According to a press release for The Great Escaper, Michael Caine was drawn to the script because he, like the main character Bernie, was \u201can old Cockney soldier who got a lot of publicity.\u201d But because he had retired two and a half years earlier, he was still planning on turning down the role. Then he got to a scene\u2014featured in the trailer released on Thursday\u2014where Bernie commiserates with German soldiers who were also at D-Day. The moment gave the story \u201can extraordinary depth\u201d and convinced Caine to come out of retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Great Escaper also holds the distinction of featuring Oscar winner Glenda Jackson\u2019s final performance<\/a> before her death in 2024. Jackson plays Bernie\u2019s wife Irene, who convinces her husband to escape their care home and attend the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings in France. \u201cWhile Bernie is on his trip to Normandy, Irene recalls their younger days and falling in love during World War II,\u201d according to the synopsis. The real-life story of Bernie\u2019s journey to France, alone at 89 years old, made international news in 2014. His odyssey \u201ccaptured the imagination of the world as he embodied the defiant, \u2018can-do\u2019 spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing,\u201d the synopsis reads. \u201cBut of course, it wasn\u2019t the whole story. It was an inspirational but sanitized retelling of one man\u2019s need to come to terms with the lasting trauma of war.\u201d<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/p>\n Caine is the quintessential actor in that he has threatened to retire several times<\/a> but never actually quit the biz. For a time, he was simply turned off because there weren\u2019t any lead roles for nonagenarians. That\u2019s why The Great Escaper made such a great final film, because it\u2019s \u201ca picture where I\u2019ve played the lead, and it\u2019s got incredible reviews,\u201d Caine said in 2023<\/a>. \u201cI might as well leave with all this. I\u2019ve got wonderful reviews. What am I gonna do to beat this?\u201d Well, The Last Witch Hunter sequel, apparently. The 92-year-old star is reportedly<\/a> expected to reprise his role as Dolan opposite Vin Diesel\u2019s Kaulder in the fantasy action sequel. You can\u2019t keep an old Cockney soldier down!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to a press release for The Great Escaper, Michael Caine was drawn to the script because he,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-182136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}