Finished "The Great Escape"

I was close, toward the end of the movie "The Great Escape," so I just sat and let it play out.

I hate to say anything about the end, since maybe someone else hasn't seen it. But, hey, it's over 45 years old, and not that many people read this blog anyway.

Of course I would've preferred a happier ending. It has a terrible ending, in my opinion. The problem is that it's more or less a true story. The escape and the aftermath actually happened, so there was no way to give it a decent Hollywood ending.

So you're left just admiring (I guess) their bravery and sense of duty in escaping. Never mind the terrible payoff. I have a hard time with that one. Because if they would've just sat tight in prison, they would've been OK and would've accomplished as much.

If it indeed is the "duty" of everyone to try to escape, that's fine. I'd say change the "duty." Once you're in prison, you're out of the game as far as what you're going to do "out there." Just sit tight and let the war end without you.

The building of the tunnel was quite an operation. But it seems like if you were brilliant enough to do all that work, you'd also be brilliant enough not to have it 20 feet short. Come on. I'm amazed that anyone could dig a tunnel surreptitiously, have it completely supported with wood, have a track to run a makeshift train shuttle on, have electrical lighting, and all the rest. Again, if you can do all that, you can measure the thing and make sure it's not 20 feet short!

As for being caught afterward, that was a major drag. Once you're out of the prison, your troubles have just begun.