Synopsis (from Yahoo! Movies)
Following the 1942 Bataan Death March, thousands of U.S. and
Filipino soldiers were imprisoned by the Japanese in a POW camp in
Cabanatuan in the Philippines. Brutalised, starved, and tortured,
the prisoners languished in the camp for nearly three years. But in
January 1945, an American battalion, with the help of Filipino
guerrillas, planned a daring mission -- some called it suicide --
to rescue the five hundred U.S. soldiers still alive there.
The film stars Benjamin Bratt as Lt. Colonel Mucci, an offbeat
military man who puts his faith in young Captain Prince (James
Franco) to lead the dangerous mission. Among the men imprisoned in
the camp are Joseph Fiennes as the ailing Major Gibson and Marton
Csokas as Captain Redding, who is always trying to escape. Connie
Nielsen adds romantic tension as a war widow smuggling much-needed
medicine into the camp.
As a semi-documentary depiction of true events and the tactics used
to carry out the rescue mission, this movie succeeds.
(Read the historical account at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Cabanatuan)
As an entertaining story for war movie fans weaned on "Saving
Private Ryan" and "Enemy At The Gates", this movie fails.
