On 6 June 2014 at 10.30am, World War Two veteran Bernard “Bernie” Jordan slipped out unnoticed from his care home in Hove, East Sussex, with his war medals pinned beneath his coat. He took a train from Brighton to Portsmouth then a ferry from England to France, and quietly joined the ranks of those gathered to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy. In director Oliver Parker’s take on this ripped-from-the-headlines story of British can-do spirit, The Great Escaper, we’re given a neat summation of the media’s reaction to Bernie – one reporter, with a smile plastered across her face, describes him as “an old soldier who will never not answer the call of duty”.
Parker occasionally finds himself drawn into that same pat, patriotic sentimentalism – the type which patronises older generations by treating them as strange curiosities (Look at him go! All the way to France! By himself!) In its best moments, the film functions as more of a character study, brought to life by a pair of established luminaries taking their final bows: Sir Michael Caine (Bernie) in what he’s decided will be his penultimate role, and the late Glenda Jackson, as his wife, Irene. In their depictions, we see a couple who’ve realised they’ve both reached a point in their lives where all they can do is live inside their memories.
