I am a retired history teacher and LOVE when films stick close to the original facts in a story. So, when I saw that the bonus disc for "The Great Escape" had this featurette about the historical aspects of the film, I was excited. However, as this short film was VERY short and spent much of the time talking about HOW the feature film was brought into being, it really didn't answer enough questions for me about how close the film was to the actual real-life escape. What they did talk about, however, was great--I just wanted so much more. If you do watch, it addresses how they combined/condensed characters for cinematic reasons, how they got the technical details of how to build a prisoner of war camp as well as why they ultimately decided to make the film in Germany.
Worth seeing but just not enough. It's part of multi-part documentary--all of which together are well worth seeing. And, fortunately, some of my complaints about needing more info about the historical accuracy WAS addressed in the second one "Preparations for Freedom".
Worth seeing but just not enough. It's part of multi-part documentary--all of which together are well worth seeing. And, fortunately, some of my complaints about needing more info about the historical accuracy WAS addressed in the second one "Preparations for Freedom".