The Great Raid Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

The Great Raid Blu-ray Movie Review

Not your everyday war movie, but one worthy of this fine Blu-ray presentation.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 16, 2007

We all knew the idealistic notion of rescuing the POWs far outweighed its strategic value.

Fans expecting a war movie with several large action scenes throughout may not like The Great Raid. The movie is meticulous in detail, putting the viewer in the shoes of the officers planning a raid to save 500 Americans held at the Cabanatuan POW Camp. The film takes its time getting to the raid itself which represents the only major action sequence of the movie (and it's a "great" one). It's a remarkable achievement in war filmmaking, marking one of the few war movies I have seen where the action is the payoff and not the driving force behind the plot. The Great Raid is what war really is all about. Ask any soldier--war is more about the wait and anticipation rather than actual fighting. That's what The Great Raid is. It's the meticulous 4 day planning of a 20 minute firefight to rescue 500 prisoners. It's enthralling throughout, and a very satisfying experience long after the credits roll.

Colonel Mucci and Captain Prince finalize plans for the raid.

In January of 1945, World War II is beginning its final year of combat operations. Since the end of 1941, the Americans and Japanese have been in a state of war. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese surrounded General Douglas MacArthur at Corregidor, a small island off of the Philippines. MacArthur is forced by Presidential orders to evacuate to Australia. The Japanese finally take Corregidor, marking the worst defeat in American military history, and subsequently the Philippines as well, and MacArthur vows to one day return to reclaim the region from the Japanese. American prisoners are forced to partake in a 60 mile march to internment camps. Those who are unable to make the trip are murdered. This infamous act has become known as "The Bataan Death March." Some 15,000 Americans perished and the survivors were imprisoned in several camps, including Cabanatuan. Slowly but surely, the Americans drove the Japanese back to their mainland where preparations were being made to ensure that every last Japanese citizen would be equipped to fight to the death. On August 1, 1944, an Imperial Japanese decree stated that the aim of the camps is to deny escape to the prisoners and to ultimately annihilate them all, leaving no trace of their whereabouts or existence behind.

Word has come down that several hundred American prisoners are at Cabanatuan and as the movie opens, Lieutenant Colonel Mucci (Benjamin Bratt, Traffic) and Captain Prince (James Franco, the Spider- Man trilogy) must plot a rescue attempt. The new Japanese edict on POWs assures that the Americans captives have little time remaining before they are executed. The raid will require speed, surprise, and overwhelming firepower to succeed. The plan is complicated when the exact number of enemy soldiers is unclear, and matters are further worsened when several hundred Japanese reinforcements arrive to the camp before the raid. The raid itself will be challenging. The terrain some 800 yards out in all directions is flat with no cover. The men will need to move stealthily and smartly to get into position before the raid. As the raid nears, tensions mount on all sides as the Japanese reinforce the camp, the Rangers must arrive to the camp undetected, and the prisoners inside continue to suffer, some near death with no hope or help in sight. Only a perfectly executed raid will win the day and set 500 men free.

This is a very unique film. Unlike the Saving Private Ryan's and Black Hawk Down's of the world (both fine, fine films to be sure), The Great Raid treats the viewer to a world little visited in film: the attention to detail and forethought that goes into planned combat offensives. What we get glimpses of in films like Black Hawk Down is the plot for The Great Raid. Before you think that the film is an hour and forty minutes of people sitting around a map and twenty minutes of action, there are several sub plots littered throughout, including the American-Filipino bond, life in the POW camp, and the relationship between an American POW and his lady friend who has medicine smuggled into the camp for the men. "Entertaining" is not the right word for this film. It's certainly more of a thinking man's war film, one best left for those with patience to let the film play itself out. Personally, I enjoyed this approach. It made the action more of a payoff. I felt part of the raid, I understood it and having been through the planning stages with the men, and I felt I had a stake in its success. The battle is certainly worthy of the wait, too. The raid on the camp is one of the most intense and well-staged battle scenes ever committed to film. This is an excellent film in the vein of Das Boot that immerse the viewer in the world of the soldier rather than showing the viewer action scene after action scene in an impersonal and distant manner.

