The One That Got Away

A film set in Britain during the Second World War. Franz is a pilot in the German air force. His aircraft is brought down and he is taken prisoner in England. He is interrogated. What he says about himself is inflated; the British officers try to work out how much of it he has invented. He is sent to a camp. He tries to escape. During a march he jumps behind a wall and hides. He is caught. He is sent to another camp. This time they dig a tunnel and he gets out. He goes to an airfield. He presents himself as a Dutch pilot, gets into an aircraft, and tries to start the engine. He is caught again. From there the film moves him to Canada. The prisoners are shipped over and during the train journey he jumps from a window. There is snow. He walks towards the American border, and at that point America has not entered the war. What the narrative is interested in is not heroism but obstinacy: the film does not make Franz sympathetic; he is arrogant, a liar, and concerned only with himself. The narrative gives him no political background. Why he fights and what he believes are never asked, and that is its most argued-over choice. The form is dry. Little music, plain telling, and unshowy escape scenes. For a British production to put a German character at the centre was unusual at the time. The source is a real case and the man became a known name after the war. Hardy Krüger, Colin Gordon and Michael Goodliffe are in the cast. Roy Ward Baker directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes quiet war films and escape narratives. Who it is not for: anyone looking for an emotional bond; the main character is deliberately unlikeable and the narrative never comes close to him.