Kid reviews for The Great Raid

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February 12, 2020
Carson's Review of The Great Raid
The Great Raid depicts an accurate story of the Great Raid of Cabanatuan. The characters were correct. It shows Colonel Mucci and Captain Prince lead 6th Ranger Battalion’s raid on Cabanatuan, as it happened in January 1945. Also, the film has the Alamo scouts and Filipino guerillas that assisted on the raid. In the film 2 soldiers from the 6th Ranger Battalion die and one POW dies after being liberated, which is the accurate death statistics from real life. However, it doesn’t show the casualties of the 21 Filipino guerillas. In the movie, zero Filipino guerillas die, but in reality 21 passed away as a result of the raid. Additionally the conditions were depicted as described by POW Robert Preston Taylor. Taylor said that Japanese soldiers mostly ignored ill soldiers and tried to work out deals with higher up POWs to help keep order in the camp. These were depicted and emphasised in the film. Also, The Great Raid shows how the Japanese took over Manila.
I learned basically everything there is to know about the raid on Cabanatuan from The Great Raid. I learned that there was a raid at Cabanatuan that rescued 512 POWs. I also learned that the Great Raid was often regarded as the most successful rescue mission in history, rescuing 512 POWs, only losing 2 soldiers, and killing every Japanese soldier that was there. Additionally, I learned about the Filipino guerillas and how they assisted on the raid. Also, I learned about how the Japanese took over the once international mecca, Manila, and how there were underground systems that smuggled medicines and foods into the camps for the POWs.
I would highly recommend The Great Raid for learning about the Great Raid of Cabanatuan and the pacific theatre of WWII. The facts in the movie were accurate and realistic even down to the weapons they used. The film was very specific to one mission in the pacific theatre, but gives you everything you need to know about it. The film has accurate characters, dates, weapons, death ratios, conditions, and facts. The film was also tolerable for entertainment purposes while still providing excellent facts. It added a realistic love story between a nurse that worked for the Filipino underground and an extremely sick Cabanatuan POW to build suspense.
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June 4, 2013
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Really good film about the POW camps in ww2 based on a true story. This film is underated it should have atleast a 4 star rating.
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April 9, 2008
Not nearly as good as "Saving Private Ryan" or "Platoon", but still good
Then again, I think it's impossible to make a better war movie than the two listed above (same goes with the general genre, but also including "Schindler's List"). I would suggest that you read the book first to familiarize yourself with the movie's premise, since some people thought it was a little confusing (personally, I didn't). Continuing the inevitable movie comparisons, "Raid" wan't nearly as violent/gorey as "Ryan" and wasn't as realistic as "Schindler's" 'actuality violence'. There was some cussing here and there, and two brief "f*cks" (one was kind of hard to hear though). So if overall, the movie was good, though I have a feeling that I appreciated it more since that period of conflict greatly interests me.