Love or hate "The Great Escape"?
Personally I love it. The fact that the American filmmakers managed to make a British story into a hugely popular American film without trying to make Americans the heroes was quite a trick. By putting Steve McQueen in a role that really had little to do with the main story, they gave all the young American lads (like me) someone to cheer for without departing from Brickhill's history. Besides that, it gave them a way to put a sort-of positive feeling coda on a story that was really quite depressing, without actually changing the historical end of the story... if that makes any sense.
-HM