A Tribute with Little Exaggeration

Rating: 7/10 (7 December 2017)

"The Great Raid" is about the most successful rescue mission in US military history. The opening monologue's newsreel footage provides a very brief summary of the Pacific Theater of Operations and Japanese anxiety as the tide of World War II changes. Shown are the terrible trials of the 1942 forced 60-mile Bataan death march, where hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of their Filipino allies perished in the Philippines. In 1944, the Japanese war ministry issued a directive that all prisoners of war (POW) were to be eliminated before rescue by the Americans. One horrible scene in particular demonstrates Japanese cruelty: the Palawan massacre, when 150 American POWs were forced into trenches, doused with gasoline and burned alive shortly after MacArthur's 1944 landing.
In late January 1945, the Americans made preparations to free the remaining 500 allied POWs from the Cabanatuan prison camp. The prisoners have been weakened and starved. There are 250 Japanese soldiers in the prison camp, and 1,000 more nearby. A quarter of a million fresh American troops were already on Luzon in the north, the largest Philippine island. Lt. Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) is chosen to direct the Sixth Ranger Battalion (120 men) and Filipino allies through 30 miles of jungles in a rescue attempt. Mucci's chief strategist is Captain Bob Prince (James Franco), who plans (and leads) the campaign.
There is a major subplot: It involves plucky Nurse Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen, based upon a real person) who smuggles medicines, especially quinine, into the POW camp. Her place of work is Manila Hospital, which harbors Japanese spies and informers. She was picked up, questioned, and tortured by the Japanese. A widow, she is romantically linked with the unfortunate Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes), the highest ranking American soldier in the Cabanatuan camp. Debilitated, he suffers from malaria and cannot get quinine.
While the Sixth rangers are the best-trained force in the US Army, they have never been tested under fire. Meanwhile just before the raid Japanese Colonel Mori (Ken Senga) receives many barrels of fuel, and awaits orders from Tokyo to liquidate all of the Bataan prisoners. A single American airplane flies over the camp at twilight to give prisoners hope. After dark the fighting begins.
There are no spoilers here. The movie's promotion states right up that this is a story about a daring rescue mission. There is no mystery as to who won the world war. Rather, the film is about how the rescue was done. It is amazing that only two Americans died (The Filipinos sustained 21 casualties). The actual footage during the end credits was a real treat along with the uplifting soundtrack.
As much as this tale deserves to be told, some may consider the first part to be rather slow-moving. Once the raid actually begins, however, the movie does pick up. Overall, this is an uplifting message of redemption based on actual historical events, and there is very little exaggeration. The film is narrated by James Franco.