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The Great Raid (2005) - Joseph Fiennes, Benjamin Bratt
Friday, August 26, 2011
4:18 PM
Labels: action , adventure , benjamin bratt , fiennes , patriotic , POW , rescue , romance , war , ww2 , wwii , 0 comments
Labels: action , adventure , benjamin bratt , fiennes , patriotic , POW , rescue , romance , war , ww2 , wwii , 0 comments
The Links:IMDB | RottenTomatoes | FilmCritic
Streaming: Amazon, Netflix
Genre: Action Adventure War Pic with Romantic Drama subplot
STUFF:
R, 2 hr. 12 min..
The Short Story
(Shining Through meets To End All Wars)
Star studded prisoner rescue film where Benjamin Bratt, James Franco (yeah, I know), Mark Consuelos plan a very quick rescue of hundreds of American prisoners in a Philippine prison held by sadistic Japanese tormentors under orders to fight to death - and leave no one alive. Meanwhile, Connie Nielsen (Gladiator) fearlessly spearheads the Manila underground in part to get drugs to her true love, prisoner Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love).
I'll warn you up front. The critics hated it. Only got a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was panned by a LOT of people. From reading the reviews you would think it was STRIPTEASE or GIGLI. I remember really, really liking it the first time I saw it, late at night, on Pay-Per-VIew in a hotel room travelling somewhere. But, with no expectations (I'd never even heard of the film) and no recollection of how sleep deprived or alcohol influenced - who really knows if my recollection was accurate? Some people have a mind like a steel trap, others like a Styrofoam cooler that has been submerged in a polluted lake for 2 summers. I leave it up to you which I am more prone to be categorized.
But, on an early AMC cable showing, despite having a backlogged call list, time critical work to do and a blog to plan, I put down everything and watched it all over again. In my home abode, during non-libation hours. And I loved it. Remember - this blog is not THE BEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME, but THE BEST MOVIES YOU HAVEN'T SEEN. And while not, anywhere near SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or DEFIANCE, I was thoroughly captivated for the rest of the movie. 72% of the public agreed with me at Rotten Tomatoes. (Isn't it funny that critics LOVED the Clint Eastwood film LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA 91% but the public somewhat less.) The movie did so bad at the theater - (IMDB says it made only $10 Million - basically the budget for a chef and masseuse on a Julia Roberts film) - that it was only shown on about 800 screens for 2 weeks.
This is taken from a real story which, in fact, remains the most successful rescue mission in U.S. military history. One hundred twenty one, mostly inexperienced Army Rangers, went up against a seriously larger Japanese military force to rescue over 500 POW's.
I think what set this apart from other war films for me was the subplot involving the Manila underground. Not only was Fiennes woman desparate to help him, she was incredibly strong and selfless why doing so. This real life character, Margaret Utinsky, went on to receive the Medal of Freedom from President Truman.
The film looks beautiful and while critics said it dragged, it did NOT at all for me. And I like war films - but it's not my first choice unless I've been bottled up on a LA or Houston freeway for 3 hours going 15 m.p.h. behind Grandma "I love my brakes more than Geritol".
I didn't know it was a film based on a true story, but footage of the real characters added one a dimension that held me to through credits. I love my country. I love our armed forces. I love it that we stand for good in the world and WANT to win for the underdog - or in the role of the underdog.
Maybe some people didn't like it because the film depicts sacrificial love, honor, and the superiority not just of the land I love, but of the ideals it stands for.
For me this is a movie I would watch over and over again. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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