WWII Documentaries: Ghosts of Bataan and The Great Raid

After three years of intense effort, the deeply moving documentary exposing some of the most brutal and disturbing military events of World War II, the Bataan Death March and the horrific incarcerations of American and Filipino POWs, debuted on The Discovery Channel on T August 11. Ghosts of Bataan was released on television in conjunction with the theatrical release of a Miramax film The Great Raid on August 12th.

The Great Raid focuses on a daring and remarkable rescue mission carefully planned and perfectly orchestrated by 121 hand-selected U.S. Army Rangers. It marked Gen. Douglas MacArthur's promised return to the Philippines and saved over 500 U.S. Death March survivors languishing in a hellish Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan at the end of WWII.

The Ghosts of Bataan documentary was produced from over 60 interviews conducted by Winnercomm with U.S. and Japanese soldiers who personally experienced the events plus WWII military experts and historians who carefully documented them.  Former Philippine Scouts Col. Mel Rosen, Lt. Col. Ed Ramsey and Capt. Menandro Parazo were among those interviewed.

Editor

The following was contributed by Col. Mel Rosen, a West Point graduate and Philippine Scout Field Artillery officer on Bataan.  Editor

I got to preview the film courtesy of a local Coalition of Filipino Veterans organizations. I prevailed on the group tp also invite one of the Rangers who lives in Alexandria. If you have a copy of "Ghost Soldiers", a picture of Vernon Abbott carrying one of the POWs appears in the second group of photos. I thought the movie was pretty good. I believe three stars out of five would be about right. Vernon Abbott thought it was a fairly accurate portrayal of the actual raid. I was sorry that the movie perpetuates the same mistake as in "Ghost Soldiers" that all the POWs in Cabanatuan were survivors of the Death March.

Mel

P.S. I also regret that the film gives the impression to the uninitiate that all the POWs returned home when this rescued group did. There was no mention of the many POWs who remained in  Japan and elsewhere until Sep 45.

I saw it yesterday too. People burst into an applause at the end of the movie. I'm happy with the level awareness that it is generating especially with the TV documentaries that were shown because of it.

I wish they shot the movie in the Philippines. It would have added a level of realism. But most people wouldn't know the difference between the Australian outback and the Philippine tropical vegetation.  

The following was excerpted from an email sent by Betty Little, a niece of the late Brig. Gen. Royal Reynolds, the founding president of the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society.  Editor

The female character, Margaret Utinsky, has been tweaked, presumably for dramatic purposes, in "The Great Raid."  I have a copy of the 1948 book, "Miss U.," written by the actual Margaret Utinsky, if anyone is interested in knowing more about her.  (The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas.)

I haven't seem the movie yet, but our local paper says it portrays her as a nurse, which is accurate, and as a Lithuanian refugee, which she was not.  She is described in the picture caption of the article as smuggling quinine into the camp for her lover.

In fact, she was married to John Utinsky, an American engineer; thus Utinsky was her married name.  She decided that she did not want to leave the P. I.  with the other evacuating families until she could find out what had happened to her husband.  According to my uncle, BG Royal Reynolds, she was able to convince the Japanese that she was Lithuanian because of her husband's name and told them that Lithuania was an ally of Germany.  She developed an extensive smuggling network to bring food and medicine into the POW camps, thereby keeping many Americans allive.   She continued her effort even after she found out that her husband had died of starvation in August 1942..

The forward to the book was written by J. M. Wainwright, General, USA (Retired); the following is the last paragraph:

"Miss U" took every chance, ran every risk, and underwent torture in order to help the poor men behind barbed wire, and finally had to go to the hills and join the guerrillas.  Her gallantry and intrepidity were worthy of the best traditions of our country."

Betty

I saw The Great Raid on August 19th and thought it was exciting and well done.  There were a few historical gaffs, but over all I thought it was pretty authentic and the mixture of archival film with the movie was pretty good.

The characters were, by and large, believable, although some to the individuals playing POWs were a little too well fed.  The actor, Benjamin Bratt, who played Lt. Col. Henry Mucci, the overalll commander of the raid , looked a great deal like him.  One of the noteworthy features that was the recognition of the critical role played by Filipino guerrillas during the raid.

The movie did not play down the Japanese brutality at all.  The scenes and sadistic behavior of man toward man were graphic.  

It's an inspiring story that I came away from both touched and saddened by these events of 60 years ago.  There are so many "what ifs ...."  They still haunt many of us to this day and have influenced our lives in so many ways.

The principle Rhode Island newspaper has given the movie three stars out of five.  It's been reported that more papers than not have given it four stars.  That' my reading.  The movie deserves at least four stars.  I intend to buy it once the film is released on Video and DVD.

John Patterson

I saw the movie last Sunday at the base theatre at Lackland Air Force Base with some very young recruits just out of basic training.  I was elated that most of these young attendees expressed an interest in viewing a part of American History that is not widely known.  The movie, though not a cinematic blockbuster, was a lesson for us all as in the power of hope in face of despair.  Having read the book "Ghost Soldiers" by Hampton Sides if was looking forward to seeing this movie since the last movie I saw on this event was "Bataan" with John Wayne and Anthony Quinn.  I hope to share this movie with my family when it comes out on DVD.