·At the time of filming, the character prototype of Captain Prince in the film was still alive. For this reason, James Franco met with the elderly Prince living in Seattle, and watched documentaries and interview videos from the 1940s together.
The filming of the film took a total of four months, and the rescue battle scene was shot for one and a half months. In order to achieve both the physical and mental appearance of a World War II officer, the crew hired a Vietnam War fighter from Benjamin Bratt and James Frank. Veterans are responsible for specialized training, learning how to plan battles and how to issue orders.
On the eve of filming, James Frank specially observed the 6-hour live-action interview video filmed by the director for Captain Prince, in order to try to figure out the character prototype's speech, demeanor and mentality when performing the rescue mission, so as to faithfully reproduce the heroic deeds of historical figures .
Creation Background
The screenplay is adapted from the following two historical novels: "The Great Rescue of Kabatuan" by military historian William Brewer and "The Shadow Soldier" by Hampton Seitz. Choosing to shoot "The Great Sneak Attack" also meant that John Dahl had to abandon his usual twists and turns, rough western background, femme fatale characters and other elements, and the $70 million investment became Dahl's largest since filming. For the budget, Dahl chose the World War II theme for his family’s personal reasons, because his father was a World War II veteran in the Pacific battlefield, and one of his father’s comrades had experienced the Bataan Death March, so the filming of the film was also regarded by Dahl as a time to get to know his father. and the learning process of its hardships. Behind the scenes
of the following movie network [Kabatuan Looking Back] December 7, 1941: The Japanese raided Pearl Harbor. Not long ago, the Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines was also attacked by the Japanese army. As an American colony, the Philippines is Japan's control of the southwestern Pacific Ocean. strategic focus. December 10, 1941: Japanese troops invaded the Philippines across the board, and U.S. troops fought back bravely under the command of General MacArthur. December 27, 1941: MacArthur withdrew from Manila to Bataan.
January 2, 1942: Japanese forces occupy Manila under heavy air raids.
March 1942: President Roosevelt orders MacArthur to evacuate the Philippines and divert to Australia.
April 9, 1942: Edward King, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army in Luzon, leads 70,000 U.S. troops and civilians to surrender to the Japanese.
April 10, 1942: The Japanese forces prisoners of war to begin a 65-mile Bataan Death March, a week after hundreds of American troops and thousands of Filipinos are killed.
April 1942: Prisoners of war arrive at Camp O'Donnell, where 1,500 American troops and 15,000 Filipinos die in the first two months.
June 1942: American prisoners of war are relocated to Kabatuan.
August 1944: Japanese troops begin mass executions of prisoners of war.
October 20, 1944: MacArthur returns to the Philippines.
December 14, 1944: The Palawan POW camp executes 150 U.S. prisoners of war, and there are messages everywhere, saying that Kabatuan will be next.
January 27, 1945: Colonel Henry Murthy is ordered to carry out a rescue operation.
January 27, 1945: Scouts begin reconnaissance behind enemy lines.
January 30, 1945: Raid operations begin.
January 31, 1945: All prisoners of war finally see the light of day.
[Recreating History]
In "The Great Sneak Attack", director John Dahl and producer Marty Katz hope to reproduce a heroic and selfless great story inscribed in American history. Kabatuan's rescue has also become a monumental portrayal of how humans face extreme danger, stress and fear.
Before preparing for the creation, the main creators read the book "The Great Rescue of Kabatuan" by William B. Brewer, which describes in detail the process of the US military going to the Japanese prisoner of war camp in the Philippines to rescue 511 comrades in arms. Director John Dahl's films are known for their noir style and psychological thrillers. "Kill Me Again", "Western Red Rock", "The Last Temptation" and other works are all permeated with a strange and incomprehensible sense of loneliness. Choosing to shoot "The Great Sneak Attack" also meant that John Dahl had to change the twists and turns of the plot, rough western background, femme fatale characters and other elements that he was used to, and the $70 million investment became Dahl's biggest investment since filming. budget. Dahl's choice of the World War II theme is also inextricably linked to his own family. His father was a veteran of the liberation of the Philippines, and his mother's cousin died in the Philippine battlefield. Dahl always wanted to know his father's war experience, so he made this film. It is also regarded by Dahl as a retrospective process of the suffering of his parents.
