The film has a huge and amazing cast. Naturally, considering the nationalities involved in the real war, the cast manages to include both Americans and Brits (although there aren't too many that I could see who were from other countries, except for enemy Germans). Steve McQueen and James Garner are top-billed. James Coburn and Charles Bronson are also here, and play non-Americans (an Australian and a Pole, respectively). And, of course, many respectable Brit performers appear, from Richard Attenbourgh (before he became a director), to James Donald (The Bridge on the River Kwai), Donald Pleasance (Halloween and many other B-horror movies), and Gordon Jackson , better known on TV as the butler Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs. As well, there are many other small roles filled by people whom I don't recognize....in short, this is a pretty large film.
All of these people come together because they are all extraordinary escape artists; a few of them have attempted escape nearly twenty times. The German commandant in charge of the camp jokes that they are putting all the rotten eggs into one basket, but he and the rest of the Army apparently never thought of what dozens and dozens of like-minded people could get up to when shacked up in one place together. Even after only a few minutes in the camp, a few guys try without success to cleverly sneak out, and that single-mindedness will carry on throughout this story. That single-mindedness also applies to McQueen's character, who seems to occupy a special place in the German military's hearts, as he gets special escort to the camp, and upon committing an infraction is thrown into the "cooler" -- basically a building for the purposes of solitary confinement -- for a week or two, although this is nothing compared to the "oven" in which the Japanese of The Bridge on the River Kwai tossed Alec Guinness in.
