YOU GOTTA SEE "THE GREAT RAID"
Yesterday I saw “The Great Raid.” I cried, and actually clapped and cheered, more than once. And I thought “This is one the best movies made in many years.” Powerful and moving, it tells the true story of how a large campful of American POWs were rescued, from behind Japanese lines, by a small band of Army Rangers and some valiant Filipino guerrillas in World War II. It is based on eyewitness accounts in the books, “The Ghost Soldiers” (which I own) and “The Great Raid on Canabatuan.” Documentary film is inserted throughout the film, most memorably during the credits at the end when the actual released prisoners are shown leaving the camp, then arriving to cheering crowds in San Francisco.
This combines three great parallel stories of WWII in the Pacific. One is the Ranger’s raid to free the POWs. One is the endurance and courage of the POWs. And one is the incredibly courageous Filipino resistance, including an American nurse in the capital, who all risked life and torture every day to smuggle medicine and food to the sick and starving POWs. The nurse, Margaret Utinski, (portrayed by Connie Neilson in a bravura performance) was eventually captured and tortured. Later she was given a medal by the U.S. Congress.
In the prison camp, Joseph Fiennes (of “Shakespeare in Love” fame) gives what may be the best performance of his life as the fictional Major Gibson. When asked how he achieved such skeletal thinness for the role, he said “I just stopped eating.” The story of the toughness, courage and dogged tenacity of the weakened prisoners and the brutality of the guards is gritty and historically authentic, powerfully moving without being sentimental.
The raid itself was carried out with only a few hours of preparation by Rangers who, though well-trained by the maverick Lt. Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt, the cop from “Miss Congeniality”), had never fought in a battle. It was known that the Japanese killed all prisoners rather than letting them be freed by the advancing U.S. army. Two large camps were only 30 miles away from the fast-moving U.S. front lines. Word came down to get there fast and set those prisoners free before they were executed. With only 48 hours to go, Col. Mucci gives the job of planning and leading the raid to young Captain Bob Prince (James Franco of “Spiderman.”)
The untried Rangers, assisted by the Filipino guerrillas they first met when they were literally on the way there, sneaked through Japanese held territory all the way to the camps. Nearby Filipino villages risked their existence (whole villages were often wiped out as punishment) by providing carts for prisoners who could not walk. The Rangers had to cross an open field in front of the camp in daylight, before hiding in a ditch near the fence until dark.
Just the numbers alone would make the Great Raid incredible. All prisoners were rescued, with just one prisoner death, and one Ranger death. Twenty Filipino irregulars also died at a bridge, holding back the Japanese from reinforcing the guards at the prison camp. But over 800 Japanese died; all the camp guards plus hundreds at the bridge.
It is a stand-up-and-cheer, bowl-you-over kind of movie that leaves you wanting to see it again. Yet most reviews are terrible, and attendance is low. Why it that? Two reasons.
Most reviews are terrible because, as can quickly be seen in most of them, the liberal reviewers are so viscerally opposed to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration, and the very idea of “Just Wars” of liberation, that they trash this movie because it is so effective in showing the reasons for such wars. Still, truly professional reviewers like Roger Ebert, liberal or not, give it high praise (see at http://www.rogerebert.suntimes.com/.)
The other reason is that the movie was poorly publicized, because of the war mounted by Eisner of Disney (the one responsible for changing the Disney image from family-oriented to smut-friendly) against Henry Weinstein of Miramax. Weinstein approved this movie right after 9/11 for immediate release. But like a lot of Miramax movies, it was kept on the shelf by Disney. Ebert explains in the following quote (which also suggests he is no fan of the war in Iraq):
“It was completed by 2002, but like a lot of Miramax inventory sat on the shelf (Miramax won a “shelf award” at the Indie Spirits one year for the quality of its unreleased pictures). Now that Disney and Miramax are going separate ways, Miramax is releasing a lot of those films in the final months of its original management. ‘The Great Raid’ is perhaps more timely now than it would have been a few years ago, when ‘smart bombs’ and a couple of weeks of warfare were supposed to solve the Iraq situation. Now that we are involved in a lengthy and bloody ground war there, it is good to have a film that is not about entertainment for action fans, but about how wars are won with great difficulty, risk and cost.”
