The Great Raid
cast: Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, James Franco, Cesar Montano (woo!)
The good: delivers on a story-telling level
The bad: the romantic subplot
World War II films happen about as often as sleeping, so it takes a special kind of film to stand out from the sea (or rather, ocean) of WWII-based features. The Great Raid fits the bill for an enjoyable, thoroughly engaging, if a bit slow-paced, offering in a not-so well known period of the war: the great raid on Cabanatuan, Philippines.
Over 500 American POWs (prisoners of war) are being held in a small, lightly guarded compound near the local battle frontline. The American forces have landed anew and are preparing to once again liberate the country. The Japanese realize their imminent defeat and are prepared to dispose off of any remaining prisoners in their camps. Intelligent sources place the planned liquidation in about a week (when the Americans break through the frontlines), so a plan is quickly set into motion to rescue the American captives.
Leading this effort is Lt. Colonel Mucci (Benjamin Bratt), commander of apparently the best Ranger unit in the country. Capt. Prince (James Franco), meanwhile, is the young hotshot who planned the whole effort. These two are fine actors and their respective performances in the film are notable and worthy of mention. But their physical appearances betray the characters that they portray. For instance, Bratt looks too Filipino, and in a film set in the Philippines (though not actually shot here) with Filipino characters and actors, it’s hard to take his character seriously. Perhaps someone like Bruce Willis would have played the part more convincingly, acting wise or otherwise. James Franco suffers from almost the same flaw. His character is supposed to be the brains behind everything, yet there are so many scenes where he is shown to be indecisive and unsure of himself. He’s confused as to the methods and ideology of his long-time mentor, Lt. Col. Mucci. As a result, it becomes all the more hard to have a connection with his character. Furthermore, Franco looks much too young and clean for this sort of film, as was Bratt, actually. Perhaps a little dirt in their faces could have helped.
The film also shows the events happening inside the Japanese prison camp with the most senior American soldier there, Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes), with his close aide Captain Redding (Marton Csokas) getting the prime focus. Redding, however, becomes a major distraction, not because of Csokas (who is always terrific), but rather his unusual dedication in keeping hopes alive for the romantic link between Gibson and Margaret Utinsky, an American nurse in Manila who just happened to be a leader of a local underground resistance group, whose aims are to steal vital medicine from the hospitals and smuggling it to the POW camps. There’s a backstory as to their past but it’s as thin as onion paper. Going back to the character of Redding, his only use in the film seems to be to further sell the connection between the aforementioned characters. The love subplot is useless (and boring) enough, why put more fuel in its fire? But lovey-dopey things aside, the best dramatic moments actually happen in the prison camp scenes with Gibson increasingly getting weaker (he gets stricken with malaria) while still trying to get his men under control.
This wouldn’t be a WWII film without a healthy ration of battle scenes, and while the action seems confined to the last parts, they were better that way as they allow everything to be set in position first. The final raid itself is enjoyable, providing high-tension excitement after the long wait, but it reminded me a bit of Filipino action films wherein a small band of fighters surprisingly defeats a seemingly idiotic army of much greater numbers. True, everything was done according to the historical records of the raid, but the implementation itself could have been less straightforward.
Essence-wise, though, the Great Raid is a true accomplishment, delivering the story of an oft-ignored theater of the war with a high emotional overtone and feel-good sentiments. It could have been more effective (perhaps with someone like Spielberg on board) and it could have used more editing effort, but nonetheless, every Filipino should see this film, even though Cesar Montano’s part was a bit too small. (3/5)
The good: delivers on a story-telling level
The bad: the romantic subplot
World War II films happen about as often as sleeping, so it takes a special kind of film to stand out from the sea (or rather, ocean) of WWII-based features. The Great Raid fits the bill for an enjoyable, thoroughly engaging, if a bit slow-paced, offering in a not-so well known period of the war: the great raid on Cabanatuan, Philippines.
Over 500 American POWs (prisoners of war) are being held in a small, lightly guarded compound near the local battle frontline. The American forces have landed anew and are preparing to once again liberate the country. The Japanese realize their imminent defeat and are prepared to dispose off of any remaining prisoners in their camps. Intelligent sources place the planned liquidation in about a week (when the Americans break through the frontlines), so a plan is quickly set into motion to rescue the American captives.
Leading this effort is Lt. Colonel Mucci (Benjamin Bratt), commander of apparently the best Ranger unit in the country. Capt. Prince (James Franco), meanwhile, is the young hotshot who planned the whole effort. These two are fine actors and their respective performances in the film are notable and worthy of mention. But their physical appearances betray the characters that they portray. For instance, Bratt looks too Filipino, and in a film set in the Philippines (though not actually shot here) with Filipino characters and actors, it’s hard to take his character seriously. Perhaps someone like Bruce Willis would have played the part more convincingly, acting wise or otherwise. James Franco suffers from almost the same flaw. His character is supposed to be the brains behind everything, yet there are so many scenes where he is shown to be indecisive and unsure of himself. He’s confused as to the methods and ideology of his long-time mentor, Lt. Col. Mucci. As a result, it becomes all the more hard to have a connection with his character. Furthermore, Franco looks much too young and clean for this sort of film, as was Bratt, actually. Perhaps a little dirt in their faces could have helped.
The film also shows the events happening inside the Japanese prison camp with the most senior American soldier there, Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes), with his close aide Captain Redding (Marton Csokas) getting the prime focus. Redding, however, becomes a major distraction, not because of Csokas (who is always terrific), but rather his unusual dedication in keeping hopes alive for the romantic link between Gibson and Margaret Utinsky, an American nurse in Manila who just happened to be a leader of a local underground resistance group, whose aims are to steal vital medicine from the hospitals and smuggling it to the POW camps. There’s a backstory as to their past but it’s as thin as onion paper. Going back to the character of Redding, his only use in the film seems to be to further sell the connection between the aforementioned characters. The love subplot is useless (and boring) enough, why put more fuel in its fire? But lovey-dopey things aside, the best dramatic moments actually happen in the prison camp scenes with Gibson increasingly getting weaker (he gets stricken with malaria) while still trying to get his men under control.
This wouldn’t be a WWII film without a healthy ration of battle scenes, and while the action seems confined to the last parts, they were better that way as they allow everything to be set in position first. The final raid itself is enjoyable, providing high-tension excitement after the long wait, but it reminded me a bit of Filipino action films wherein a small band of fighters surprisingly defeats a seemingly idiotic army of much greater numbers. True, everything was done according to the historical records of the raid, but the implementation itself could have been less straightforward.
Essence-wise, though, the Great Raid is a true accomplishment, delivering the story of an oft-ignored theater of the war with a high emotional overtone and feel-good sentiments. It could have been more effective (perhaps with someone like Spielberg on board) and it could have used more editing effort, but nonetheless, every Filipino should see this film, even though Cesar Montano’s part was a bit too small. (3/5)
posted by NaCl at Monday, August 22, 2005
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