Based on the true story of the 6th Ranger Battalion’s daring rescue of 500 American prisoners-of-war from the infamous Cabanatuan POW camp, The Great Raid is two-plus hours of gripping drama and edge-of-your-seat action.

The film starts with black and white newsreel footage, narrated by Captain Robert Prince (James Franco from the Spiderman movies).  Prince explains how the Americans were trapped on the on the Luzon peninsula without naval support and subsequently captured by Japanese forces and taken to Cabanatuan.  Three years pass.  Conditions are terrible in the camp.  American servicemen are tortured and otherwise abused by the Japanese.  Many more die of malaria.  As the war is winding down the Japanese begin to resort to even more cruel measures.  The Japanese War Ministry declares that the Army should annihilate every single POW.

US Army intelligence gets wind of the Japanese intent and a rescue mission is hatched.  The mission leader is Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt, late of the cancelled E-Ring television series and perhaps best known as Julia Roberts’ ex).  Mucci is ably assisted by Captain Prince.

Meanwhile things are getting worse in the camp.  The ranking American officer (James Fiennes) has contracted malaria.  He pines for an American nurse named Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen), who has been working with the Filipino underground to smuggle quinine into the camps.  The Japanese and their Filipino sympathizers are becoming increasingly wise to the underground’s activities.  Her contact tries to extort money for the next shipment of the badly needed quinine.  An ambush ensues.  The nurse is on the run.

The rescue mission planning goes on in earnest.  Although there’s a standing rule that married men cannot participate, the top sergeant convinces the captain to let him go along.  Meanwhile, the Japanese suddenly abandon Cabanatuan, which makes the prisoners wonder if General Macarthur is approaching.  They take advantage of their captors’ absence and raid the food stores, discovering in the process that the Japanese have been withholding Red Cross supplies.  But just as the POWs allow themselves a bit of hope, the Japanese return.

Back in Manila, nurses are marched into a hospital courtyard.  A masked nurse points out conspirators who are shot on the spot.  It looks like the masked nurse is about to point out Nurse Utinsky but she doesn’t.  Time is running out.

The Rangers make their move toward the camp, along the way passing a village the Japanese destroyed because its inhabitants helped the Filipino underground.  A while later they discover their intelligence is off.  Captain Prince makes a recommendation to Colonel Mucci that they delay until more is known.  At the same time, Filipino spies report the Japanese are inbound.  The Filipinos also relay that most of the POWs can’t walk because of ill health.  They need 24 more hours to get caribou carts to move them.

At the camp, the Japanese commander shows the sick major a picture of the American nurse, asking him if he’d like to see her again.  Camp commander says he knows nurse is with the underground and has been smuggling medical supplies.  Says if major turns in their accomplices then he and the nurse are free to go.  The major refuses.  The camp commander is further enraged when a prisoner attempts escape.  The commander kills ten POWs in retribution, including the escapee.

The timing of the raid forces the Rangers to crawl into an open field in broad daylight.  As well as raising the POWs’ spirits, an American airplane flying overhead creates a suitable diversion, and by nightfall the Rangers are at the camp’s fence.  With a single sniper’s shot into the chest of a Japanese guard, the raid begins.  What follows is arguably one of the best action sequences ever to explode from the screen.

The Great Raid is an old-fashioned romp in the spirit of the best war movies and highly recommended to the military audience.  One of Captain Prince’s lines sums up the effort:  “We all knew the idealistic notion of rescuing POWs far outweighed its strategic value.  We were going to rescue them or die trying.”  A laudable sentiment that resonates now as it did sixty-some years ago.