Product Description
Nearly three years after it was filmed, The Great Raid finally appeared as a welcome reminder that good old-fashioned World War II movies never go out of style. While lacking the scale, prestige, and pulse-pounding momentum of Saving Private Ryan, this fact-based war drama benefits from a back-to-basics approach to realism and a rousing rescue climax that more than compensates for the slower passages that precede it. Adapted from the books The Great Raid on Cabanatuan and Ghost Soldiers, it chronicles the five-day mission (in late January 1945) to rescue 511 American prisoners of war held by the Japanese at Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines. Under the direction of neo-noir specialist John Dahl (The Last Seduction), the film's three-part structure follows the raid mission led by Lt. Col. Mucci (Benjamin Bratt); the plight of the POWs at Cabanatuan, including malaria-stricken Maj. Gibson (Joseph Fiennes); and civilian resistance in Manila as carried out by real-life hero and Gibson's (fictional) would-be lover Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen), whose effort to aid the POWs is vigilantly monitored by the enemy Japanese. In keeping with war-movie traditions, Dahl handles character and action with no-nonsense intelligence, favoring a slow build over pumped-up adrenalin. By the time the miraculous rescue is executed with critical assistance by Filpino guerillas, The Great Raid has earned its stripes, honoring the brave men who carried out the most successful rescue mission in U.S. military history. --Jeff Shannon
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DVD Full-Screen Rip-Off of a Great Film
I think this film is excellent, worthy of five stars. I am rating the DVD. Miramax is forcing people to buy the extra edition with the book, for $40 in stores. That is the only way to get the widescreen version. If you just want the widescreen DVD, you cannot get it. The bare-bones DVD (not even a trailer) comes only in fullscreen! I went all over town checking it out. Typical Miramax, over-pricing its DVDs. Watch out if you buy one of the their older DVDs, as many of them came only as non-anamorphic- that way, they could release another issue in anamorphic format. I hate that company.
Great movie that was underated
This is an excellent movie about the (probably) the greatest rescue mission in World War II. After reading the book, Ghost Soldiers, by Hampton Sides several years ago. It was delightful to see this movie made.
Quality war treatment of one aspect of the Pacific theatre
The first half of this fine film set in the Philippines is rather morose and measured, and punctuated with more than several representations of Japanese brutality against cityfolk in Manila & American POWs in various camps. In an era when Amnesty International characterizes Guantanamo Bay's holding facility as akin to Soviet death camps it is, of course, politically incorrect to show anyone but Americans as brutal. That's why, no doubt, a number of reviewers of this film expressed various reservations about this competently told story of the most successful rescue mission in US military history. The latter half of the film shows how this was accomplished, and thus is replete with a lot more action than the first half; detailing 5 eventful days in January of 1945. The Cabanatuan POW camp is eventually stormed, freeing 611 American POWs with the loss of just 2 US Army Rangers & 21 Filipino guerilla fighters. The film is well shot; looks "right," regarding the era in which it is set, and conveys the gravity of that difficult time as well. It is, in short, a worthy war film, which ought be seen if you are at all interested is trying to visualize what you may perhaps have read concerning the war in the pacific. Unfortunately, most of the better-made films depicting events of World War Two concern European events and/or campaigns, but the Pacific War theatre has gotten a most useful addition in the name of "The Great Raid." Cheers!