What a shame that such a movie gets caught between an anti-war campaign from leftist reviewers, and the Eisner-Weinstein battle! A truly great movie is being missed by millions who would love it.
The word needs to go out!
This combines three great parallel stories of WWII in the Pacific. One is the Ranger’s raid to free the POWs. One is the endurance and courage of the POWs. And one is the incredibly courageous Filipino resistance, including an American nurse in the capital, who all risked life and torture every day to smuggle medicine and food to the sick and starving POWs. The nurse, Margaret Utinski, (portrayed by Connie Neilson in a bravura performance) was eventually captured and tortured. Later she was given a medal by the U.S. Congress.
In the prison camp, Joseph Fiennes (of “Shakespeare in Love” fame) gives what may be the best performance of his life as the fictional Major Gibson. When asked how he achieved such skeletal thinness for the role, he said “I just stopped eating.” The story of the toughness, courage and dogged tenacity of the weakened prisoners and the brutality of the guards is gritty and historically authentic, powerfully moving without being sentimental.
The raid itself was carried out with only a few hours of preparation by Rangers who, though well-trained by the maverick Lt. Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt, the cop from “Miss Congeniality”), had never fought in a battle. It was known that the Japanese killed all prisoners rather than letting them be freed by the advancing U.S. army. Two large camps were only 30 miles away from the fast-moving U.S. front lines. Word came down to get there fast and set those prisoners free before they were executed. With only 48 hours to go, Col. Mucci gives the job of planning and leading the raid to young Captain Bob Prince (James Franco of “Spiderman.”)
The untried Rangers, assisted by the Filipino guerrillas they first met when they were literally on the way there, sneaked through Japanese held territory all the way to the camps. Nearby Filipino villages risked their existence (whole villages were often wiped out as punishment) by providing carts for prisoners who could not walk. The Rangers had to cross an open field in front of the camp in daylight, before hiding in a ditch near the fence until dark.
Just the numbers alone would make the Great Raid incredible. All prisoners were rescued, with just one prisoner death, and one Ranger death. Twenty Filipino irregulars also died at a bridge, holding back the Japanese from reinforcing the guards at the prison camp. But over 800 Japanese died; all the camp guards plus hundreds at the bridge.
It is a stand-up-and-cheer, bowl-you-over kind of movie that leaves you wanting to see it again. Yet most reviews are terrible, and attendance is low. Why it that? Two reasons.
Most reviews are terrible because, as can quickly be seen in most of them, the liberal reviewers are so viscerally opposed to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration, and the very idea of “Just Wars” of liberation, that they trash this movie because it is so effective in showing the reasons for such wars. Still, truly professional reviewers like Roger Ebert, liberal or not, give it high praise (see at http://www.rogerebert.suntimes.com/.)
The other reason is that the movie was poorly publicized, because of the war mounted by Eisner of Disney (the one responsible for changing the Disney image from family-oriented to smut-friendly) against Henry Weinstein of Miramax. Weinstein approved this movie right after 9/11 for immediate release. But like a lot of Miramax movies, it was kept on the shelf by Disney. Ebert explains in the following quote (which also suggests he is no fan of the war in Iraq):
“It was completed by 2002, but like a lot of Miramax inventory sat on the shelf (Miramax won a “shelf award” at the Indie Spirits one year for the quality of its unreleased pictures). Now that Disney and Miramax are going separate ways, Miramax is releasing a lot of those films in the final months of its original management. ‘The Great Raid’ is perhaps more timely now than it would have been a few years ago, when ‘smart bombs’ and a couple of weeks of warfare were supposed to solve the Iraq situation. Now that we are involved in a lengthy and bloody ground war there, it is good to have a film that is not about entertainment for action fans, but about how wars are won with great difficulty, risk and cost.”
What a shame that such a movie gets caught between an anti-war campaign from leftist reviewers, and the Eisner-Weinstein battle! A truly great movie is being missed by millions who would love it.
The word needs to go out!
posted by Old Neocon at 10:48 AM
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