Summary
1942, Saxony. After an unsuccessful escape from a German
prisoner-of-war camp, captured British army officers Pat Reid and Mac
McGill are sent to Oflag IV-C, a castle prison that is reputedly
escape-proof. These latest arrivals waste no time planning their
next escape, but their efforts are thwarted by escape attempts by
prisoners of other nationalities. McGill takes the initiative and
convinces the different parties to coordinate their bids for
freedom. When several subsequent escape attempts fail, it becomes
clear that one of the prisoners is a Nazi informer...
Review
For many people, the word Colditz
sends a shiver down the spine, immediately conjuring up memories of the
unremittingly bleak television series, first broadcast by the BBC in
the early seventies, which gave a harrowing depiction of the events
described in searing detail in P.R. Reid’s WWII memoirs.
However, several years before that, Reid’s book had provided the basis
for a notable film drama, directed by Guy Hamilton, who
was himself a WWII veteran, having played an
active role in the French Resistance. Today,
Hamilton is best remembered for the four James Bond films he made,
including the classic Goldfinger
(1964), although his best work includes his war films, The Colditz Story and Battle of Britain (1969).
It is interesting to compare the BBC series, with its harsh realism, with this film, which is much lighter in tone and yet just as authentic. In the film, the recurring prison escapes become a kind of game, with each side relishing the opportunity to outwit the other. The grim reality of the situation is so downplayed that the spectator in uncertain who deserves more sympathy, the prisoners whose spirit appears to be unbreakable, or the German soldiers who have the unenviable task of keeping them in check. This is probably what makes the film’s darker sequences so effective and so shocking. What had appeared to be a harmless game suddenly assumes a more tragic aspect; it feels like you have been kicked in the stomach when sympathetic, well-drawn characters slip up and meet an abrupt, brutal end.
The Colditz Story is a compelling and suspenseful wartime drama that combines the humanity of Jean Renoir’s La Grande illusion (1937) with the downbeat humour of John Sturges’s The Great Escape (1963) and yet stands apart as an altogether different kind of P.O.W. drama. The stark, almost expressionistic, black-and-white cinematography lends an atmosphere of menace and grim foreboding that gives the setting, the apparently inviolable Colditz Castle, its own character. Meanwhile, the prisoners are portrayed not as the familiar gung-ho action heroes but as down-to-Earth servicemen who appear to be unaware of their bravery and resilience. This is a fitting tribute to those who participated in the escapes from the Nazi prisoner-of-war camps during WWII, only a small proportion of whom made it back home to tell the tale.
It is interesting to compare the BBC series, with its harsh realism, with this film, which is much lighter in tone and yet just as authentic. In the film, the recurring prison escapes become a kind of game, with each side relishing the opportunity to outwit the other. The grim reality of the situation is so downplayed that the spectator in uncertain who deserves more sympathy, the prisoners whose spirit appears to be unbreakable, or the German soldiers who have the unenviable task of keeping them in check. This is probably what makes the film’s darker sequences so effective and so shocking. What had appeared to be a harmless game suddenly assumes a more tragic aspect; it feels like you have been kicked in the stomach when sympathetic, well-drawn characters slip up and meet an abrupt, brutal end.
The Colditz Story is a compelling and suspenseful wartime drama that combines the humanity of Jean Renoir’s La Grande illusion (1937) with the downbeat humour of John Sturges’s The Great Escape (1963) and yet stands apart as an altogether different kind of P.O.W. drama. The stark, almost expressionistic, black-and-white cinematography lends an atmosphere of menace and grim foreboding that gives the setting, the apparently inviolable Colditz Castle, its own character. Meanwhile, the prisoners are portrayed not as the familiar gung-ho action heroes but as down-to-Earth servicemen who appear to be unaware of their bravery and resilience. This is a fitting tribute to those who participated in the escapes from the Nazi prisoner-of-war camps during WWII, only a small proportion of whom made it back home to tell the tale.
© filmsdefrance.com 2009
Write a review for this film...User Comments
Useful links
- Best French films of 2011
- Best French films of the 2000s
- Best of the French New Wave
- Best of French film comedy
- The best 100 French films
- The most successful French films
- Great French filmmakers
Related links
- The best British war films
- Other British films of the 1950s
- The best British films of the 1950s
- Other British war films
- Biography and films of Guy Hamilton
To buy this film
Check DVD and Blu-ray availability:
Credits
- Director: Guy Hamilton
- Script: P.R. Reid (book), Guy Hamilton, Ivan Foxwell, William Douglas-Home
- Photo: Gordon Dines
- Music: Francis Chagrin
- Cast: John Mills (Pat Reid), Christopher Rhodes (’Mac’ McGill), Lionel Jeffries (Harry Tyler), Bryan Forbes (Jimmy Winslow), Guido Lorraine (Polish officer), Witold Sikorski (Polish officer), Anton Diffring (Fischer), Richard Wattis (Richard Gordon), Ian Carmichael (Robin Cartwright), Eric Portman (Col. Richmond), Frederick Valk (Kommandant), Leo Bieber (German interpreter), Denis Shaw (Priem), Rudolph Offenbach (Dutch colonel), Theodore Bikel (Vandy), Keith Pyott (French colonel), Eugene Deckers (La Tour), David Yates (Dick)
- Country: UK
- Language: English / German / French
- Runtime: 94 min; B&W
Similar films
If you like this film you may also like the following:- A Canterbury Tale (1944)
- Carry On Up the Khyber (1968)
- Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)
- Cottage to Let (1941)
- The Devils (1971)
- Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
- The Lion in Winter (1968)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
- Night Train to Munich (1940)
- Private’s Progress (1956)
- The Spy in Black (1939)
- The Way Ahead (1944)
To buy The Colditz Story:

Drama / History / War






