Last night, I saw a sneak preview of The Great Raid. I implore you to go see it when it opens nationwide this Friday, August 12th, 2005. It is an amazing story.
Directed by John Dahl (Rounders, JoyRide) and starring mostly B-level stars (James Franco, Benjamin Bratt, the stunning Connie Nielsen) who do a more than credible job without distracting from the real stars of this movie: the story itself and a moving, pitch-perfect score. The movie tells the story of the largest rescue mission in the history of the US military. It covers 5 days in January, 1945, when 120 of our guys liberated 511 American POWs from a camp in the Phillipines. Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, Luther) gives a particularly award-worthy performance as the leader of the captured American POWs.
The score - perfect throughout - along with the perfectly paced and well-shot finale will leave you with a lump in your throat. This movie is a great example of how history should be brought to film - avoiding the Spielbergian/Stonian/Cameronian artificiality, plaigirism, and just plain kooky made up sh*t that muddied Schindler's List/everything Stone ever directed/Titanic.
Ya know that part of the Grinch Christmas special where his heart grows so many times larger.....that's the feeling you'll get after watching this movie and learning about this harrowing tale. So take a couple hours out this coming weekend and see this movie. And bring a friend.
I promise, you will not regret it.
BORU
The wife and I will be seeing this movie on Friday!
Posted by: Matthew | 08 August 2005 at 01:31 PM