In the closing days of World War II, German prisoners riot in a POW Camp in Scotland. Fearful of a mass escape attempt, the British Army sends in an unorthodox Irish Captain in hopes of discovering exactly what is going on. The Irishman at once comes into conflict with the senior prisoner, a U-Boat commander, and the two must match wits, knowing that only one will emerge victorious. During WW2, German POWs in Britain plot to escape from their prison camp in Scotland. Whereas many supposedly modern films such as `Saving Private Ryan' play along a clear black - and - white scheme (us = good decent chaps, Germans inhuman war robots), `The McKenzie Break' goes down a different path; neither of the central characters is readily likeable or even understandable. Captain Jack Connor is an Irishman fighting on the side of the British Army, a maverick by his personality and origin and yet a representative of the status quo. His antagonist Kapitän Willi Schlüter is a fanatical Nazi, yet we unwillingly sympathize with him because, young and sharp - witted, he is a prisoner desperately trying to break free.<br/><br/>Because the film does not force a constructed morality on the viewer, it is truthful and keeps us in suspense; we are never able to predict the ending or even the next turn of events. `The McKenzie' break is truly a neglected gem, an honest, engaging and intelligent movie that stands out among its genre. First time I saw it and didn't think much of it now <br/><br/>I first saw this in the mid 1970s as a child . I was from the last generation of British children who had a common interest in the second world war . I used to like buying war comics like Battle and Commando and used to love watching all those B & W war movies , but I was disappointed with THE McKENZIE BREAK first time I saw it probably because the plot mainly involved British guards going into a prison compound , getting beaten back by the German prisoners - Repeat every 15 minutes <br/><br/>After seeing it again recently I do realise that my memories are somewhat simplistic but that doesn't mean the film has suddenly improved in my eyes . If I have to be brutally honest then I have to say it has diminished further . Since I first saw this movie I have seen many similar movies like BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI , THE GREAT ESCAPE etc films that are either more dramatic or more entertaining than this one , that's probably the problem with TMB it's rather serious in its tone without being compellingly dramatic and the one subplot that I found interesting during its recent broadcast of one of the prisoners being a suspected homosexual by his Nazi peers is rather unexplored <br/><br/>There's a couple of other things that stuck out in my mind about this movie and not in a good way . One thing was when a character mentions that a couple of prisoners escaped and made it into the Irish free State . As every schoolboy from my generation knows not one single German prisoner held in allied captivity escaped back to Germany . I know it's not implicitly stated that these two escapees made it back to Germany but it's unlikely they'd be interned in Ireland . Secondly I couldn't help noticing a large German contingent were wearing Wermacht uniforms . Where would they have been captured and why go to all the trouble of keeping them in a Scottish POW camp ? Wouldn't they have been kept in the same region they were captured ? <br/><br/>A very average film that will only appeal to people interested in men standing on roofs singing Nazi marching songs
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295 weeks ago