MovieChat Forums > The Password Is Courage (1962) Discussion > Based on a true story?

Based on a true story?

posted 16 years ago by Steve Crook
10 replies | jump to latest

The film claims to be based on a true story. It can't be.

The final escape attempt through the tunnel is obviously based on The Great Escape. But that was from a PoW camp for RAF officers, not for "other ranks" from the Army.

It seems that the biography of Charles Coward included quite a few events that actually happened to other people. I don't know if that's the fault of the biographer or of Coward himself.

The film then ignored many of the events in the book and created a whole new set of events that couldn't possibly have happened to Coward.

And still they claim that it's a true story

But if we ignore that and just look at it as a fictional drama, then it's quite good

Steve

[–] TorontoJediMaster 16 years ago

Coward was indeed a real person.

However, his wartime exploits involved him being being sent through Auschwitz. In his endeavours, he was able to save 400 Jews from being exterminated. After the war, he testified at the Nuremburg trials.

[–] Steve Crook 16 years ago

Oh there's no doubt that Charles Coward was a real person who did a lot of good work in a bad situation. Just not exactly the person portrayed in the biography and definitely not the person portrayed in this film

My main objection is just to them claiming that this film is a true story

Steve

[–] JOHN-WIGNALL 16 years ago

This is a film that can best be described as fiction based on fact,The Great Escape was not made until the 60s where as the Password Is Courage was made in the 50s,it is still a good film though and the acting is first class,but please lets remember that the War had not been over long when this film was made and certain subjects were still sensitive.

[–] s_e_v_e_n_e_m_b_e_r 16 years ago

While you are right that The Password Is Courage was made first, it was not made in the 50's. It came out in 1962 and The Great Escape came out in 1963. But anyway, I love this film much more than The Great Escape.

T~O

[–] diablo09 14 years ago

true story buddy ,,sorry to tell ya , this is his grandson and can assure you it happened,have pics to prove,,happened well before the great escape even thought of ,,,real life,,,

[–] Steve Crook 14 years ago

Don't be sorry. I would love to know the truth about this. It seems that the only version of the story that's around at the moment is the one told in the biography, which was the basis of the story used in the film - which did obviously borrow lots of events that happened to other people. The Great Escape being just one of them.

I don't mean that it borrowed from the film of The Great Escape but from the real Great Escape.

So where are the pics? Which PoW camp did they escape from where they had a long tunnel? Most escapes like that are the well documented ones that happened from the RAF officers-only camps run by the Luftwaffe. Charles Coward was in the Army and the story in the biography has him escaping from a camp for other ranks that was run by the German army

Steve

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Steve Crook 12 years ago

It wouldn't be the first time a film-maker had done something like that. But they usually have the decency not to claim that it's a true story. This one makes the big claim on-screen that it's a true story - when it patently isn't

Steve

[–] dpatricksawyer 11 years ago

I agree. This was not the real thing. Poor diablo probably reveres his grandfather, and just because he was a "technical adviser" on the film does not prove jack sh*t. So-called technical advisers on films have been disproven in the past. "Oh, I wrote this true story about me, and I wrote a book about it (who is to say it is false if the others died) and I will be a technical adviser on the film". BS.

Total BS. Wake up diablo, your grandfather was a great storyteller. And a POW. It easy to claim the "truth" when the others who could refute such "truth" are gone. My research, extensive, shows that granddaddy could not have done such exploits. But it makes for great family myths.

Photos, yeah like another poster said, let's see them. But what will the prove? Yada yada yada.

[–] SixtiesHoldout 8 years ago

When something is only based on a true story, it can deviate substantially from the whole truth. Another example is the TV series The Untouchables (and the more recent film by the same name). It was based on the book by Oscar Fraley, but was about 95% fictional. Even the book took great liberties with the truth, much to Ness's chagrin.

❇ If you can remember the '60s, then you probably weren't there. ❇