Originally posted by Angus
I think that Brickhill was actually a POW himself.
Anyway, were there any Americans involved? I remember that most were British, and there were even some from Norway I think.
BTW, Robert Stanford Tuck was supposed to be in the escape, and I suspect that Douglas Bader may have come close to it too, but they were both transported before the escape. Lucky ones eh?
I have a book about escapes and escape attempts from German Lagers, it's a pretty good read.
One of the main reasons that the Hilts character was written in is because the U.S. pilots were actually transfered out AFTER the escape plans and preperations were almost finished, but before the actual escape, but they wanted a way to keep the Americans in the movie (of course, they also wanted Steve McQueen, and McQueen wanted a big role).
If you notice, Hilts is the only U.S. pilot who actually escapes, except of course the James Garner character Henley "the scrounger" who was an RAF Eagle. The only other U.S. pilot character of signinicance at all was Hilts' buddy, with his minor role in some of the scenes with Hilts, and some with Hilts and Henley.
According to what I've scene and read, U.S. pilots were involved almost to the last minute, when they were seperated from the British.
There was a P-51 pilot who lived in Vegas who claimed for years, up until his death, that he was the inspiration for the Hilts character. According to the new release on DVD (a two DVD set I'll be getting for my 41st birthday Thursday), there is a pilot who was the inspiration for Hilts, but it is not the pilot from Vegas.
In all fairness, I think it should be noted that some characters in movies like this (it was NEVER supposed to be a documentary) are actually composed of several different people. Its called artistic license. There is only so much room in a movie and a cast, and some characters are made "larger than life" to represent more than one person in the actual story. Hilts is one of those characters, and likely one of the most successful and memorable of all of them. The Hilts character is supposed to represent ALL of the U.S. pilots who got transfered out, plus several notable people who did certain things. For example one of the guys known for baiting guards and spending time in the cooler, and one of the guys who ran a still.
One more thing. Almost everyone involved with the movie freely acknowledges that the Hilts character is what made the movie a huge commercial success. As such, it exposed a lot of people to a story they'd never have had any exposure to at all, and told them the story of the real people who were involved. While it is likely that every World War II aviation and history fan here would have seen it anyway (at least, had it been made without the Hilts character), it is important to remember that a lot of others would not. And even those who were not seeing it because of their love of history and World War II aviation got at least some of the real story, and that is a lot more than they would have otherwise.
