Review by John P. Harvey.
Bernard (Michael Caine) and Irene (Glenda Jackson) Jordan, living in their own flat within an assisted-living facility in England, have a long history together. Yet still surfacing are Bernard’s memories, of storming the French beaches of Normandy as a fresh sailor, and of a young tank driver whom he encouraged in that suicidal effort.
The 70th anniversary of the Allies’ Normandy landings are fast approaching, and an organised expedition of the Allied heroes of that battle returning to Normandy to remember their fallen comrades will be an important opportunity for Bernard.
But Bernard misses the tour, and that’s that — in the minds of everybody else but Bernard and Irene.
Bernard has, after all, sailed before to Normandy, and under far less favourable conditions. So, even at the age of 89, what’s really to stop him from doing it again — aside from the concern of others?
So Bernard sets off, and when eventually he is missed, panic ensues; and when he is located, the media have a field day with this intriguing gentleman’s “great escape”.
Though without a complex plot, this heartwarming entertainment nonetheless reveals something of the inner world of several veterans of both sides of the conflict, the BBC’s meticulous cinematography assisting well in driving its emotional elements home. By turns amusing and rather moving, with of course wonderful performances by both Caine and Jackson as the highly individual real-life characters it centres on, The Great Escaper also raises matters of ordinary freedoms and common biases relating to the elderly, but does so in the very mildest way.
It’s well worth catching.