The Great Raid

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The Great Raid
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John Dahl
Produced by	Lawrence Bender Marty Katz
Written by	Carlo Bernard Doug Miro
Starring	Benjamin Bratt Joseph Fiennes James Franco Marton Csokas Connie Nielsen Motoki Kobayashi Cesar Montano Kenny Doughty
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Edited by	Scott Chestnut Pietro Scalia
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	August 10, 2005 (U.S.) August 12, 2005
Running time	132 minutes
Country	United States Australia
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Box office	$10,769,311[1]

The Great Raid is a 2005 war film about the Raid at Cabanatuan on the island of Luzon, Philippines during World War II. It is directed by John Dahland stars Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Motoki Kobayashi and Cesar Montano. The principal photography took place from July 4, to November 6, 2002, but its release was delayed several times from the original target of fall 2003. The film is adapted from two books,William Breuer's The Great Raid on Cabanatuan and Hampton Sides' Ghost Soldiers.

The film opened in theaters across the United States on August 12, 2005, three days before the 60th anniversary of V-J Day.

The real-life efforts of Filipino guerrillas are also specifically highlighted, especially a stand at a bridge that delayed Japanese reinforcements. These units fought alongside Americans against Japanese occupiers during the war.

Plot[edit]

In 1944, 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 Cabanatuanand subjected them to brutal treatment and summary execution. Many prisoners were also stricken with malaria.

The film opens with the massacre of prisoners of war on Palawan by theKempeitai, the Imperial Japanese military's secret police (though factually, it was committed by the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army).

Meanwhile at Lingayen Gulf, the 6th Ranger Battalion under Lt. Col 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 6th Army and Filipino guerrillas as they undertake the Raid at Cabanatuan.

Throughout the film, the viewpoint switches between the POWs at Cabanatuan, the Rangers, the Filipino resistance and the Japanese.

In particular, 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.