Review of The Great Raid (2005) by Brant S — 16 Jul 2010

This film kind of got buried during the Mirimax buyout which is really a shame because this a good film that tells a story about WWII that's not well known. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor a large force of Americans and Filipinos were basically left without supplies or Naval support and pushed back by the Japanese to the Bataan peninsula. By order of military command they surrendered and 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were forcibly marched to prison camps. Historians say as many as 20,000 of those POWs did not make it during the Bataan Death March, the Japanese viewed surrender as completely weak and had little regard for the POWs. Many more died later in the camps from the effects of the march.

As the tides of victory changed years later and the Americans were pushing back into the Philippines the Japanese decided to kill all POWs and hide the evidence of their War Crimes. The Allies get wind of one camp's extermination and so set about a daring rescue plan that would end up becoming America's greatest ever military rescue. 511 POWs were rescued with something like 2 American Ranger deaths and 21 Filipino guerrilla deaths. While not a strategically important victory it was an incredible morale booster for the extremely tough pacific campaign.

While not as flashy as Saving Private Ryan this is a well-told film that has good performances from it's large cast. Don't expect a lot of action however, until the ending rescue.