The Great Escape (1963): Wow. They just don't make movies like this anymore. The perfect mix of sincerity, humour, solemnness, suspense... It culminated with a horrific, but tempered, event: 50 shot, but many not, and some free.
I don't know what more I can say about it, other than I can't believe I hadn't seen it before now. Oh, and man! Those guys are young! I hardly recognized James Garner and James Coburn, and I didn't recognize Charles Bronson. I can't really speak to the acting - it just didn't seem to matter - except to say that Steve McQueen was the same ole Steve, that great guy I now know and love. :-)