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The Great Raid is this year’s version of Pearl Harbor, in that both are supposed to be war movies—but they try really hard to be love stories, too, and never manage to do either very well. But they’re full of sweeping panoramic scenes and lush music that make them easy on the eyes and ears.
The Great Raid is the story of the 6th Ranger Battalion, who, in 1945, stormed a Japanese prisoner of war camp and liberated over 500 American soldiers. The men were some of the survivors of the Bataan Death March, one of the grizzliest moments in American military history. They had been starved and beaten, they’d worked as slaves, and they’d lived in disease-infested straw huts for the three years they’d been held by the Japanese. Originally numbering over 7000 in the camp, many of the prisoners had died from either disease or from being slaughtered by their captors. In the last days of December 1944, the 1600 healthiest men had been hauled away to slave labor camps on the island of Japan. The prison camp had become a place for the remainder to wait to die.
American forces had just begun to re-take the Philippine Islands that had been lost early in the war. Soon after landing on the island of Luzon, they were told about the prison camp. Fearing that the Japanese guards would kill the remaining prisoners, a plan was formed to liberate the camp. It would require the Rangers to walk and crawl over thirty miles in 48 hours to reach the camp, take it from the Japanese Army, and bring the sick prisoners back to the main American camp.
This is one of the greatest stories to come out of World War II, and the movie doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. Benjamin Bratt, of Law and Order fame, plays the leader of the Rangers, Lt. Colonel Mucci, with James Franco as Captain Prince. Neither man is convincing in his role. Bratt simply doesn’t come off as being strong enough to be the leader of 120 elite troops. Franco turns in his usual flat performance, but at least he looks good while doing it. The love story sub-plot felt forced and wasn’t part of Ghost Soldiers, the book that was the basis for the movie.
At the same time, the scenery is breathtaking, and the music is dead on the mark for most of the movie. The special effects weren’t too heavy handed. And the realistic battle scenes were the highlight of movie. Visually, it’s a very impressive movie.
I’d recommend buying a copy when it comes out on DVD because it’s an important movie to own. This was one of those times in America’s history when the very best in us came out—and we should all have a movie about that moment in our collection. Still, it’s hard for me to justify spending a Friday night seeing it in the theater.
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