Even though I enjoy war movies -- World War II war movies, in particular -- many of them have missed the mark of showing what war is really like. In actual fact, people get killed horribly, screw-ups happen constantly, events are often random and things rarely go according to plan. War is hell, yes, but it's also messy. There's a moment in The Great Raid where Captain Prince (played by James Franco) is asked to come up with a plan to rescue five-hundred allied soldiers who are in danger of being killed by the Japanese. We know this danger to be true because the Japanese have just burned alive 150 U.S. soldiers at another camp rather than let them be rescued. Prince says he can't make a good plan because he doesn't have enough information; there are too many variables. Lt. Col. Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) basically tells him tough, do it anyway. He can't let these prisoners die because they lack facts.
Not Another Hollywood Story
Both The Great Raid and the The Great Escape are based on true stories. This latest in the theaters is the story of a famous raid by U.S. Army Rangers and Philippine guerillas on the Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan in 1945. Our DVD competitor was based on a real escape plan from Stalag Luft North in Germany in 1943, and an amazing, unprecedented, and dangerous tunnel project.
Now, granted, one film is about people rescuing prisoners and another is about prisoners escaping on their own. Even so, seeing these two films back to back, you realize the biggest difference is just the approach to filmmaking. Back in 1963, The Great Escape was just another big film to put every star in. You never, for an instant, feel this is real, even though there is the true story underneath all the Steve McQueen - Charles Bronson - James Garner - Richard Attenborough star power. Yet, in The Great Raid, even with Bratt, Franco and Joseph Fiennes (playing the America POW leader), the people feel real and authentic.
Today we also have the courage to show war for the brutal combat it was and to see that, yes, in these circumstances, the Japanese were monsters. The Germans from the 1963 film really aren't as menacing as they could be and, by all accounts, were.
There's a scene in The Great Escape where McQueen tries to escape, gets caught and ends up spending time in "the hole" as punishment and his captors even let him keep a ball and glove to pass the time with. In The Great Raid, when one prisoner tries to escape and is caught, they pick ten prisoners at random and execute them with shots to the head along with the offender. There's really no comparison. One is entertainment; the other is war. One has a jaunty theme song; the other takes your breath away and brings tears to your eyes.
The Great Raid. Because it feels real by not trying to be a big Hollywood movie, trusting that the heroism of average soldiers simply could not be more compelling. It's a true story that feels that way.
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Movies-Squared (Two Reviews for the Price of One!) reviews one film out in the theaters today by comparing it to a related film out on DVD -- and declares a winner. The connection might be subject matter, director, actor, whatever... See more of these by clicking here.
