Great Escape

Nov 16, 2004

★ 6.0

Overview

The real Great Escape didn't feature Steve McQueen racing through the Third Reich on a motorcycle like in the 1963 movie, but the big breakout was still thrilling in every way. This program sheds new light on the audacious escape of 76 Allied airmen from a Nazi POW camp during World War II.

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

NOVA

Great Escape Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator

Richard Donat

Himself - Reporter

Robert Krulwich

May 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre. Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy.

6.7

Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers

Feb 14, 2008

Documentary about filmmakers of the New German Cinema who were members of the legendary Filmverlag für Autoren (Film Publishing House for Authors). Among them are Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Wim Wenders.

6.9

The Man Who Cracked the Nazi Code: The Story of Alan Turing

Jun 6, 2014

During the Second World War, the allies' key objective was to crack the German army's encrypted communications code. Without a doubt, the key player in this game was Alan Turing, an interdisciplinary scientist and a long-forgotten hero.

7.2

The Bloody Hundredth

Mar 14, 2024

Meet the real-life airmen who inspired Masters of the Air as they share the harrowing and transformative events of the 100th Bomb Group.

6.3

Saints and Soldiers

Sep 11, 2003

Five American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.

7.5

Empire of the Sun

Dec 9, 1987

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

7.1

Cross of Iron

Jan 29, 1977

It is 1943, and the German army—ravaged and demoralised—is hastily retreating from the Russian front. In the midst of the madness, conflict brews between the aristocratic yet ultimately pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the courageous Corporal Steiner. Stransky is the only man who believes that the Third Reich is still vastly superior to the Russian army. However, within his pompous persona lies a quivering coward who longs for the Iron Cross so that he can return to Berlin a hero. Steiner, on the other hand is cynical, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the safety of his own men rather than the horde of military decorations offered to him by his superiors.

5.7

Breakthrough

Mar 1, 1979

Starting in late May 1944, during the German retreat on the Eastern Front, Captain Stransky (Helmut Griem) orders Sergeant Steiner (Richard Burton) to blow up a railway tunnel to prevent Russian forces from using it. Steiner's platoon fails in its mission by coming up against a Russian tank. Steiner then takes a furlough to Paris just as the Allies launch their invasion of Normandy.

0.0

Ich. Immendorff

May 31, 2007

Documentary film about the painter and sculptor Jörg Immendorff who ranks among the most important German artists. The filmmakers accompanied Immendorff over a period of two years – until his death in May 2007. The artist had been living for nine years knowing that he was terminally ill with ALS. The film shows how Immendorff continued to work with unabated energy and how he tried not to let himself be restrained by his deteriorating health.

6.1

De Gaulle

Mar 4, 2020

Paris, June 1940. The de Gaulle couple is confronted with the military and political collapse of France. Charles de Gaulle joins London while Yvonne, his wife, finds herself with her three children on the road of the exodus.

6.9

Goodbye Bafana

Feb 11, 2007

The true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela.

7.6

Memoirs of a Geisha

Dec 6, 2005

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

7.2

The Diary of Anne Frank

Mar 18, 1959

The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

7.2

A Bridge Too Far

Jun 15, 1977

The story of Operation Market Garden—a failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.

0.0

The American Invasion

Feb 23, 2015

In January 1942, the order activating the 'US Air Forces in the British Isles' was announced. On 12th May, the first contingent of USAAF personnel arrived in England, the beginnings of what was to become the largest air force in the world. The British people had never seen anything like them. Michael Brandon (Dempsey and Makepeace) presents the story of the courageous young Americans who fought the war from the foreign fields of eastern England. And of the local populations who welcomed them, resented them, admired and loved them. "The American Invasion" provides a powerful record of a momentous period in American and British history.

7.2

Three Minutes: A Lengthening

Dec 2, 2022

The story of the only three minutes of footage —a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938— showing images of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk (Poland) before the beginning of the Shoah.

5.9

Shooting War

Dec 7, 2000

A remarkable film that takes a special look at the first war to be truly reported and recorded by one of the more unsung heroes of World War II: the combat photographer. Through the unflinching eye of their camera's lenses, these courageous soldiers continually risked their lives in their brave attempts to capture history.

7.0

The Zone of Interest

Dec 15, 2023

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

8.0

Once My Mother

Jul 24, 2014

Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz investigates why her Polish mother abandoned her and uncovers the truth behind her mother's wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, leaving Sophia to confront her own capacity for forgiveness.

4.0

Liberators Take Liberties

Feb 22, 1992

Helke Sander interviews multiple German women who were raped in Berlin by Soviet soldiers in May 1945. Most women never spoke of their experience to anyone, due largely to the shame attached to rape in German culture at that time.

Great Escape

Overview

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Great Escape Trailers