The Great Raid

The Great Raid is a 2005 internationally co-produced war film about the Raid at Cabanatuan on the island of Luzon, Philippines during World War II. Directed by John Dahl, the film stars Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Marton Csokas, Joseph Fiennes with Motoki Kobayashi and Cesar Montano. It showcases the efforts of American soldiers and the Filipino resistance guerrilla, rescuing Allied prisoners of war from a Japanese POW camp.

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The Great Raid
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John Dahl
Written by	Carlo Bernard Doug Miro
Based on	The Great Raid on Cabanatuan by William Breuer Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
Produced by	Lawrence Bender Marty Katz
Starring	Benjamin Bratt James Franco Connie Nielsen Marton Csokas Joseph Fiennes
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Edited by	Scott Chestnut Pietro Scalia
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	August 12, 2005 (2005-08-12) (United States)
Running time	132 minutes
Countries	United States Australia Philippines
Languages	English Japanese Filipino
Budget	$80 million
Box office	$10.8 million

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Filming took place from July to November 2002, but its release was delayed several times from the original target of fall 2003. It received mixed reviews from critics, and was a commercial failure.

In 1945, American forces were closing in on the Japanese-occupied Philippines. The Japanese held around 500 American prisoners who had survived the Bataan Death March in a notorious POW camp at Cabanatuan and subjected them to brutal treatment and summary execution, as the Japanese code of bushido viewed surrender as a disgrace.

The film opens with the massacre of prisoners of war on Palawan by the Kempeitai, the Imperial Japanese military's secret police (though it was committed by the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army).^{[citation needed]}

At Lingayen Gulf, the 6th Ranger Battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Mucci is ordered by Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger to liberate all of the POWs at Cabanatuan prison camp before they are killed by the Japanese. The film chronicles the efforts of the Rangers, Alamo Scouts from the Sixth Army and Filipino guerrillas as they undertake the Raid at Cabanatuan.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout the film, the viewpoint switches between the POWs at Cabanatuan, the Rangers, the Filipino resistance and the Japanese.^{[citation needed]}

The film covers the resistance work undertaken by nurse Margaret Utinsky, who smuggled medicine into the POW camps. The Kempeitai arrested her and sent her to Fort Santiago prison. She was eventually released but spent six weeks recovering from gangrene as a result of injuries sustained from beatings.^{[citation needed]} The movie ends with the prisoners being liberated.

The Americans used a Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter to divert Japanese attention while the Rangers were crawling toward the camp; the aircraft used in the movie was a Lockheed Hudson, because none of the four surviving P-61s were airworthy when the film was made.^{[citation needed]}

The movie was filmed in south-east Queensland, Australia utilising a huge, authentic recreation of a prisoner of war camp. In addition, numerous local Asian students were employed to play Japanese soldiers.^{[citation needed]}

The movie was shot in 2002 but it was pulled from its original 2003 release schedule on several occasions. It was finally released in August 2005, by Miramax Films, which coincided with the formal departure of co-founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein from the company.^{[citation needed]}

Retired Marine Corps captain Dale Dye was the film's military advisor and trained the cast in a boot camp in northern Queensland, reprising a role and practice from Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan and Platoon.^[1]

James Franco wrote about the making of the movie in his novel Actors Anonymous.^{[citation needed]}