elgordo15 This movie seems to trade right-wing sentimentality and propaganda for World War II Pacific Theater history, and there's nothing wrong with that if that is your goal. This movie claims to portray the raid "based on true events", and yet it loses its authenticity in its zeal to emphasize Japanese brutality and American virtue. The Japanese WERE brutal, of that there is no question. It does not need to be pounded into us by making the Japanese secret police commander into a T-2, virtually indestructible in addition to being completely evil. That's not history or drama, it's just stereotype.Among the Americans there is no one who presents a compelling character to focus on, everyone is a cliché from countless war flicks that have gone before. The obligatory "dead meat" characters are quickly identified and dismissed as inevitably doomed. The non- historical love connection between the historical Margaret Utinsky and the non-historical composite character of Major Gibson added nothing to the story, functioning only as a distraction from the drama and the actual history of Utinsky's contributions. Probably the most irritating supposed historical assertion in the movie, the claim that it "remains the most successful rescue in US Military history", might be argued with by any one who participated in the raid a month later on the prison compound at Los Banos where over 2100 people were rescued in a massive raid by Army Airborne troops and Filipino Guerillas. I'm sure that hairs could be split over which was "more successful", but the raid at Cabanatuan was hardly even unique to the times. There was heroism aplenty and enough glory to go around.If you're looking for right-wing validation of "American values" irrespective of actual history then this flick is for you, watch it and have a ball. If you're looking for insight into a little known episode of history well told, keep looking and pass this one up.

sprtpilot What would the result be if they made a war movie where all the actors were heavily sedated during production? Now we know! Even calling this drivel a "war movie" is a travesty. And what was the budget for this thing? Like two million? With zero for the writers? If you try to watch this without the benefit of a fast forward function, good luck to you. In fact, you can watch the entire thing while in fast forward. At that rate, it almost appears as if there is some action (but not much). Much, much better movies have been made portraying the Phillipine theatre of conflict in WWII and even the sub-set of American POWs there has been done quite well, so what was the point of this mish mash?

Luigi Di Pilla I noted this war movie in the box offices and I'm wondering why such a film hasn't been shown in our theaters in Europe. I found the story very interesting because it is based on true events about the greatest rescue plan for prisoners in the American history. It was never annoying because there were many plots and turns. It's a question of courage, humanity and honor.The music was wonderful and the direction from John Dahl superb. All the actors delivered here a great performance. Especially Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Finnes and Connie Nielsen convinced me in their roles. I hope to see more from them in future. Then the cinematography was fine too.I am glad having seen THE GREAT RIDE because it opened again my eyes how hard the soldiers fought for surviving, liberation and freedom in the last world war and how much they suffered far away from their friends or families. In my opinion it's a must see for every one and I give a solid 7/10.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews I have not read the book, though I will now consider it. It's bitterly ironic that a new film dealing with a seldom told piece of recent history will be so under-appreciated. I purchased this on DVD along with three other war movies that not an awful lot of people know, and this was one of the two of them that I had never heard of before. Apart from Joy Ride, which is a reasonable enough horror flick, I haven't watched anything else by this director, but he's clearly talented. This is engaging and interesting from start to finish. The editing and cinematography are excellent. This has intense and exciting sequences, and it's certainly not boring for a second. It's well-paced throughout. The plot develops nicely throughout. Acting is great, ignore the fact that there are next to no "names" in this. It is also very notable that this is fair to both sides, and without toning down the atrocities(...any more than most things coming out of Hollywood do). No one is demonized, and the facts are presented almost without exception. The production values leave nothing to be desired. On the DVD is an informative commentary track by several important crew members, as well as a handful of trailers. There is gruesome, bloody violence, disturbing content and infrequent moderate to strong language in this. I recommend this to anyone who is old and mature enough to handle it. 7/10