The Great Escaper is a drama based on the true story of Bernard Jordan, a war veteran who made his own way to the 70th Anniversary D-Day ceremony in France.
Bernard Jordan (Michael Caine) is a 90-year-old man who lives in a nursing home with his wife, Rene (Glenda Jackson). Bernard missed out on going to France with other World War II veterans because of concerns for his wife’s health. However, with encouragement from Rene, Bernard makes a break from the nursing home and travels to France alone.
For over a decade, a steady stream of British films has been aimed at older audiences. They are usually light-hearted films with older stars like The Best Mangold Hotel movies and Quartet. We have now reached the point that there’s a sub-genre of films about pensioners doing extraordinary things, like robbing Hatton Garden, robbing the National Gallery, and walking across England. The Great Escaper was a path of this sub-genre.
The Great Escaper’s trailers initially adverted it as a fairly light-hearted film with some moments of pathos. The talents behind the camera were Oliver Parker, the director of films like the St. Tristan’s reboot, Johnny English Reborn, and the 2016 Dad’s Army movie, and it was written by William Ivory, whose previous film credit was the comedy-drama Made in Dagenham. The premise of the film sounds like it would have been a comedy-drama since it’s about an elderly man making a great escape and the authorities were trying to find him. The film starts with a comedic coating when Bernard sees a woman in his home and says he thought she was dead, and Rene was shown to be someone who was constantly joking.
It was surprising to find that The Great Escaper was a serious drama. This bait and switch made The Great Escaper feel like The Duke and Allelujah since they were dramatic films with lighter marketing. Luckily The Great Escaper was more like The Duke than Allelujah in terms of quality.
The best comparison for The Great Escaper was the Jim Broadbent film The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Both films see older men travelling on a whim and they reflect on their lives as they travelled. Bernard reflected on his wartime experience and his relationship with Rene. Bernard had been harbouring trauma from the war. He served during D-Day and reassured scared soldiers that going onto the beach would be fine, but knowing it wouldn’t be.
The film showed that the scars of war never go away. Other veterans were also struggling like Arthur (John Standing), a bomber during the war, and Scott (Victor Oshin), a veteran of the Afghan War. Both never processed their mental pain and ended up developing inappropriate coping mechanisms. A poignant moment in the film was when Bernard visited a war cemetery he broke down in tears. The Great Escaper had an anti-war leaning with a message that veterans needed better provision for their mental health. It wasn’t a film that glorified D-Day as a great triumph, nor were the Germans villainised like when Bernard met a group of German veterans in a pub in Normandy.
The heart of the film was its big selling point, its stars. The Grey Pound films often feature big-name older stars to draw in the audience and Caine and Jackson hardly need an introduction since they have won numerous awards between them. They were great together when they were alone. Caine gave one of his best performances in years as this man who finally had to confront all his pent-up pain. It was a weighty and tragic performance. Jackson was a lot of fun as an older rebel, who was mischievous and stubborn since she kept doing household tasks when she should have been resting. The film was a great swan song for the actress.
There was an excellent supporting cast. Caine lobbied the production to cast his old friend Standing, who repaid that loyalty with his top-notch performance, especially when he gave a montage about his experience of D-Day. Danielle Vitalis was also notable as Adele, a carer at the home who developed a rapport with Rene. She hints at having a troubled home life and Rene gave the younger lady some words of encouragement.
The Greatest Escaper was a noble endeavour since it aimed to show the story behind the headlines and touch on some heavy ideas. However, it was a film that was carried by its actors.
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