The Great Escaper

Synopsis

The real story of Bernard "Bernie" Jordan who leaves his nursing home to visit Normandy before he dies.

Review

If you are reading this natively, I recommend you also read The Last Rifleman as it is based on the the same person, but tells a different story with a different set of emotions being pulled from you. You can also read my combined review of these two movies by reading Lessons For the Living.

This movie is a testament to love, courage, and the lessons that never leave us. Showing you the beauty of 70 years of love and knowing each other can bring out the best in you, even when you don't know it still needs to be pulled out.

Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson should win awards for this. Playing characters that show why we still consider those who lived and fought in WWII as being "The Greatest Generation." They along with the entire cast do an outstanding job of being human when we are weighed down by anger, guilt, and dotage.

This isn't a movie that was designed to show you something cool, it was designed and excels at telling you a story that will continue to reverberate throughout our history as long as we continue to lose those we feel kinship with on the battlefield.

My Rating

The central theme here is brotherhood. I don't mean that in the fraternal way, but in the way that those that share our causes are our brothers/sisters. This movie provides multiple examples of this idea that sometimes we need to reach out and help those we meet when they are in a place they cannot see a way out of. This is a must see for everyone, no matter your thoughts on any current war as that isn't the focus of this movie. The focus is love in all its different forms. This is a 10.

Parental Rating

Approved by both. It is every parents/couples dream to be the representation of Bernie and Rini Jordan in this movie. After 70 years they are still in love and still devoted to themselves. My parents have been married almost, if not 50 years and I know that they want to be like this as they continue to get older. There is limited American language, while there is a quite a bit of British cursing. No sex, no blood/gore, and violence is limited to about 2 minutes in the film, unless you count an old man letting the air out of some "tossers" bicycle since they are so absorb in themselves in which case it is about 2.5 minutes with the last 30 seconds being glorious revenge to the annoying bicyclist. It is a beautiful story that my parents would love. Approved by both.

Want to get a hold of me?
Email | [email protected]