The Great Escape (1963) quotes

Director
John Sturges.

Cast
Steve McQueen.
James Garner.
Richard Attenborough.

Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.

Danny, do you speak Russian?
– Sedgwick
A little, but only one sentence.
– Danny
Well, let me have it, mate.
– Sedgwick
Ya vas lyublyu.
– Danny
Ya ya vas…
– Sedgwick
Lyublyu.
– Danny
Lyubliu? Ya vas lyubliu. Ya vas lyublyu. What’s it mean?
– Sedgwick
I love you.
– Danny
Love you. What bloody good is that?
– Sedgwick
I don’t know, I wasn’t going to use it myself.
– Danny

Are all American officers so ill-mannered?
– Von Luger
Yeah, about 99 percent.
– Hilts
Then perhaps while you are with us you will have a chance to learn some. Ten days isolation, Hilts.
– Von Luger
CAPTAIN Hilts.
– Hilts
Twenty days.
– Von Luger
Right. Oh, uh, you’ll still be here when I get out?
– Hilts
[visibly annoyed] Cooler!
– Von Luger

Colonel Von Luger, it is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape. If they cannot escape, then it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.
– Ramsey

Afraid this tea’s pathetic. Must have used these wretched leaves about twenty times. It’s not that I mind so much. Tea without milk is so uncivilized.
– Colin

It looks, after all, as if you will see Berlin before I do.
– Von Luger

I haven’t seen Berlin yet, from the ground or from the air, and I plan on doing both before the war is over.
– Hilts

Wait a minute. You aren’t seriously suggesting that if I get through the wire… and case everything out there… and don’t get picked up… to turn myself in and get thrown back in the cooler for a couple of months so you can get the information you need?
– Hilts
Yes.
– Bartlett