The Great Raid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This 1080p, 2.40:1 high definition transfer is practically flawless. I spent a good deal of the movie in awe as to how natural and real everything looked, from the men to the structures to the ground to the sky and to the trees. It has a very personal and lifelike look to it, certainly living up to Blu-rays reputation of providing the most realistic home viewing experience possible. Much of what you will see, like so many other war film of the past decade, is a slightly desaturated image. What is presented here is nowhere near as drastic as the effect was in Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers, but it's still certainly been inspired by the look of those films. The print used here, no surprise, is pristine. Colors are sharp and accurate and flesh tones are perfectly rendered. Small details make this image stand out. For example, when the time of the raid is nearing, several men glance at their watches. Not only can we see the hands on the watch, we can see fine lines and scratches in the crystal and make out the small text on each watch face. The raid itself takes place at night and as a result, blacks are of the utmost importance. Thankfully, they are handled to near perfection here. I noted only an instance or two where I thought they were a little crushed resulting in a slight loss of perceivable detail. The image does look a tad bit soft at times, but I only really noticed it in two or three scenes. Overall, however, this is a top-notch transfer and one of the best I've had the opportunity to view.

The Great Raid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an uncompressed PCM track running at 4.6 Mbps are included. For this review, I screened the film with the PCM track and I was not disappointed with the quality. This is a very loud and aggressive track when there is action on screen and it's very subdued when dialogue is present. To be sure, the sounds of war are wonderfully reproduced. The raid is a remarkable sonic experience and the viewer is instantly immersed not only by the on-screen action but also by the sounds of war. Machine gun fire, explosions, and screams come from every direction, and it sounds crisp and tight. There is wonderful directionality and panning of sound throughout. Effects such as planes flying from the front to rear and and jeeps driving from left to right flow naturally from one speaker to another. Perhaps most impressive is the use of ambience. There always seems to be something going on in the background--crickets chirping, chatter, and the mechanical sounds of rolling jeeps always keep the listener firmly entrenched in the film.

The Great Raid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, the only extra here is a commentary track with producer Marty Katz, director John Dahl, editor Scott Chestnut, military advisor Dale Dye, and Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers. This is a very fine track with a great deal of information, especially for history buffs. Parts of it sound like a lecture on the subject in a university, and I find that very appealing and it fits in with the spirit of the picture. There are plenty of technical details as well for the film buffs. This is a wonderful track, one of the better ones out there, but it's simply a shame that there is not more to be seen and heard about the making of the film and this real life history behind its story.

The Great Raid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Great Raid is a film with an awkward past. It sat in the Miramax vault for several years before being released (the film was green lit days after 9/11 and completed just over a year later). Upon its release, it was generally not well-received by critics or the public, both of whom lambasted the film for being overly long and slow. I guess we've become a generation that isn't satisfied unless there is a crude joke or large action sequence every few minutes. Those types of films are fine. I like them, and they certainly have their place. Why a film is criticized for stepping out of the box to show us something different and frankly far more intriguing is a real puzzler for this critic. For me, The Great Raid is a genuinely thought-provoking and realistic movie. It's a film meant to place us in 1945 as a member of the raiding party. It's cast is of lesser known actors so as to minimize the distraction of associating the character with anyone but the character. The Great Raid is a great shame in that it is a film that will be lost to history, one that will probably continue to go unrecognized in lieu of flashier effects driven films that forget what war and life therein is really all about. This Blu-ray version is a mixed blessing. We are treated to the audio and visual quality worthy of both the format and the film, but extras are conspicuously MIA, save for the fine commentary track. Nevertheless, the movie speaks for itself as fine art that shows what war is really all about. Highly recommended.