11 of 'em still didn't get Jimmy James killed

I love the film and, as I type, I can't stop humming the theme. So I have to take exception to Jimmy James' memoir, Moonless Night, though I haven't read it yet. How could use "facts" and "personal accounts" to sully the fanciful tale of a group of POWs planning an escape from -- okay, so it wasn't so fanciful. The executions, for example, were depicted. But Steve -- excuse, me, Jimmy -- still had his resourcefulness and his ball in the end, just like in real life, and has a lot more escaping in his future. (Steve also managed to get his superfluous motorcycle scenes in.)

Jimmy didn't write the source, though -- Paul Brickhill gets that credit. And though his book wasn't exactly memoirs, it was the well-written hook that made the film possible. It's not 100% fact, but it's not the first time this has been addressed. We could go on and on like that -- not enough English representatives among the escapees, impossible to steal a plane or bike in war-era Germany, etc. But it's because the film is so accurate that it draws criticism for where it blurs the lines. The Great Escape is cinema: what do you expect? And hey, who wants to watch The Great Escape II: The Untold Story with me? Trust me, it's worse, and in every way imaginable.

If you're still not sure if fiction is involved, we also have Hitler's British Slaves. It may come as a surprise to you that he didn't treat them that well.