Reviews from professional critics are disappointing...

Rating: 10/10 (2 September 2005)

Having read "Ghost Soldiers" I was interested in seeing this movie but on opening day not a single theater in my county was running it. Eventually a Regal theater in the next town had it and I went to a matinée where every other moviegoer (all 15 of them) was over the age of 75. No, this isn't a moneymaker, but it is a salute the greatest generation....
Of course that's why the professional reviews were so poor. Professional reviewers today are not of the greatest generation, they're of the 60s generation. The 60s generation condemns the film as "propoganda" with "negative Japanese stereotypes", when the reality is Japanese brutality was much more horrific than shown in this film. I'm sure the use of the word "Jap" in the film also made them cringe. (As an aside, it's Japanese-Americans who are on a crusade to rid the world of the term, not Japanese.) In my opinion, this film is better than Saving Private Ryan and Thin Red Line. It's the best American made Pacific War film I have scene since Empire of the Sun. Read one of the books on which the film is based and then go see it. The differences are minimal.
This movie should be required viewing in all high school classrooms.