Hello, friends! This is Old Munro. I saw the GREAT RAID a couple of weeks ago when it premiered in San Luis Obispo. There was a reasonable crowd about 60-70% full but few young people. There were a few young men with parents or grandparents but I didn't see any young women from the age of 15-35. The average age of the movie goers was late 40's or early 60's. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the movie thoroughly. Many reviewers didn't like the subplots dealing with the Phillipino civilians and (Irish) Roman Catholic priests. I, on the other hand, thought that this was an aspect the film shared with the BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI or ONE OF OUR AIRPLANES IS MISSING. Both films showed the importance of the support of civilians for the war effort especially when downed pilots or POW's were involved. The film did not make this an All-American show but showed that despite the extreme cruelity of the Japanese secret police and occupation forces the POW's survived long years of incarceration ONLY because of the sacrifice of the local people -shown in the film to be motivated by their Catholic religion and pro-American feelings. My father was an American officer in the Phillipines 1944-1946 and the stories he told me of the Phillipinos seem to agree with the image as presented in the film. If I were a Phillipino and the Phillipino contribution were not shown I would be very unhappy. I appreciated the honesty and honor rendered in the film. As a boy I remember fondly watching WWII movies from the 40's and 50's on SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES with my father, grandfather, mother and sisters. PURSUIT OF THE GRAF SPEE and SINK THE BISMARK were two I remember plus of course THE DESERT FOX with James Mason, and SAHARA with Bogart. One picture that sticks out particularly was DECISION BEFORE DAWN with Richard Basehart and Oskar Werner. In that film German POW's collaborate with the allies. I was surprised to see a film so sympathetic to individual Germans. It also had wonderful performances. Deborah Kerr was also in two of my favorite WWII films. One is THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP and the other is the charming HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON with Robert Mitchum. I recently saw it again dubbed in Spanish with my Castillian mother-in-law Juanita and we both enjoyed it thoroughly. LIke the GREAT RAID the American military were portrayed in a postive light as were the religious. That also was an aspect of PEARL HARBOR I liked too. Too many modern films show all religious as drunkards, tyrants or monsters. I have met some nasty rabbis or impossible protestant ministers or arrogant Catholic priests. But 998 of 1000 seem pretty good to me and far kinder and Godly than the average person. I have by constrast met far more fanatical political activists, rapacious lawyers or looney left teachers. I remember a big discussion with Auld Pop about the Germans in WWI compared to the Turks. Pop respected the Germans -then- unlike the Turks whom he depicted as vicious, unbelieveable cruel, bloodthirsty and treacherous withouth scintilla of honor or decency. Beheadings, mutiliation and tortue were common place. The Highland soldiers responded by not taking Turkish prisoners unless expressly ordered by their officers. By 1919, when Pop was stationed in Constantinople withe the Argylls the men could walk down the streets completely unmolested by the Turkish populace who were clearly intimidated by the sight of Scottish soldiers clearly displaying captured Turkish long knives on their belts. Of course, THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI is one of the greatest films of all time period. It also deals with Argyll history too by the way. The First Batallion was ordered to surrender at Singapore and helped build the Death Railway. The tune COLONEL BOGEY circa 1913 was written by the regimental bandmaster of the Argylls (also later a Royal Marine) who used the name Alford (his real name escapes me just now). I thought Band of Brothers was splendid but I was disappointed by the episodic Saving Private Ryan. The GREAT RAID was like the old 50's Westerns in the sense that there was NO MISTAKE as to the moral righteousness of the allied cause. America and her allies were the good guys and the Axis were evil. The GREAT RAID did not romanticize the Japanese militarists. The infamous Bataan Death March of World War II occurred when 70,000 American and Filipino troops were stranded from naval support by the same crushing Japanese attacks that just days before had devastated Pearl Harbor. Eventually forced to surrender, 12,000 of the famished and weakened troops were mercilessly force marched over 55 miles to prisoner camps, a march that resulted in the deaths of over a thousand soldiers. Those who survived the cruel and deadly event faced harsh conditions and malicious captors. For three years the men of those camps would wait and suffer, their only support coming from underground resistance cells which secretly provided badly needed medicine and messages of hope. This aspect of the film was largely true. It is also true that the Japanese began executing Allied prisoners en masse at the end of the war. The Great Raid, based on the books “The Great Raid On Cabanatuan” and “Ghost Soldiers”, which both are classic must read WWII histories. The only thing I thought less stellar in the picture was the music. I rated the film 3 1/2 stars. THE GREAT RAID lacked the star quality of Alex Guiness, James Mason or George C. Scott but after we saw it we compared it favorably to PATTON. I love the GREAT ESCAPE but really this was a semi-comedy in the tradition of STALAG 17. THE GREAT RAID had the seriousness of the BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI or the Colditz Story. I also thought the dialogue ran true to era. John Dahl is to be saluted for not succumbing to presentism and making the female characters more macho or making the characters more raunchy. Who cares about the sex-lives of the Rangers or the Japanese guards??? I liked the way the director merged the opening and closing of the flim with historic footage making it clear that the GREAT RAID was a true story. I think the cast did a good job: Joseph Fiennes and Connie Nielsen were good. They were not too glamorous but gave gritty believable performances. It was hard to believe this film got a R rather than a pg-13. I recommended this film to a friend with a 10 year old withan interest in military history. The 10 year old enjoyed it. Nevertheless, parents shouldn’t hesitate to take their teens to see this film. THE GREAT RAID demonstrates the heroism and courage of that GREATEST GENERATION who endured all, fought like tigers and spent the best years of their lives -and sometimes all of their young manhood during the war. THE GREAT RAID, like the LONGEST DAY acknowledges that the battles were NOT fought and WON by Americans alone. The Allied Armies were composed of soldiers of 50 nations or more of all races and religions including Moslems, Sikhs, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Mormans etc. etc. THE GREAT RAID was a very good WWII movie, the best we have seen in years. I look foward to seeing it again on DVD or cable. One final note. If I were King I would order three films to be made. One would be about the last stand of the 51st Highland Division at Dunkirk as depicted in the Gaelic book UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE SWASTIKA. Another would be about the THIN RED LINE in CRIMEA (1854) AND THE MUTINY (LUCKNOW). Many of the same men were in both and some had very tragic lives as the treatment of their wounds led them to be adicted to opium and drink which drove some of them to madness,suicide or an early death. Yes it was Tommy this and Tommy that and chuck out the brute....as per Kipling. The other would be the true story of families who lost loved ones at 2nd YPRES 1915 DUNKIRK 1940 and Guadalcanal in 1942. One mother lost her husband in the WWI and her only son in WWII and many was the young girl who died a spinster or widow in the era 1919-1999. My friend Mairi MacInnes said that there were literally dozens if not hunderds of WWI and WWII widows on South Uist in the era 1950-1970. Some are still alive and still put flowers on the monuments. I myself was privliged to meet a number of vigorous veterans of WWI some of whom I met as recently as the 1980's. Of course I have met hundereds of WWII vets. THE GREAT RAID is a picture that honors them and would please them I know.

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