGE rammed home throughout, with some huggy teary lovey-dovey happy-sad poignant ending - but these days sadly distracted from the story by an obsession to tick the diversity boxes (as demanded by BAFTA diversity worship quotas - which I am SO against, ALL such race quotas are racist, The end).

So what is the film like? Predictable, safe, twee - does what it says on the tin. Michael Caine is a great actor and steals every scene. I've never been a fan of Glenda Jackson BUT fans will enjoy what may have been her last film. Nothing wrong with it. Based on a true story, embellished of course. SO there we are. MAYBE good for educating kids re the Second World War.

One thing annoyed me. In the last 15 years I have visited many hospitals and care homes thanks to family illness/age. I have never ever met a black British care worker, Not once, African immigrant nurses and care workers, yes. Many Asian ones, loads from Thailand and the Philippines. Some East Europeans. No black British. But the BAFTA diversity standards mean of course they cast a black British woman as care worker.

And the disabled solider helping the veterans is a black British guy too - and there were a SMALL number in Afghanistan but they are a small % in the army, so maybe do some research, film makers, and be more realistic. Sadly, this diversity worship parachuted tickbox casting is standard now. Just watch TV, the adverts and drama. Sigh. BUT at least they did not go full woke and cast BAME actors on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 (though they sneak one into a Swing dance. Hmm. Just about possible, if a GI, maybe, though US army units had segregation...BUT only 6000 blacks in the UK in 1939 out of 44 million population, so not many British blacks in UK armed forces, though of course there were separate West Indian battalions and in Asia, the Indian ones, Muslim-only or Hindu-only or Sikh-only, I think. DO THE MATH, as the Americans might say). It COULD have been much worse though...and is, in other films.

So watchable but all everso smug and dare I say it, lazy - take a true story and write it up for a state-funded low profile British film.

Michael Caine is great though, age 90. This may well be his last film.

Sad to think that the breaks he got in his day would now not be open to him as a white British working class boy, HOW MANY who look and sound like him are on TV drama or adverts or British films? Equality and diversity in action means racism/sexism against working class white boys. Such racist sexist hypocrisy, BAFTA-sanctioned, using public money, Shameful.

3 stars. Lost one for diversity worship but gained it back for the cyclist scenes with Caine - no spoilers but that was GREAT!

Sweet and uplifting - The Great Escaper review by CG

Great performances and I feel good that I've seen Glenda Jackson's final film. All the main characters were outstanding. 

Jackson's swansong performance is perfect in a powerful & redemptive, unsentimental & gentle story - The Great Escaper review by TB

After decades as actors, with many stunning & iconic performances between them, Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson both end in a beautifully realised & quietly powerful film based on the true story of Bernard Jordan. Jordan, a Royal Navy veteran of WWII, "escaped" from his care home to attend the Commemorations in France, after the special organised trips of veterans he wanted to go on had been fully booked. The film looks at not only his trip, but also the support & love of his wife Rene, as well as the PTSD he continued to suffer, haunting him.

As a gentle & extremely sensitively made film, this is easy watching, whilst dealing with profoundly distressing & deeply scarring trauma, a real achievement in storytelling. None of the different scenes felt "set up," and a few times, the outcomes genuinely surprised me. For many people, the scene which will stay with them is the encounter that Jordan has with some German veterans, including one who will have been shooting at him on the D-Day landings. The way this scene is handled & written is absolutely flawless, in no way becoming the "Let's all hug each other & sing Kumbaya" scenario which in the wrong or disingenuous hands it could so, so easily have become.

However for me the most powerful scene, which really impacted me, was one which was (combined,) only a few minutes of screen time: a young soldier who had been severely injured & lost a leg in a present day conflict. When we first meet him he is enthusiastic & happy, then later on he is intoxicated & almost violent, then finally he goes to say goodbye to Jordan & is contrite, as well as saying how much he admires him. Halfway through saying this, Jordan forcefully stops him & then says "Get some help, because you're a mess." Something so simple, but handled so well. Huge credit & praise must go to Victor Oshin for creating so strong a character in the space of a couple of minutes.

Whilst Michael Caine will have been the main draw for many, this is empathically Glenda Jackson's film. Passing away 9 months after filming wrapped, you feel in some small way that she knew that this was going to be her last performance. And she puts everything into this role. Rene is a strong, vulnerable & emotional person, dedicated to her husband whilst also being the driving force behind him having the courage to go & fulfill the thing he has wanted to do for decades. Their love for each other shone out through the screen, especially in the final lovely moments.

And the best thing about this film is that, especially in the world we have today, it's message is one of forgiveness & reconciliation. Every single person, irrelevant of which "side" they were on, is a human. And the overwhelming number of these people sent to fight in WWII were practically kids. The damage & trauma is incalculable, made worse by the fact that the war to end all wars didn't in any way achieve that.

The Great Escaper is a plea to stop the conflict & horrific slaughter, anchored by 2 performances from two of our greatest actors in their final curtain calls. Magnificent drama.