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'Great Raid' celebrates American military spirit
Logan Marshall Green (left) and Joseph Fiennes
Miramax Films
Director: John Dahl
Stars: Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen
MPAA rating: R for strong war violence and brief language
It's quite another matter, though, how many moviegoers weaned on root-beer-float fantasies will sit still for a dry martini of a pro-American rescue war drama. Veterans will get it and, I strongly suspect, appreciate it.
Although it could have been made any time in the past 60 years, it all but stands alone in recent times as a picture that celebrates the American military spirit.
In that regard it's a companion to "Saving Private Ryan," "We Were Soldiers" and "Black Hawk Down," all of which were set in different wars.
There's nothing politically correct, much less trendy, in "The Great Raid's" depiction of the abuse of U.S. POWs in a Japanese-run Cabanatuan prison camp from 1942-45 and the plan to kill the shrinking ranks of survivors as World War II winds down.
John Dahl, who made such noirish modern crime films as "Red Rock West" and "The Last Seduction," is at the very least a curious choice, if a welcome one, to direct the screenplay by Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro.
It's based on two books, William B. Breuer's "The Great Raid on Cabanatuan" and Hampton Sides' "Ghost Soldiers."
The film takes place during the final days of January 1945.
Three years earlier, when the Japanese army overran the Philippines, U.S. military units retreated and about 70,000 Allied troops surrendered.
The rescue of the POWs was back-burnered while the war was being fought elsewhere. Eventually Capt. Robert Prince (James Franco) devised a rescue plan that was supported by Lt. Col. Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) of the 6th Army Ranger Battalion.
The main danger was that the 511 surviving U.S. POWS would be slaughtered before or during the rescue.
The prisoners include a Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes), who is the highest ranking among them, dying of malaria, and a Captain Redding (Marton Csokas), his renegade second-in-command.
Pajota (Cesar Montano) is the leader of the Philippine resistance fighters.
Nurse Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen), one of the real people depicted, works in the Manila underground, smuggling medical supplies to the POWS with the help of the Filipino Mina (Natalie Mendoza).
"The Great Raid" just generally is well-executed, but it's particularly tense in Manila scenes involving the women, possibly because Dahl honed his chops on such suspenseful situations.
It's no reflection on the ability of the actors involved, but in embodying characters who could use more distinguishing qualities, they lack the individuality that a thousand or more actors exhibited in Hollywood's heyday.
Consider the vividness of fully two dozen actors in "The Great Escape" and the character density of those in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "King Rat," all classic POW dramas.
And be grateful at least that we have "The Great Raid," a film keen on the inherent nobility of the people and the mission depicted.
