Scene of the Week: The Great Escape

The epic World War II adventure film, The Great Escape opened in theaters on July 4, 1963. The film was directed by John Sturges and featured an all-star cast that included James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn and the “King of Cool” himself, Steve McQueen.

McQueen, who played Hilts in The Great Escape, was a known adrenaline junkie and it has been said that one condition of him agreeing to be in the film was that he’d be allowed to show off his motorcycle riding skills despite the fact that the true story the movie was based on didn’t call for any motorcycle scenes.

Fortunately for action fans around the world, the producers of The Great Escape took McQueen’s “No Motorcycle, No McQueen” ultimatum seriously, otherwise the movie just wouldn’t be the same and we would not have had this memorable scene as Hilts attempts the great motorcycle escape in this week’s Scene of the Week…