Miramax Films has become infamous for their poor treatment of their films. THE GREAT RAID is one of the most expensive casualties of the studio's horrible handling, being shelved for years and finally released in a subdued fashion nationwide. The film, based on two separate novels ("The Great Raid On Cabanatuan" by William Breuer and "Ghost Soldiers" by Hampton Sides), follows multiple characters related to a raid planned by a small band of US soldiers to liberate 500+ American POWs from Cabanatuan, a Japanese-run prison camp where the survivors of the Bataan Death March are held. Lt. Colonel Mucci (Benjamin Bratt, MISS CONGELIALITY) and Captain Prince (James Franco, SPIDER-MAN) are planning to venture thirty miles into enemy territory with a relatively small force and free the POWs before they fall victim to Japan's new final solution.
Meanwhile, inside the camp, POW Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes, ENEMY AT THE GATES) tries to preserve morale among the prisoners, though their captors are starving, beating, and not medicating them. The POWs believe their nation has all but forgotten them and left them in the camp to die. Years ago, Gibson almost had an affair with Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen, GLADIATOR), the neglected wife of a now-dead military man, but his honor stopped him. Now Margaret is a member of an underground sect who smuggle medicine into the camps. She hopes to start a life with Gibson if they both manage to survive the second world war. As the raiders, placing their own lives on the line, travel towards Cabanatuan, Gibson confronts both the sadistic Japanese warden and the disease ravaging his body, while Margaret finds her job of stealing and smuggling items becoming increasingly more dangerous.
THE GREAT RAID was directed by John Dahl (JOY RIDE) and it is his most ambitious film to date. Before this, his most popular films were ROUNDERS, the gambling drama with Matt Damon and Edward Norton, and JOY RIDE, the road-trip-from-hell thriller which copied, albeit with much style, Steven Spielberg's first showcase DUEL, but here Dahl tries his hand at crafting films on a massive scale. His fans may be disappointed, as he seems to suffer when not doing films with only a few main characters. But perhaps its not the director's fault at all. Visually, THE GREAT RAID is a pleasure. The cinematography by Peter Menzies (FOUR BROTHERS) is gorgeously washed-out, similar to period color photographs, and the final action sequence, the raid itself, is amazing, equal parts brutal and exciting. This battle sequence stands head-to-head with such recent spectacular war film battles as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN's depiction of D-Day and ALEXANDER's battle in the forest of India.
The trouble is with the screenplay by newcomers Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard, whose attempt at creating a no-frills, 1950s-style war epic is honest but flawed. The scripters do a sold enough job of providing the proceedings with a nice dose of tension and the situations are closer than usual to historical fact, but as much as THE GREAT RAID succeeds in being a realistic war film it simply fails to convincingly develop its characters. Mucci and Prince, the two main raiders, are by-the-numbers heroes whose stoic demeanors are expected and uninspired. Better are Gibson and Margaret, the ailing POW and his female almost-love, who are easier to connect with. Even with these two, though, I had a beef, notably my trouble accepting their romance. Similar to the romance between the male and female leads in COLD MOUNTAIN, too much of the love is told to us and too little is shown. Its hard to accept these two as serious lovers when both seem nervous about coming out and saying "I love him/her" and we never see them together in a scene with dialogue. The rest of the characters are useless cardboard cut-outs, from the Japanese soldiers who're so one note and evil they seem to have been borrowed from an old propaganda piece to the nameless American soldiers who either sit around while the heroes plan or briefly discuss their loved ones at home.
The cast is rather bland for a war film, which usually star Mel Gibson/Russell Crowe/Tom Cruise-types. Bratt is possibly one of the most disappointing actors in recent Hollywood history. He has the handsome face and screen charisma, yet the roles he selects to fill are always, to put it nicely, cliched. He's yet to appear in a film where he truly stands out and grabs our attention. Franco is equally solid but unspectacular, while Nielsen is given little to do. The one who impressed me most was Fiennes, who conveys his character's blend of hope and despair well.
Overall, THE GREAT RAID is a technical triumph, with blazing action sequences and beautiful visuals. But the cast and the roles they play simply failed to connect with me on any acceptable level. I sat in my seat admiring the film, but also wishing it would inspire some tears or possibly inspire or rouse me with the heroism of the leads. Instead, I admired the film for 135 minutes and left fullfilled but not wowed. Recommended to those who enjoy war epics, but no one else.
B-
). And you know what? It raises clear questions on honorable action within war. The Japanese soldiers are fighting for the motherland, just as the American soldiers claim to be. Who's right? Who's evil? IMHO, war itself is the bad guy. But, a movie like this is so emotionally engaging that it seduces you into believing in right and wrong ... and for the soldiers on the ground executing this mission there is surely a righteous goal. But, the overall agenda of the movie is betrayed by the tainted historical narrative that introduces the movie. Once again, the soldiers fight for right, but their command structure is compromised by "patriotic" thieves out for personal profit.