Only the Brave

Last night my wife and I viewed this film at the Director's Guild Theatre in Hollywood. My first impression as it ended was that I was glad that a movie like this had been made! Lane, the director, was kind enough to field questions from the audience after the screening and learning how they did this on a shoe-string budget made the film even more impressive to me. The acting was superb, the camera work was on the money and the writing was top notch. I can't wait to see the final version! Kudos to Lane and his production crew, to the actors and the fund-raising effort that made it all happen. This film needs major distribution and the sooner, the better!

I began this movie with having no info about the real history behind it, only knowing that it is based on true events and I hoped to learn something new by watching Only The Brave. Well, it didn't really work. The movie is confusing. Pretty much in the beginning we see Jimmie, the main protagonist of the film, sitting in the dark and stare into nothingness. His wife desperately tries to reach him, but he doesn't respond. Then the movie takes us on a journey through his mind, so it seems. Back to the battlefield and and the soldiers he fought with. Constant flashbacks follow, showing their lives at home with wives, girlfrinds, kids, etc. and at some point you just begin to question, why are we seeing the flashbacks of other characters when we are within the main characters mind? How can he see the private lives of his fellow companions? At some point you just ignore it and try to focus on other things, leaving logic aside. For a war film, there must be some intese moments, right? But nope, all we get to see is one side. The opposing German soldiers are nowhere to be seen and the characters which we got to know fire towards whatever. With no enemy in sight the battles seem unreal. And even if "our" characters got hit by a bullet you don't really care. None of these soldiers have anything interesting to tell and so the audience is forced to listen to generic dialogues about poker games, heritage mocking and what women they desire. On top one of the soldiers is so stupid, that the doc even has to explain the concept of a flesh wound to him. This movie tries to drown you in sadness and self pity, but nothing really touches you when seeing this. You only end up in feeling sorry for the time you invested by watching this boring thing.

I was privileged to be able to see this movie @ a screening put on by the filmmaker @ The Majestic Theatre in Seattle Washington. This movie was very eye-opening for anyone that hasn't experienced or looked into the Japanese during the time they were put into internment camps.

There are some great action scenes but also slow scenes... they all intermix and show the lives of the people fighting in an American War. I thought this movie was very moving and touching but very slow at some points where the point was made and needed to move on. The acting in this movie was great and at some points, I almost shed a tear because the movie was so touching. I would recommend this movie to anyone willing to learn about cultural differences between Americans and Japanese-Americans.

This is a terrific film and tribute to an unbelievable group of soldiers and just one of their amazing accomplishments. With all the renewed interest in World War II as this generation of men begin to pass from the scene, I can't believe there haven't been more films about the little- known exploits of this all-Japanese American 442nd RCT. As of this writing, this film has mainly been on the film festival circuit - I can't believe this was a low-budget, independent film - a period piece, and a war picture, to boot. A great cast, including such Asian American luminaries like Jason Scott Lee, Mark Dacascos, Tamlyn Tomita, Pat Morita (maybe his last performance), and others, along with a scrupulous attention to detail - weapons, uniforms, etc. - make this a stand-out film. The script's basic theme - that each of these men were more than just soldiers, they each had families, loved ones, reasons to live - magnify the tragedy of each death, so this film not only honors and glorifies these men's accomplishments, it also serves as a meditation on the true cost of war. Hope this sparks many, many more films about these guys!

On December 7 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy raided Hawaii's Pearl Harbor and decimated the United States Navy's Pacific battleships.

Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, permitting the U.S. military to uproot thousands of West Coast Japanese and Japanese-Americans and ship them to inland interment camps.

In February of 1943, the ban on Japanese in the military was lifted and the 100th Battalion 442nd Regimental Combat Team was formed. Containing Japanese-American volunteers from Hawaii and, remarkably, from out of the mainland interment camps, the 100th/442nd was sent to Europe.

"Only The Brave" is a fictionalized account of the 100th/442nd's most famous success: the October 1944 rescue of the "Lost Battalion", the all-white "Texas" 141st, trapped behind enemy lines deep within the Vosges Mountains of France.

The movie opens during the battle for the town of Bruyeres, France. After a receiving a head wound, Sergeant Jimmy Takata (played by the film's writer and director, Lane Nishikawa) begins to "see" the memories of his dying troops. As they die, Takata also becomes a walking repository of their mementos: a signature pair of eyeglasses, a photograph of children, an engagement ring never given.

Through the Bruyeres battle and the five bloody days of desperate fighting it takes to break through the German line and rescue the 141st, Nishikawa uses Sergeant Takata as a metaphor for the quiet and proud generation of Japanese-Americans who endured life in the relocation camps, who fought in battle and who kept up the home front, but who have mostly held onto their stories. Nishikawa's moral is an old one: the release of the past brings healing for the future, but it is especially poignant given that so few of that generation remain.

Working with a limited budget and an abbreviated shooting schedule, Nishikawa wisely chose to "go small" with his shots. Each scene is personal to the viewer. Each battle is realistically chaotic without wide shots and multiple angles to give viewers their bearings. The result for the viewer is – as it is for the characters - an exhausted embrace of the story's pauses.

Nishikawa also "goes small" with his characters. The memories that haunt Takata are often short, deeply personal gut punches. The realistic pidgin banter between the "local boy" Hawaiian Japanese and the exploration of the tensions between the Hawaiian Japanese and the mainland "kotonk" Japanese are products of character development and not just tossed in for "authenticity".

Unlike many recent war films, there is little battle gore in "Only The Brave", making the infrequent bloody scenes that much more powerful.

The cast, featuring Nishikawa, Jason Scott Lee, Yuji Okumoto and Tamlyn Tomita, turn in solid performances but Pat Morita's cameo was a little wonky for me.

"Only The Brave" will definitely be worth watching when it is finally released into theaters. I was lucky enough to attend a private screening in Seattle. I'd gladly wait in line again.