Escape films: which is the best and, sometimes, true?
What escape from prison or concentration camp film (or escape from a country) is the best? The cool part is that some of the craziest most improbable ones actually happened!
Discuss the list here, click.
Discuss the list here, click.
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- DirectorPhilip LeacockStarsDoug McClureRene AuberjonoisRichard BasehartDuring World War II, American soldier Harry Cook is sent to Norway to aid in the defection of a scientist working on the atomic bomb for the Germans. Before they can escape Europe, they are captured and sent to a POW prison camp in a high alpine castle on the German-Swiss border. Cook must find a way to escape with the scientist before the Gestapo discover the Norwegian's true identity. Cook convinces the other prisoners to build a two person glider that can fly to Switzerland. The race is on to complete the glider before the German guards discover the plane, and the Gestapo catch up with Cook and the scientist.The Nazi castle P.O.W. prison camp, Colditz, was real. The Glider, "Colditz Cock", was real. The plan was real. But the escape attempt was never completed because after "The Great Escape" in 1944, the Nazis started severely discouraging escapes by more checks of the camps and punishing the rest of the prisoners left and executing the escapees if they caught them. However, the Colditz Castle POW prison camp has the highest number of suscessful escapes in World War 2, due to the fact that the Nazis had thought the castle was inescapable and sent all their POWs, who had previously attempted escapes from other camps, there. That part of the film, the reason why those prisoners were there, is real too.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsFrank SinatraTrevor HowardRaffaella CarràAn American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsSteve McQueenJames GarnerRichard AttenboroughAllied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.Happened
- DirectorJack LeeIan DalrympleStarsLeo GennDavid TomlinsonAnthony SteelTrue story of three British POWs and their attempt to escape from Nazi Germany.Happened
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsWilliam HoldenAlec GuinnessJack HawkinsBritish POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.Loosely based on an actual incident in World War 2.
- DirectorRoland JofféStarsSam WaterstonHaing S. NgorJohn MalkovichA journalist is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody 'Year Zero' cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million 'undesirable' civilians.Happened
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsTony CurtisSidney PoitierCara WilliamsTwo chained-together escaped convicts, White and Black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsClint EastwoodPatrick McGoohanRoberts BlossomAlcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.Happened
- DirectorStuart RosenbergStarsPaul NewmanGeorge KennedyStrother MartinA laid-back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsPaul MuniGlenda FarrellHelen VinsonWrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.Happened
- DirectorIrving PichelStarsMonty WoolleyRoddy McDowallAnne BaxterWhile traveling in France during the Nazi invasion of 1940, an Englishman is entrusted with the care of a group of refugee children.This story may be fictional. But in real life, there was an American couple, who, on two seperate trips, did this in World War 2. The husband led a group of refugee Jewish adults. The wife led a group of the refugee Jewish children out of Nazi held Europe and got them to the United States.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenJanet MargolinMarcel HillaireThe life and times of Virgil Starkwell, inept bank robber.This is my joke selection.
- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsSteve McQueenDustin HoffmanVictor JoryA French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.Happened
- DirectorMichael CiminoStarsRobert De NiroChristopher WalkenJohn CazaleAn in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsWilliam HoldenDon TaylorOtto PremingerAfter two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.Suggested by TsarStepan
- DirectorKevin ReynoldsStarsJim CaviezelGuy PearceChristopher AdamsonA young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous "friend", escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge.Suggested by TsarStepan
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsChristian BaleSteve ZahnJeremy DaviesA U.S. fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.Happened. (Suggested by TsarStepan)
- DirectorAndrey KonchalovskiyStarsJon VoightEric RobertsRebecca De MornayTwo escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.(Suggested by TsarStepan)
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsJim SturgessEd HarrisColin FarrellSiberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India.Supposedly a true story but the account has been disputed. (Suggested by TsarStepan)
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsPaul NewmanEva Marie SaintRalph RichardsonThe State of Israel is created in 1948, resulting in war with its Arab neighbors.Based on historical events. (Suggested by TsarStepan)
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJuanita BrownErica GavinRoberta CollinsIn a women's prison, a group of inmates band together to combat the repressive and abusive policies of the crippled female warden and the corrupt prison doctor.Suggested by TsarStepan
- DirectorJean-François RichetStarsVincent CasselCécile de FranceGérard DepardieuThe story of the notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine, with the focus on his life before the early 1970s and the events that led to him being declared Public Enemy No. 1 in France.Happened. (Suggested by TsarStepan)
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsKirk DouglasHenry FondaHume CronynA charming but totally ruthless criminal is sent to a remote Arizona prison. He enlists the help of his cellmates in an escape attempt with the promise of sharing his hidden loot.
- DirectorJack GoldStarsAlan ArkinJoanna PaculaRutger HauerGerman death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.Happened
(Suggested by alioth4)