The first draft of the script was altered for dramatic needs, so Dahl and Katz set about making changes to make the story more true to the facts. As they delved deeper into Brewer's The Great Rescue of Kabatuan and Hampton Sidez's Ghost Soldier, they began to realize that what happened in Kabatuan was far more terrifying than imagined. To uncover more insider truths, Dahl and Katz met with survivors and witnesses of the year, including the real Captain Robert Prince, as well as some members of the Filipino guerrillas who assisted the U.S. military. The final script won William B. Brewer's affirmation: "They told this fascinating story with great precision."
Movie Trailer
Before filming, 120 actors were sent to Queensland, Australia, for a rigorous 10-day military training, under the guidance of Captain Dale, who Katz hailed as "the best military adviser in the world", playing commandos, reconnaissance Soldiers, guerrillas, American prisoners of war, and Japanese soldiers were cast together. Actors who play commandos and scouts are not only given World War II uniforms, tents and rations, but also perform nighttime "missions." Even actors playing captured soldiers who didn't have to go to war had to walk 3 miles barefoot to experience the Bataan Death March, digging trenches while starving in harsh tropical conditions. Later, Benjamin Bratt recalled: "It was a special experience, you can imagine 120 actors stationed in the jungle, unable to shower, unable to sleep, going through hard physical training, and eating canned food, That's not a beautiful picture."
During a small screening of the film, a surviving World War II prisoner of war expressed deep gratitude to Dahl for his faithful portrayal of the brutality of the Japanese army. Dahl even thought that classic POW films like "The Bridge on the River Kwai" portrayed the Japanese army too benevolently, because it was impossible for Alec Guinness to stand for 24 hours in protest. Dahl thought it only took 5 minutes, The Japanese military discipline would impatiently fire with machine guns. "If one escapes, ten people will be executed" is the management principle pursued by the Japanese army discipline. Dahl feels that it is not excessive to demonize the image of Japanese militarists no matter what.
During filming, there was also a dispute between John Dahl and the Miramax producers, who insisted on increasing the romance between Joseph Fiennes and Connie Nielsen, but Dahl believed that The theme of World War II focuses on the accuracy and seriousness of historical details. There is no need to add too much love between children in the limited time of two hours to attract attention. In the face of Dahl's suggestion, the producers had a deep understanding, so they dogmatically assigned the number of commandos that appeared in each scene to the historical 100, which made Dahl dumbfounded.
·At the time of filming, the character prototype of Captain Prince in the film was still alive. To this end, Hollywood rookie James Franco met with Prince living in Seattle, and watched documentaries and interviews from the 1940s together. video.
The filming of the film took a total of four months, and the rescue battle scene was shot for one and a half months. In order to achieve both the physical and mental appearance of a World War II officer, the crew hired a Vietnam War fighter from Benjamin Bratt and James Frank. Veterans are responsible for specialized training, learning how to plan battles and how to issue orders.
·The film chose Queensland, Australia and Shanghai, China as the location to replace Manila in the Philippines during World War II. One of the prisoner of war camps took 4 months to build, and the raw materials were imported from the Philippines. Even the surviving World War II veterans had "revisited their old places".
Some of the extras in the film were recruited on the streets of the Gold Coast.
The film's release date was pushed back from 2003 to 2004, and later by Miramax indefinitely, as Disney and Miramax were in the midst of unprecedented turmoil.
Joseph Fiennes lost 20 pounds for the film.
According to the commandos of the year, there was no lighting in the prisoner of war camp. At the beginning of the raid, the clouds just blocked the moonlight. After the Japanese army opened fire, the moonlight broke through the clouds.
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