The Great Raid (2005)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

John Dahl

Writers (WGA):

William B. Breuer (book)
Hampton Sides (book) (additional material)

Release Date:

12 August 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

Two proud races, brothers-in-arms... A daring mission that will earn them the respect and admiration of the entire world.

Plot:

Taking place towards the end of WWII, 500 American Soldiers have been entrapped in a camp for 3 years. Beginning to give up hope they will ever be rescued, a group of Rangers goes on a dangerous mission to try and save them.

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Soldier | American | WWII | Philippines

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Benjamin Bratt	...	Lt. Colonel Mucci
James Franco	...	Captain Prince
Robert Mammone	...	Captain Fisher
Max Martini	...	1st Sgt. Sid "Top" Wojo
James Carpinello	...	Cpl. Aliteri
Mark Consuelos	...	Cpl. Guttierez
Craig McLachlan	...	2nd Lt. Riley
Freddie Joe Farnsworth	...	2nd Lt. Foley
Laird Macintosh	...	2nd Lt. O'Grady
Jeremy Callaghan	...	Lt. Able
Scott McLean	...	Lt. LeClaire
Paolo Montalban	...	Sgt. Valera
Clayne Crawford	...	PFC Aldrige
Sam Worthington	...	PFC Lucas
Royston Innes	...	Sgt. Adams

MPAA:

Rated R for strong war violence and brief language.

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

USA | Australia

Language:

Filipino | English | Tagalog | Japanese

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Australia:MA | USA:Unrated (director's cut) | UK:15 | Netherlands:16 | Malaysia:U | Argentina:16 | USA:R (certificate #40855) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Germany:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | New Zealand:R13 | Philippines:PG-13 | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Australia

Company:

Miramax Films

Trivia:

In late 2004, many months before this film was released to the public in August 2005, US Ambassador to the Philippines Frank Ricciardone contacted Miramax producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, with whom he was acquainted, to request a personal favor. Ambassador Ricciardone asked if the Weinsteins would consent to allow the U.S. Embassy in Manila to hold special screenings of this film during the Embassy's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Cabanatuan raid. Remarkably, the Weinsteins gave their blessing for the U.S. Embassy to make limited use of the film, an act that had no precedent. Thus, during February 2005, seven months before its public release, the film was screened for a limited audience of both American and Filipino employees of the U.S. Embassy, plus some family members, as well as a select group of people involved in the movie's production (Director John Dahl was present), the Hampton Sides novel that provided some of the film's material (Mr. Sides was present), and the 60th anniversary ceremonies at Cabanatuan. The film was screened at a theater in the Greenbelt 3 Mall at Ayala Center in Makati -- the main financial and entertainment district of Manila.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The beach where the Americans landed is written as "Calasio". There is no place in the Philippines with that name. The correct place is "Calasiao" (in the Province of Pangasinan). Also, the front line where the prisoners were brought safely to is not "Talevera". Again, there is no place in the Philippines with that name. The correct name of the place is "Talavera".

Quotes:

[last lines]
Captain Prince: Never in our history have such a large group of men endured so much and complained so little. Many couldn't shake the fact that their country had abandoned them, left them to die in a foreign land. It was said to be of no significance to the war effort, but for me, it meant everything. It's true, they had been left behind, but never forgotten.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Hannity & Colmes: (2005-08-12)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

The Marriage Of Figaro

Good movie, good ensemble cast

Old fashioned movie with an ensemble cast instead of A list powered star who uses the movie as a vehicle to command top dollar is rare these days in Hollywood. That's why this movie worked. They assembled a great cast of fine, top notched actors together from the USA and the Philippines but no "superstar". They all portrayed their characters and meshed out the story without any modern day politicking and criticism. I don't know about you but that is truly refreshing in this day and age of movies.

I'd recommend this movie to anyone. Major criticisms seem to be that there's no deep complex characters and no protagonist. I think that is a positive for this movie because the POWs are the main characters themselves. The men and women just did what needed to be done for their countrymen and their country. There was deep motivation because someone had been scarred when they were 15 and thus acts this way. Most of the characters are real life people and you can't focus on one or two characters like in a fictional story that someone wrote.

It's too bad this movie won't do well at the office because it doesn't cater to the teens and their expendable income. The limited wide release also won't help it but I know for those who watch it they'll be touched. They'll know that there were and are sacrifices being made to ensure that the country they live in are safe and protected.