Movie Review: The Great Raid

As far as movies go, the thriller premise of The Great Raid is as taut as they come ‑- in the throes of war, a retreating army is going to kill its last prisoners, so the incoming opposing forces make one last-ditch heroic effort to save them by sending a squad in behind enemy lines. Lives are on the line, which tests the men's souls, and there's even a love story with a heroic woman willing to risk her life to be with the man of her dreams.

Why is this not a big-budget Hollywood adventure movie with Ben Affleck as a beefy general racing to save an emaciated Jude Law? The story of the daring raid to rescue 500 survivors of the Bataan Death March at the end of World War II was not that well known until Hampton Sides's 2001 best-seller, Ghost Soldiers, for one thing. That means it was never part of the hagiography that makes for easily told tales of heroes, where action directors can tone down the familiar story elements and charge up the bombs for some major historical epic like, say, Pearl Harbor.

John Dahl, a filmmaker known for sophisticated thrillers like The Last Seduction, treats this more like an independent film. He pays great attention to the dialogue and the acting. And where other directors have used special effects and huge production budgets to make the reality of battle come across on the screen, Dahl is resolutely low budget. He leaves the brief display of firepower for the nail-biting finale, with most of the shooting and bombing happening off screen as he focuses on the faces of the men involved in the fight.

He's got a lot of story to tell before he gets to any bombs, some of which he does with newsreel footage and narration to set up the psychological importance of rescuing these particular prisoners, who were the remainder of over 70,000 left behind to a terrible fate when MacArthur retreated from the Philippines in 1942. The film then weaves back and forth between the two bold men who are charged with liberating the last of the Japanese POW camps in Bataan and the prisoners themselves, who are just barely holding on through sickness and lack of morale. There's also a third story line with a band of Philippine resistance fighters led by a nurse, Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen), who just happens to be in love with one of the leaders of the prisoners, Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes).

The film is at its best depicting the difficult relationship between the army's top guy on the mission, Lieutenant Colonel Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) and his brainy strategist, Captain Prince (James Franco). The two butt heads constantly over how they should plan the raid, who should lead it and who should take part in it. They are walking blind into an impossible situation ‑- they might be able to sneak a small band of men through enemy lines to the camp, but, if they make it that far, how can so few men overtake a heavily fortified garrison? And if they somehow manage to succeed, how can they get the prisoners to safety, considering that not many of them can walk? It's a real puzzle, and the clock is ticking.

When the story wanders to the prisoners, it is less engaging, as Dahl tries to concentrate on their psychology of staying together. While Fiennes is an impressive actor, he doesn't have much to add to the genre of suffering war hero ‑- his brother, Ralph, did a much better job in The English Patient, and John Malkovich topped them all years ago in Empire of the Sun. When the story veers off to Manila for the travails of Margaret Utinsky and her rebels, it gets almost hackneyed. While she is a great historical female hero, this side plot doesn't connect well with the brawny story of survival going on in the rest of the film.

The whole film covers less than a week's time, so by the time Dahl gets to the raid, he has built up a lot of tension for the final battle scene. Low budget or not, he delivers on the heroism that comes with a story of men testing their courage to save the lives of others.

iVillage Mood Meter: Will make you want to read the book it's based on to find out more about these heroic people

Stars: Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Joseph Fiennes
Director: John Dahl
Screenwriters: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro
Producers: Lawrence Bender, Marty Katz
Release date: August 19, 2005, limited
Rated: R
Distributor: Miramax

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