Description
Book SynopsisThe first full-length study of the iconic 1960s film The Great Escape and its place in Hollywood and American history.Escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) on a stolen motorcycle jumps an imposing barbed wire fencecaught on film, the act and its aftermath have become an unforgettable symbol of triumph as well as defeat for 1960s America. Combining production and reception history with close reading, Dreams of Flight offers the first full-length study of The Great Escape, the classic film based on a true story of Allied prisoners who hatched an audacious plan to divert and thwart the Wehrmacht and escape into the nearby countryside. Through breezy prose and pithy analysis, Dana Polan centersThe Great Escapewithin American cultural and intellectual history, drawing a vivid picture of the country in the 1960s. We see a nation grappling with its own military history, a society undergoing significant shifts in its culture and identity, and a film industry in transition from Old Hollyw
Trade Review"Dana Polan’s rich assessment of the film’s making coupled with a superb analysis of the film itself, script, style, themes and directorial bravura is filled with informative nuggets. Eschewing the standard star bio approach, Polan goes much deeper. . . . Written with tremendous authority and great style." * Cinema Retro *
“Dreams of Flight is an act of devotion, a work of extreme connoisseurship.”
* Air Mail *
"Far more than just a love letter to a foundational film from an author and devoted fan,
Dreams of Flight is a rewarding work of scholarly reclamation, a volume that is always precise in its observation of the hidden dimensions of
The Great Escape. . . . Through careful attention to formal choices and an impressively broad engagement with memory, history, and cinematic legacies,
Dreams of Flight uncovers the many textures of its popular subject." * Velvet Light Trap *
"This book expands in myriad and often surprising directions. . . .
Dreams of Flight is remarkable for the extent and imaginative richness of the research materials it brings to bear." * California History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. Engineering
The Great Escape From Book to Film (and In Between)
2. Tunneling In
The Great Escape: Style, Theme, and Structure
3. Afterlives
Coda
Appendix: "It Really Happened"
Notes
Index
