I have been looking forward to the motion picture “The Great Raid” for a long time. I have had an intense interest in the Philippines during World War II for most of my life. My motivation to attend this movie was very high; however, having a pretty good background on this period in W.W.II, I also have very high standards that might be hard for a movie to live up to. I have actually met, through some writing I did years ago, people who were rescued and at least one member of the 6th Ranger Battalion, who did the rescuing. I had a chance to view the movie last night. My main fear was that Hollywood, would “soft sell” the prison camp experience, especially since a “minority” (the Japanese) were the captors, unlike bashing the Germans, who are always Politically Correct to bash (as much as they deserve it). However, my fears were completely laid to rest very early in the film. One of the first scenes in “The Great Raid” was a recreation of the atrocity carried out by the Japanese against about 150 American POWs at Porta Princessa on Palawan in the Philippines in December, 1944. Alarmed by a recent air attack by American planes, the Japanese herded the POWs into air raid shelters, poured gas on them and set them on fire, killing any who tried to escape. As I recall, only five prisoners managed to escape. No P.C. in this film! The movie sort of goes back and forth between three sections of the plot – the prison camp, the Rangers and their preparations for the attack with their Filipino allies, and the activities of Margaret Utinsky (the “Miss U” of the movie). The prison camp was an almost exact replica of pictures I have seen of Cabanatuan, which originally housed as many as 12,000 American POWs. All the details, like the straw mats were correct. By 1945, when the movie takes place, all but about 500 had been moved. Those remaining were mostly the sick and old, who were deemed too unfit to work. The producers of the movie capture the feeling of being in the camp. Some of the things happening, like the “shooting squad” scene, took place at an earlier time, but the fact was that the Japanese said (and did) they would shoot 10 prisoners for each one who tried to escape was a fact of life. The “Major Gibson” character played by Joseph Fiennes was fictitious as was the romance between him and the Miss U character. The actual commander of the camp was Col. Paul Duckworth, who survived the raid and captivity. Particularly effective were the several shots of the crude graveyard at the camp. The Japanese guards were portrayed in all their cruelty with little held back. The punishment scene for the escaped prisoners was actually a lot more "detailed", shall we say, in real life, but the idea was gotten across. One part I had serious doubts was the Margaret Utinsky character and I thought the whole thing was a fabrication or exaggeration. However, I spent some time after the movie reading my sources on her and found that actually, the movie got the story pretty close. Margaret Utinsky was one of the most interesting people I have ever read. She was married to an American officer who was captured on Bataan. He died but their marriage was a good one and she had genuine grief. When Manila was captured, she somehow passed herself off as a Lithuanian national (under the assumption that not too many Japanese spoke Lithuanian!). She soon became involved in the Underground and did actually gather supplies and money for the inmates. She was captured and tortured for 32 days and was unaccountably released and did join the guerillas, much as the movie recounted. The romance between her and the “Major Gibson” character was completely fictitious and could have been left out. Miss U was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom many years later. I met her briefly several years ago. The training of the Rangers, their preparation and the actual attack was excellent and was very close to the references I have read. The attack, carried out by about 200 Rangers with a short distance of some 30,000 Japanese, was brilliant and the movie shows this. One of the early reviews said the movie “dragged” but I thought the producers did a good job of building up the tension for the attack. I noticed in the credits that Dale Dye was one of the technical advisors and I’m sure he put the actors through his usual two weeks of “boot camp” as he did in “Saving Private Ryan”. Being a confirmed “wheel counter”, I did see a few mistakes – at least one Filipino guerrilla had an SMLE; I also noticed the guerrillas using a Browning M1917 heavy machine gun (I would have hated to hump THAT around in the jungles of Luzon with the Japanese on my tail!). I noticed the Japanese driving an American command car, but given the fact they captured large quantities of equipment on Bataan, this wasn’t out of line. As far as equipment and weapons, everything looked “straight” to me. I believe the “duel” between the Japanese commander and the Rangers was also made up, however. The characters were very believable. Even the made-up American POW commander was a composite of some people I have read about. Naturally the Miss U character was made a lot better-looking than the real Miss U, who was in her mid-30s and a little on the dumpy side, if the wartime picture I saw of her can be believed. The movie was not without flaws but in general, it was one of the best war movies I have seen in recent years. Together with the movie “To End All Wars”, it shows the reality of the POW experience. It also shows the bravery and motivation of the Rangers. The real Captain Bob Prince said, “...I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life that I had a chance to do something in this war that was not destructive. Nothing for me can ever compare with the satisfaction I got from helping to free our prisoners.” One more thing: If you see the movie or rent the DVD, make sure to stay through the closing credits – actual newsreel footage is shown of the return of the POWs with the Rangers and their return to the United States. I highly recommend this movie. If I were to give this movie a rating it would be four out of five stars. The only negative is the phony romance. This movie deserves to be given far wider exposure than it has been to date. For example, I went to one of those Cineplexs that show numerous movies and it was not on the reader board. Bias? Perhaps. If I had children 10 and over, they would see this movie, making sure they were "prepped" ahead of time. Carl Mydens, the famous “Life” photographer who had been interned by the Japanese at the start of the war, wrote this about the raid: “...Every American child of coming generations will know of the 6th Rangers, for a prouder story has never been written…” Unfortunately, this story is little known by our population at large, much less the young charges of our questionable public school system. This was HIGH on my list for obtaining a "director cut" DVD!! Still working through the "extras" on it.
Hey Rick. Welcome to the forums. I can't say I liked the film as much as you did. Once again, romance ruined a perfectly good movie. When will hollywood learn that war and love do not go hand in hand? Another flaw in the movie was the length of time spent with the Rangers. I didn't feel that I "got to know" the characters. Come to think of it, I can't remember any of them except the Captain and Lieutenant Colonel. You look at a movie like Saving Private Ryan and compare it to this. In SPR, you got to know each and every character, where they came from, what they did for a living, etc. I'd give it 2 stars out of 5, just for the POW scenes.
Good points but I thought it better then that - 4 stars out of 5. I thought the Ranger scenes very good. The romance would have been OK -- if it had a shread of truth. Still, compared to the usual garbage Hollywood brings out on the US military (i.e. "Jarhead"), this film was very good. "Saving Private Ryan", although parts of it were very powerfully acted had a very lame story line, much more than "The Great Raid". [ 31. December 2005, 08:49 PM: Message edited by: Rick the Librarian ]
I thought "The Great Raid" was good and I was mostly glad that they didn't try to water down what the Japanese did. I wasn't bothered too much about the romance simply because their wasn't a lot of smooching and what not (like Pearl Harbor, which was absolutely awful).
Having read ghost soldiers about the rangers, rescue of the p.o.w.i look forward to seeing this film anyone know if it is released in the uk yet?
