The Great Raid:
This movie takes place on a Phillipine island towards the end of World War II. The Japanese had taken control of the island and had been holding 500 American soldiers as their prionsers in a POW camp in Cabanatuan for nearly 3 years now. They are all being treated horribly by the Japanese and many of them can hardly walk and some have contracted Malaria. Due to a lack of food, they are all extremely skinny and their clothes are in rags. The men were given specific orders not to attempt an escape and if one did, 10 men would die along with him. One man tried to escape but was caught by a Jap and him along with 10 others were shot and killed.
Meanwhile, the 6th Ranger Battalion was stationed about 30 miles away from the POW camp. Lt. Col. Henry Mucci and his rangers was ordered by the Lt. General to make their way towards the camp and liberate the POWs in Cabanatuan before they are all killed by the Japanese. They aquired a layout of the camp and Captain Robert Prince begins making plans to raid it. Their strategy seemed difficult however, as the camp was heavily guarded.
While the soldiers are perfecting their plans, a secret Filipino resistance group called the Underground is meeting. Their leader, Margaret Utinsky is a nurse and has been smuggling drugs into the POW camp to keep the prisoners alive. She is not doing this simply out of the goodness of her heart but rather to save a very good friend of hers who has come down with Malaria during his time at the POW camp. Her efforts are met with struggles however. The Japanese evacuate the hospital where she works after they gain knowledge of the drug smuggling. They line up the the hospital employees and a nurse they had captured is forced to pick out those who had been committing the wrong-doing. She points to several people but when she comes to Margaret, the two stare at each other for an instant. At first you think that she is going to be called out but then the nurse points to someone behind Margaret. Then all the chosen ones, including a friend of Margaret who had been helping her smuggle drugs, are shot in the head by the Japanese and the safe employees are sent back to work. Later on, someone discovers what Margaret has been doing and the leader of the Japs at the camp questions her. She denies any connections to the camp or her friend, whose picture the Japs find in her bible. She also refuses to give any information regarding her fellow Underground Filipinos. She is put into jail until the Japs find the people involved and kill them all. Then Margaret is put back to work.
As the movie progresses, the rangers get closer and closer to the POW camp. At one point, they come across a Filipino village that had been ransacked by the Japanese. The survivors are weeping while they burn the dead bodies in a huge heap. The rangers meet the leader of a small Filipino force and they discuss their strategy with them. The Filipinos join up with the rangers and together they continue on towards Cabanatuan. A group of rangers sets up a bomb underneath an important bridge that the Japanese use to transport their supplies and troops to and from the camp. The bridge is set to blow up shortly after they rangers begin their raid to save the POWs. Finally, the rangers raid the camp and kill every Japanese soldier there, only losing a couple of their own men in the process.
In the end, all the prisoners of war are liberated after they were captured three years ago and are taken to a safe area. Margaret goes to find her friend amongst the survivors. One of the prisoners takes her to the area where he lays with all the other prisoners being nursed back to health. Margaret pulls back the blanket which covers his body head to toe only to find tha he had ultimately died of Malaria right after the raid. She is given a letter that he had written for her in which he explains that he had always loved her and wished they could have been together. At the very end of the movie, there is real-life footage of the rangers and the imprisoned soldiers returning after the raid. Even though the raid didn't help the Americans to ultimately defeat the Japanese, it showed the POWs that they were not forgotten.
I really enjoyed watching this movie. It really bothered me however, to see how cruelly the POWs were being treated and also to watch the innocent people being randomly selected out of a large group and killed infront of everyone. I liked the storyline to this movie and how it was all based on a true story. The fight scenes kept you on the edge because you didn't know if the rangers were going to succeed in the raid or not, as they were outnumbered. Some parts were also sad like when Margaret's friend ended up dying. I really wanted the two to survive and live happily together like they deserved. Overall, this a movie I would recommend and would like to watch again sometime.
Comments