I've been meaning to watch this ever since reading Ghost Soldiers since this is an extraordinary story I'd never heard before. TiVo caught it a week ago, so when I had a few minutes between refinishing Grayson's bookcases this weekend I watched it.
Overall, I was disappointed. I'm glad they made it, and some of the performances (most notably Joseph Fiennes as a cadaverous, malaria-stricken POW) are good. It's fairly accurate and points out the courageous efforts of the Filipino resistance, but it just never really went anywhere emotionally. In part maybe that was because the most dangerous part (in the book) was the long retreat carrying the freed prisoners through Japanese-held territory after the rescue. The movie completely skips that. Perhaps that was a good decision from a dramatic standpoint, but I was expecting something after the actual freeing of the prisoners and when it didn't come, I was really disappointed. One of the enduring statements in the book was how the Rangers and the POWs saw each other. To the POWs, the Rangers were huge - just physically imposing specimens after three years of seeing shrunken POWs and smaller-framed Japanese and Filipinos. They almost didn't seem like the same species as the soldiers they were rescuing. For the Rangers' part, the survivors of Bataan were legendary, and to have the opportunity to free them and get them home was a once in a lifetime opportunity. To its credit, the movie hints at that (and maybe I'd like it better if I watched it a second time) but given that this movie had the compelling reason for the rescue that Saving Private Ryan lacked - a reason why these men were worth dying for - it's a little odd than Ryan ended up being so compelling, and this movie didn't.
Anyway, the important thing is that this movie got made - and that I didn't buy it on Blu-Ray.