I did not see it at the theater as I read material on the Cabanatuan Raid. I did watch some of the History Channel discussions on the mission. And I always found it interesting that Bull Simon, key leader in the Son Tay Raid, was a young officer in the 6th Rangers and participated. The same holds true for Galen Kittleson who was in the Alamo Scouts and Sontay also.
All that aside, I did purchase the DVD. The story was generally accurate and the internal story lines supported the truth. I have not seen material to prove or discount some of the melodrama embedded in the film. Aside from the minor irritation of seeing Dale Dye --again--as a role player, I thought the movie was well cast.
I don't have anything against Dye but he has become so much a Hollywood tinker toy that his performances are trite. I had rather see Lee Ermy (the Gunny on Full Metal Jacket, the SGM in Siege of Firebase Gloria, the Gunny on Mail Call, and the somewhat psychotic gay coach in Saving Siverman) play General Krueger (Dye's Role). Ermy would have given the role some character and he looks more like Krueger. See http://www.alamoscouts.org//special_forces/history.htm
On the acting, some reviewers have bemoaned that it was not up to the quality of the Bridge Over the River Kwai; the difference in the 2 films is the Great Raid paid attention to history, the River Kwai only got the idea of a RR, prisoners, and Japanese guards correct.
As for the Raid, the weapons were correct as were the roles of the Rangers, the Alamo Scouts, Phillipino guerrillas, and the Japanese. The Alamo Scouts gave it a positive endorsement. You can see their review at http://www.alamoscouts.org/the_great_raid/review.htmThe tactics portrayed were Hollywood; especially the full blown fire fight in the camp.
On the Japanese, one of the film's greatest strengths was it neither downplayed nor hyped the level of Japanese brutality during the war, either against civilians or POWs.
Finally, the film ends with excellent newsreel footage of the actual POWs and raiders as they moved back to friendly lines, including shots of LTC Mucci, CPT Prince, and Margaret Utinsky.
Best
Tom
