The Great Raid (2005)

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.

Director:

John Dahl

Writers:

William B. Breuer (book), Hampton Sides (book)

Stars:

Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, James Franco

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Set in the Philippines in 1945 towards the end of WWII, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci and Captain Robert Prince, the 6th Ranger Battalion undertake a daring rescue mission against all odds. Traveling thirty miles behind enemy lines, they intend to liberate over 500 American Soldiers from the notorious Cabanatuan Japanese POW camp in the most audacious rescue ever.

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Plot Keywords:

rescue mission | philippines | japanese army | prisoner of war camp | u.s. army | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Action | Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong war violence and brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Miramax [United States] Official DVD site [Germany]

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

Filipino English Tagalog Japanese

Release Date:

12 August 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

El gran rescate

Filming Locations:

Australia

Box Office

Budget:

$80,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,376,009, 14 August 2005, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$10,166,502, 16 October 2005

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$10,769,311, 15 July 2012

Company Credits

Production Co:

Miramax, Marty Katz Productions, Lawrence Bender Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie was shot in 2002 and pulled from the release schedule several times. It was finally released in August, 2005, by Miramax Films, which was cleaning out its closet ahead of the formal departure of co-founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein from the Walt Disney Co.-owned firm.

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Goofs

The exact same background shot of a Ventura bomber followed by two single-engine planes flying left to right is used three times during the film, twice at the beginning as they are planning the mission on the beach and then once at the end when the raid is over.

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Quotes

[Japanese have just fired mortar shells at the escaping troops and POW's]
Captain Prince: Get a base of fire on the *Son of a bitch*!

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Crazy Credits

The first part of the end credits are superimposed over actual footage of the American prisoners following their liberation.

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Connections

Referenced in Hannity & Colmes: Episode dated 12 August 2005 (2005)

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Soundtracks

You Go To My Head
Written by Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots
Performed by Victoria Hamilton
Published by Toy Town Tunes, Inc. (ASCAP) and Gillespie Haven Music (ASCAP)
Produced by Sourcerer

User Reviews

read the books, skip the movie

I found this movie totally unwatchable and carelessly produced, directed, and acted. It struck me as being completely, almost laughably inauthentic as to time and place, and bordering on farce in its presentation of Americans and other nationalities who lived and fought during that time.

If any American soldier as depicted in this film were somehow transported back to Mucci's unit in 1945, he would be seen to be an alien from another planet. American soldiers in 1945 did not look, speak, dress or interact the way the actors in this movie do. Maybe this is some comfort to American audiences with short attention spans and even less education (or exposure, even to recent American history), but it left me wondering if the story of this raid will ever be made into a movie for grown-ups.

No American soldiers looked or talked or interacted in 1945 the way these actors portrayed them; they did not line up and sound off like soldiers in a 21st century Army recruiting ad, and they did not have perfect teeth, perfect hair, and perfect Los Angeles non-accented diction or speech patterns straight out of this year's crop of war films and television dramas.

Those islands were hot and dirty and crawling with bugs, and as far as I know there were no dry-cleaning facilities nearby to keep everyone's uniforms so clean and squared away. Chow was not sufficient to build up and maintain the body types we see in the movie, and I'll bet there weren't any gyms or circuit training equipment nearby either - or "juice" to keep these athlete-soldiers so cut-looking. There was lousy food, worse coffee, lots of heat, lots of bugs and plenty of cigarettes.

Soldiers were scrawny, dirty, and scared most of the time, and to say so takes nothing away from their courage and bravery under fire. But it was simply impossible to suspend belief at any time during this movie because elements (or all) of every scene I was able to watch looked and sounded false and forced.

There've been plenty of very good books about this raid and those Rangers, any one of which is a better investment of time and money than The Great Raid.