The Great Raid is a Great Bore!

Rating: 4/10 (7 August 2005)

Back in 1945, the 6th Ranger Battalion traveled behind enemy lines in the Philippines in an attempt to rescue over 500 American prisoners of war that had been held in captivity for three long years. The story of the soldiers in the camp and the daring true life rescue are the focal points of the new American heroes film, The Great Raid.
Directed by John Dahl (Joy Ride), The Great Raid stars Law & Orders' Benjamin Bratt as Lt. Colonel Mucci who is given the assignment of planning and executing the raid at the Cabanatuan Japanese POW camp. The five days depicted in the film begin with the assembling of the troops and focuses on Captain Prince (James Franco  Spider-Man 2) who is portrayed as the brains behind the operation. Captain Prince was responsible for coming up with the military plan to be executed for the raid. We watch as he easily devises the attack while encountering minimal resistance from his commanding officers.
On the other side of the fence  literally  Major Gibson (Joseph Fiennes  Shakespeare in Love) is an American prisoner in charge of keeping his troops alive by providing them smuggled medicine and by maintaining order as their continued leader. Stricken with malaria, his health is deteriorating at the same time the special police move into the camp to take control. The timing couldn't be worse. The new commander of the compound has been mandated to ensure that to eradicate all prisoners now that the war is coming to a close. Their methods are horrific and the prisoners no doubt realize that the end  one way or another  is coming.
With the two stories having equal play time over the first two-thirds of the movie, The Great Raid soon shifts from mellow-drama to action film as the Rangers storm the compound. The theatre rumbled as mortars were shot, machine gun fire erupted and tanks and army vehicles flipped under the shear force of their explosion. While the American's were storming the compound, the Philippine rebels were aiding in ensuring that Japanese army could not be reinforced from the other side of the river.
The concluding rescue with an American force that was fighting against detection, against the odds and against time would be labeled as 'The most daring mission of our time'.
So then why was I so bored while watching? Maybe it was because of all the unnecessary yarns that lead up to the final chapter. A side story of very little interest involving Connie Neilsen as Margaret Utinsky, a hospital worker who helps acquire the smuggled drugs for the ailing prisoners felt like it was in another movie altogether. Another involving a prisoner that is hell-bent on escaping even after being forewarned that any attempt would result in ten others being shot seems awkward and unmoving.
Looking back on the experience, I think the makers of The Great Raid would have been better off staying with one side of the transpiring events. A story of the prisoners when expanded to feature film length would be something to leave the A&E channel at home for and likewise, giving two hours of screen time to what is such a military achievement would be equally engrossing. Instead we get a little bit of both without getting intimate to any of the characters and attaching the audience with any of the portrayals.
The Great Raid has been sitting on the Miramax shelf for two years. Originally slated to be released in 2003 and then again in 2004, the films theatrical delay was a result of the much publicized Disney/Miramax split It's too bad that they didn't use the time to chisel away at needless plot points and or strengthen stereotyped military personnel depictions. At the very least they could have revamped the musical score that would even have Hans Zimmer rolling his eyes in over-wrought expression or ensured that bravado dialogue such as 'Nothing in our lives will ever be as important as this' was liquid papered out of the final draft.