Listen to this podcast on the supposedly TRUE story of the Great Escape. The guy who teaches Radio Communications for our high school shared this with me. After several heated questions, "Are you SURE the story was originally based on a Nazi escape? Did you research this story at all? Have you even seen the movie?" he assured me that the movie was based on German POWs in Arizona. I didn't even know there were POW camps in Arizona!Here's the podcast:
The Memory Palace: Dig, Set, Spike
6 comments:
Haven't listened to it yet, but as a student of POW escapes, I'm familiar with the story. A nice feat but really, no one in the US gave a damn if they escaped or not. Security was lax and the prisoners knew they wouldn't be shot at if they got out.
So it doesn't bother you that the ingenuity of the escape was devised by Nazi soldiers and Hollywood re-wrote the story because we wouldn't sympathize with Nazi POWs?
If you listen to the story, it talks about the prisoners building a volleyball court, dumping and mixing the dirt around as they boisterously played. Argh! Nazis! I wanted this talent to be American!
USA! USA! USA!
Wow, it is interesting. I'm not really giving the Nazi's much credit as once they dug the tunnel they'd still be 6000 miles from Germany. At least our POW's had a chance at a closer country.
Nah, Hollywood didn't rewrite it. The British, with one or two Americans, did it first in a WWII camp in Poland.
Best fact about the great escape movie: they were short on guys who could ride motorcycles, so Steve McQueen is actually one of the soldiers chasing ...Steve McQueen.
Yawn.
I love that Steve Mc Queen comment!! Face it, Great Escape one movie that you can't stop watching once you start.
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