This movie is brilliantly done,providing a high level of intensity, drama and even comedy not equaled in most movies made today. What makes this movie so appealing is the fact that it is a true story. Though realizing that the events were dramatized for effect, the viewer doesn't care. It is entertaining and provides a viewpoint that we don't often see, from the side of the enemy. We WANT him to succeed! Though doing so would ultimately cause more ally deaths. As humans we cheer for the human spirit, for creativity and improvisation under pressure. This movie has it all. I wish they would remake it for the younger crowd as this is a great historical account as well.

Kendal Burt based his exciting action novel " The One That Got Away " on the real-life exploits of German Hero Franz Von Werra. Roy Ward Baker directs (Hardy Krüger) to a the role of a life time. Although many other British actors passed on the chance, they did so to their regret. Having acted on other top tier movies, Kruger displays the rugged, top notch acting ability which has garnered him a great deal of fulsome praise and awards from Hollywood's elite. This story is based on a true life story tells of Franz Werra a German fighter pilot who was shot down by the English and soon finds himself in a British Prisoner of War camp. However, with sheer skill, guts and dogged determination he takes the English to task and escapes. Despite the enormous physical challenges, Werra proves his metal and wins the admiration of both his jailers and the audiences. Hardy offer a sterling performance and one which marks this movie for greatness and a sure bet to win him a nomination to become a true Classic. Excellent fare for the collector. ****

A thoroughly entertaining (and true!) feature about a World War II German prisoner-of-war with a knack for escaping his British captors, The One That Got Away stars Hardy Kruger as Franz von Werra, a Luftwaffe officer shot down during the Battle of Britain. Unwilling to spend the next few years peeling potatoes or cracking rocks, von Werra immediately began plotting his return to Germany, and after a few misfires miraculously pulled off the feat after taking a detour to a remote POW camp in Canada. The film defies convention by actually allowing the Bad Guy to outfox the Good Guys and contrasts neatly with more traditional tales of Stalag-bound heroism such as The Colditz Story (1955) and even The Great Escape (1963). It also offered Kruger the opportunity to deliver the performance of a lifetime, highlighted by the final St. Lawrence Seaway sequence in which he brings a lumbering, Frankenstein's Monster demeanour to his character. Additionally, the film benefits immensely from tremendous location footage shot during the dead of winter, as well as the very wise decision to almost entirely fore go incidental music, which lends the film additional realism and allows the viewer to concentrate on the action at hand without being manipulated by the score. Quite simply, this is an excellent film that will stick with you.

I was lucky to find a DVD of this film. In my memory the film was excellent and seeing it again after 30 years or so I was not disappointed. As an escape film it works beautifully. Someone tries - and in the end succeeds, as the title suggests - to escape from prison camp. What makes this film special is that it is a German who is portrayed as the hero. As a child it was the first time that I ever saw a war movie with a Good German in it (or at the very least not a bad and/or stupid one). Hardy Krüger was of course brilliant and he later did a similar job in Flight of the Phoenix where he played an arrogant but in the end sympathetic German. And the film does not even make the soldier a secret enemy of the Nazi regime. He is portrayed as a loyal German soldier who sees it as his duty to escape and to continue fighting the allies. For me to see that English film makers where able to make a film like this made me very optimistic. They avoid using clichés. And funny enough, they confirm the cliché about the English, namely that they are fair and good sportsmen, because that's what we have here. A game where the object is to escape from prison. A German wins and this is what we see. Thank you.