For very different reasons, The last escape marks the end of the very diverse film careers of two great British performers.
In the case of Michael Caine, it is the very reasonable decision of an actor who, upon reaching the advanced age of ninety and with more than one hundred film titles, considers that the time has come to retire.
Glenda Jackson, on the other hand, only slightly younger, died a few months before her last film had a commercial release and her film career was reduced to just over thirty productions.
When the filmography of those who have the central roles in the film that has just been presented on our screens is reviewed, it is found that both careers begin to be successful almost at the same time, during the second half of the ’60s.
Caine managed to transcend between 1965 and 1967, on three occasions (Confidential file, Funeral in Berlin, With the world at your feet), playing the same character (Harry Palmer), a British secret service agent. In the following decade, his career was consolidated with films such as Sleuth (along with Laurence Olivier) and The romantic English (Joseph Losey, 1975).
Precisely this last film co-starred Glenda Jackson, who had already acquired a certain notoriety with two cinematographic works by Ken Russell (passionate women, The other side of love).
The last escape by Oliver Parker (Othello, An ideal husband) is based on a true story, when 2014 marked the seventieth anniversary of D-Day. Bernie Jordan (Caine) participated in said landing in Normandy and on several occasions, as a flashback, images of the dramatic day in which the troops Allies entered France from England.
He lives with his wife Irene (Jackson) in a nursing home, next to the sea near Brighton (southern GB).
The celebrations scheduled in France on June 6 drive Bernie to leave his wife very early and at a time when she is sleeping and for a short time. Irene is not surprised when she checks, in the morning, that the bed next to hers is empty.
Her husband takes a taxi and heads to Dover, to take a ferry that leaves him in Ouistreham, on the other side of the English Channel. His path crosses that of Arthur (John Standing), another veteran, who will accompany him on his journey.
In truth, Jordan is much more interested in traveling to a cemetery located several dozen kilometers away on the French coast, where the graves of some five thousand victims of the landing are located. Only towards the end will the reason for the decision to transfer him to this other place be revealed, along with images of the time inside a barge that brought him to the continent.
There will be a successful moment when Arthur and our hero notice the presence of some German ex-combatants in the (French) bar where they are. They approach them and in a message, which could be described as pacifist or at least where there is no longer animosity, they offer them the possibility of attending the celebrations in their place.
Irene (or René according to local titles) keeps some secrets that her husband ignores. Her confidant will be Adele (Danielle Vitalis), a nurse with whom understanding will be difficult at first. The evolution of the relationships between both female characters, during the temporary absence of her husband, is convincing.
Another type of flashback will contribute to this, which will explain how they met and the bond that lasts over time in the elderly couple was born. At some point both women will be surprised when the image of who was truly an RAF war hero appears on television and other media (newspapers such as the famous Daily Mail).
The last escape It is a worthy farewell to two greats of cinema, which will above all interest those cinephiles in whose minds so many memorable titles of almost entirely English cinema remain.
(United Kingdom, France, Sweden, 2023)
Address: Oliver Parker. Script: William Ivory. Cast: Michael Caine, Graeme Dalling, Glenda Jackson, Myles Olofin. Production: Robert Bernstein, Douglas Rae. Duration: 96 minutes.
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