True to Life.

Rating: 6/10 (28 March 2015)

This is a very expensive and carefully scripted scenario of a real raid staged by Army Rangers in the Phillipines towards the end of World War II. The raid was designed to liberate a prisoner-of-war camp before the Japanese could kill all the inmates. The raid was successful and the cost not as high as it might have been without the help of the Phillipine resistance.
The Japanese occupation of the islands was undeniably brutal. Germans treated their prisoners relatively well, as if they were captured warriors. But for the Japanese, the code covering treatment lay not in the Geneva Accords or, for that matter, in Bushido. The traditional warrior's code usually called Bushido varied a great deal over time. Earlier versions counseled patience and mercy.
The Japanese militarists had subverted Bushido and turned it into an ideology in which all conquered people were characterologically inferior. The result was described to me by a friend who had grown up in Ilo-Ilo. "The river was filled with heads."
The producers shot the film in swampy northern Australia and the city scenes in Shanghai. The period detail is impeccable -- right down to the herringbone pattern of the GI fatigues and the leather (not rubber) soles of their boots. The action scene is believable if confusing. It all rather resembles "Saving Private Ryan", which is understandable in view of SPR's success: a small elite unit sneaking through enemy territory on an important, life-saving mission. I suppose many other films would qualify too -- "The Guns of Navarron," "The Professionals," et al.
But there are problems with both the writing and the performances. It's not one story but three: (1) the mission led by Benjamin Bratt to rescue the prisoners; (2) the misery of the captives; and (3) the true experiences of a nurse, played by Connie Nielson, living in Manila on a forged passport.
The film is too long and seems sluggish. Way too much time is spent on the prisoners, whose abject despondency, if not taken for granted, could have been sketched in more briefly while remaining just as compelling. The nurse's story could have been dispensed with. As it is, a fictional romance is constructed to link her to the prisoners.
Joseph Fiemannes must have lost a lot of weight because he looks extremely drawn, but again, too much time is spent with him for no discernible reason except that he's a movie star. At least his malaria is shown for what it is -- a crippling and sometimes lethal disease that involves more than a spasm of shivers.
I enjoyed Benjamin Bratt as Detective Ray Curtis on "Law&Order". He was just relaxed enough in his role. Unfortunately, the role of commander of this raid requires a character with more power. My God, imagine George C. Scott! Bratt's money scene is when he gives his Rangers a pep talk, and the scene wilts as he recites his lines.
Another problem, not an uncommon one, is that few of the other faces are familiar, and in their dark, sweat-stained uniforms and fatigue caps they're hard to tell apart. No particular performance stands out in any way except, perhaps, that of the Japanese major played by Motoki Kobayashi, a handsome and convincing but humorless officer.
The director had a hell of a time getting the Japanese to be brutal but finally persuaded them by explaining they were playing soldiers who were "just following orders." It may not have worked in Nurenberg but it worked in Australia.