Editing The Great Escape (film) (section)

===Modern appraisals===
''The Great Escape'' continues to receive acclaim from modern critics. On review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 53 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "With its impeccably slow-building story and a cast for the ages, ''The Great Escape'' is an all-time action classic."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Great Escape |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/great_escape/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318010820/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/great_escape/ |archive-date=March 18, 2015 |access-date=March 15, 2015 |website=Rotten Tomatoes}}</ref>

In a 2006 poll in the United Kingdom, regarding the family film that television viewers would most want to see on Christmas Day, ''The Great Escape'' came in third, and was first among the choices of male viewers.<ref name="Freeview2006">{{cite web |date=December 11, 2006 |title=TV classics are recipe for Christmas Day delight |url=http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/Press/2006/TV-classics-are-recipe-for-Christmas-Day-delight |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126132449/http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/Press/2006/TV-classics-are-recipe-for-Christmas-Day-delight |archive-date=January 26, 2010 |access-date=September 5, 2009 |work=[[Freeview (UK)|Freeview]]}}</ref> In an article for the [[British Film Institute]], "10 great prisoner of war films", updated in August 2018, Samuel Wigley wrote that watching films like ''The Great Escape'' and the 1955 British film ''[[The Colditz Story]]'',  "for all their moments of terror and tragedy, is to delight in captivity in times of war as a wonderful game for boys, an endless Houdini challenge to slip through the enemy's fingers. Often based on true stories of escape, they have the viewer marvelling at the ingenuity and seemingly unbreakable spirit of imprisoned soldiers." He described ''The Great Escape'' as "the epitome of the war-is-fun action film", which became "a fixture of family TV viewing".<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 18, 2013 |title=10 great prisoner-of-war films |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-prisoner-war-films |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210043659/https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-prisoner-war-films |archive-date=December 10, 2019 |access-date=2020-01-08 |website=British Film Institute |language=en}}</ref>