Mucci has convinced top brass to sign off on an extremely risky rescue mission to extract the surviving 511 Cabanatuan prisoners. Colonel Mucci (Bratt), prisoners at the Japanese-controlled Cabanatuan prison camp led by Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes), and the clandestine civilian underground in Manila embodied by gutsy nurse Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen).
Hollywood depictions of this less-appreciated front of WWII are so uncommon that younger auds who slept through history class may be stunned to see Japanese soldiers depicted here as murderous thugs, bent on killing all prisoners before the inevitable final battle with the Allies.īernard and Miro’s script plods from the start as it carefully introduces Prince and his macho commanding officer Lt. retreat and the surrender of more than 70,000 Allied troops who ended up in brutal prison camps and the infamous Bataan death march.īy August 1944, tide of the war had turned, and the Allies were back in the Philippines beating back the Japanese.
#THE GREAT RAID FULL MOVIE MOVIE#
Several artistic contributors - from first-time screenwriters Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro to production designer Bruno Rubeo and composer Trevor Rabin (whose music almost never stops during the slow 132 minute running time) - appear to have created what they believe a WWII Pacific movie should look and sound like, but without ever managing to make it feel real.Ī factoid approach defines the History Channel-style intro, narrated by Franco’s Captain Prince and filled with black-and-white documentary footage of the start of the Pacific war from Pearl Harbor to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, the U.S. Similarly out of their element are leads Benjamin Bratt, James Franco and Joseph Fiennes, who never manage to viscerally connect with their characters’ dilemmas or strengths. Here, Dahl is forced to put aside everything he’s good at - compact storytelling, portentous Western settings, nefarious characters - in favor of managing a bloated and studied imitation of better prison camp films, from “The Bridge on the River Kwai” to “The Great Escape.”
Problem starts with noir specialist John Dahl as helmer. Lensed nearly three years ago but delayed by Miramax, which is releasing it now as part of a last-minute rush of pics being released before the official exit of Bob and Harvey Weinstein, project is a classic example of talented people given the wrong assignments.
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