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The Great Raid [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
![The Great Raid [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WY802K3GL._SL160_.jpg)
After the fall of Corregidor to the Japanese in 1942, tens of thousands of U.S. troops were herded off to captivity on the shameful Bataan Death March. Those that survived the trek languished in POW camps such as Cabanatuan, which contained 500+ prisoners in January 1945, by which time MacArthur was recapturing Philippine real estate. A battalion of Army Rangers was tasked with rescuing the Cabanatuan inmates. THE GREAT RAID is the story of that mission. One notable feature of this film is that it and the audience are not overwhelmed by the presence of superstars which steal the show. Rather, its cast is made up of relative unknowns (at least to me) portraying professional fighters going about their business. Joseph Fiennes plays the malaria-ridden Major Gibson, the senior American officer in Cabanatuan, Motoki Kobayashi as Gibson's head jailer, the venomous Major Nagai, and Benjamin Bratt as Lt. Colonel Mucci, the commander of the Ranger rescue force. Also very effective is Connie Nielsen as Margaret Utinsky, the widow of a deceased American officer and a nurse marooned for the war in Manila, where she works at a hospital and with the Filipino underground to smuggle much needed medicines to the POWs and (especially) to her pre-war boyfriend, Gibson. Director John Dahl is to be commended for giving due credit to the armed Filipino resistance, led here by Capt. Juan Pajota (Cesar Montano), who fought alongside the Rangers and played a crucial support role in the daring raid. Also, the ending credits include (what I presume to be) archival news footage of the evacuation and return home of the real Cabanatuan survivors - footage that gives history a face. As an aside, Lt. General Kreuger, who ordered the rescue mission, is portrayed by ex-Marine officer Dale Dye, who has a weekend talk show on radio KFI in Los Angeles. Dye, who some might say pontificates on-air about military matters at a level above his last active duty rank (Captain, Officer Grade O-3), played an Army Colonel in BAND OF BROTHERS. Wow, O-6 to O-9 in four years! Gee, perhaps Cap'n Dale will make 5 stars in his next Big Screen appearance. THE GREAT RAID will not play well in Japan. In the first few minutes, Japanese troops are shown forcing American POWs into air raid shelters, which are then flooded with gasoline and torched. Any burning Yanks trying to escape the inferno were shot. This, too, is ostensibly based on a true incident. WWII Pacific Theater veterans with long memories in the audience may depart the cinema thinking that the two Big Ones dropped to end the war weren't nearly enough to get even.
Our Price: £29.34 (subject to change)
Won't play well in Japan
Review date: 2005-12-26 Rating: 10 out of 10
Amidst all the special FX-laden pap put out by Hollywood, it's the sadly infrequent film that pays tribute to American soldiers at war from any factual and/or realistic perspective. (Let's ignore such harmless scriptwriters' fantasies as TOP GUN, STEALTH, GI JANE, HEARTBREAK RIDGE, and their ilk.) How many can you think of in the past half-dozen years? SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, WE WERE SOLDIERS, BLACKHAWK DOWN, and the TV miniseries BAND OF BROTHERS. Now, with our troops currently bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan with indifferent media coverage reporting only deaths by suicide bombers, we have THE GREAT RAID, based on a true World War II incident.
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Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
James Franco
Robert Mammone
Benjamin Bratt
Joseph Fiennes
Max Martini
Creators:
Benjamin Bratt (Primary Contributor)
Joseph Fiennes (Primary Contributor)
Bob Weinstein (Producer)
Harvey Weinstein (Producer)
Jonathan Gordon (Producer)
Carlo Bernard (Writer)
Doug Miro (Writer)
Hampton Sides (Writer)
William B. Breuer (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
EAN: 0786936692181
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, Director's Cut, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2005-12-20
Universal product code (UPC): 786936692181
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 1
Running time: 132 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005-08-12
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Japanese (Original Language)
Language: Tagalog (Original Language)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)