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Prisoners of the Sun (1990)

Prisoners of the Sun (also known as Blood Oath) is the story of the aftermath of World War II on a remote Indonesian island known as Ambon, located north of Australia.  With the war over Australian soldiers are left to man a small prisoner of war camp, as they put on trial Japanese soldiers who have allegedly taken uncivilized actions against captured Australian soldiers.  Before the Japanese surrendered at the end of the war, Ambon had been an island occupied by the Japanese where 1100 captured Australian soldiers were kept, by the end of the war that number had dropped to under 300, a result of the torture and mass murders committed by the Japanese on their POW's.

Captain Cooper (Byran Brown) of the Australian army is sent to act as the army's prosecutor in the crimes against the two highest profile Japanese officers, Vice-Admiral Baron Takahashi (George Takei) and Captain Ikeuchi.  Though it's quickly clear neither man will admit to any knowledge of mistreatment of their prisoners, even though the recent discovery of a massive grave of 300 bodies is blatant evidence against them.  Also it appears prosecuting Takahashi will be near impossible as the US Army sends one of their men, Major Beckett (Terry O'Quinn), to make sure Takahashi is acquitted since it is the opinon of the United States that Takahashi is more useful alive in seeking justice for the world than dead for the treatment of Australian POW's.  Cooper must now try to mount an insurmountable case against Takahashi and Ikeuchi to have some justice rewarded in the name of the hundreds of tortured and executed Australian soldiers, unfortunately Cooper will soon realize sometimes justice is bittersweet.

Prisoners of the Sun is, as most historical based films are, loosely based on actual events.  From what little I have read of the actual events Baron Takahashi was never present at the trials held on Ambon, so that lends oneself to question what else in the film is not necessarily accurate.  At any rate the acts of the Japanese during WWII are certainly well known and this film clearly represents the shear brutality and merciless nature shown by their army and leaders.  Prisoners of the Sun boasts the talent of many recognizable actors; mainly starring Bryan Brown (a well recognized Australian actor), and small roles by George Takei (of Star Trek fame), Terry O'Quinn (John Locke from LOST) and of course Russell Crowe, who is presumably the number one reason most people would watch this film.

Crowe plays Lt. Corbett, the right hand man of Captain Cooper, but his screen time throughout the film is sporadic and brief.  In regards to Russell's role I really can't comment on much more than that, it's a decent part for his first film endeavor and what little a role he has, he gives a solid performance.  But if you're interest in watching this film purely for the sake of Russell Crowe, you'll probably be disappointed. Prisoners of the Sun is really a film for hardcore history buffs and courtroom drama fans.  If you spend your week nights watching the barrage of Law & Order shows you'll probably enjoy this, it's Law & Order military style.  I've never been a fan of the courtroom dramas, they tend to seem to be uneventful, slow moving, and solely focus on progressing through the motions of a trial.  

Still the film discusses some interesting subject matter and enlightened me with some facts I did not know, such as Japanese soldiers being ordered to execute prisoners of their same rank, which also ended up being sort of a scapegoat for their superiors who ordered them to if ever brought to trial.  Aside from those moments I ultimately found the story uneventful, twenty minutes into the film you know those on trial are guilty, as do the characters in the film, it's all simply a presentation of how screwed up the justice system can be in order to give blood thirsty animals a fair trial, which some can rightfully argue they don't deserve.  The final half of the film then portrays how higher officers in the enemy army end up getting away with war crimes and having lower officers pay the price for them.

Overall, I don't regret watching Prisoners of the Sun, although I doubt I'll ever revisit it again.  Crowe's appearance alone simply doesn't warrant a viewing and there are so many better war and post war films out there that I'd be hard pressed to recommend running out and renting this.  But again, if you're a fan of war trials and courtroom dramas you might get a little bit of enjoyment out of this, or at least find it interesting, still don't expect a masterfully told story.  With that said I still feel this film deserves some credit, the acting is well done, and while the story isn't as engrossing as I would have liked I was able to sit through it and not feel overwhelmingly bored.  In the end, Prisoners of the Sun shouldn't be a film you'll regret watching if you do decide to give it a shot, although it's probably a film you'll quickly forget soon after.

6/10

17 comments:

  1. So its not the Tintin book of the same name no? ha ha

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  2. Hmmmmm Sounds intriguing. Maybe I'll check it out. Not sure if I can take George Takei seriously though o.O.

    I'll add this to my infinitely long, *check out when you have time* list.

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  3. @Univarn - George Takei is in the film for probably less than 10 minutes, so not enough time for him to bust out his shirtless fencing skills like he did in an episode of Star Trek. No smoke monsters for John Locke to chase either, but that would have made for an interesting twist.

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  4. I really enjoyed Prisoners of the Sun, but then Russell is my favorite actor and Law & Order is my favorite TV series!

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  5. I don't seem to remember this movie, although the tittle is strangely familiar and quite lovely and intriguing at the same time.

    But I don't like watching war movies, probably because I've survived too many real wars in my life. Nevertheless some war movies and series have stayed in my mind, usually the ones which talk about the absurdity of such conflicts and killings. EMPIRE OF THE SUN, BAND OF BROTHERS ...

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  6. @Dezmond - you fought in some wars? Dezmond the Decorated is what I should be calling you now. I don't much like modern war films either. The Crusades and other accent wars are interesting, but I understand what you mean. Sadly sometimes war is a necessity especially when your country is on the receiving end of another countries terrorism, you have to defend yourself.

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  7. I haven't fought in wars (I was too little or too young), but I survived them as they were lead in my country, unfortunately. After you go through such things in reality you just change your view on everything, including wars on film, because most people who have never experienced real wars think about them as something they saw in movies.
    But let's not talk about that, we probably have different perspectives and views due to different experiences (too much of it or absence of it).

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  8. go here http://thoroughlyrussellcrowe.com/video/aussieinterviews/raymartin2001-D.html to hear an interesting early interview with ray martin and russell - and bryan brown! they talk about russell's outstanding pencil-sharpening talents, and russell talks about how much he learned from watching brown perform. fascinating.
    and thoroughlyrussellcrowe.com is a brilliant website, in case you haven't discovered it yet.

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  9. this film is also interesting because it's the first time russell and john polson worked together; they later play lovers in 'the sum of us'; and russell has a role in the recent film directed by polson, 'tenderness', which you plan to review.

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  10. @becks - I believe that interview is also on the DVD. I saw something about that in the bonus features, but didn't watch it.

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  11. Interesting first review out of your 26-days of RS! I've never heard of this movie before even though it's set in my home country (was it also shot on location??) but it doesn't sound like a movie I would watch. I remember my grandma's tales about how cruel and inhumane the Japanese were when they occupied our land, so it'd be too painful for me to watch. Besides, Crowe isn't even in it very much.

    Btw, wasn't Bryan Brown in 'Cocktail' with Tom Cruise? I think that's the only movie I remember him in.

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  12. @rtm - it was actually filmed in Queensland, Australia. This really is a tame taste of the inhumanity of the Japanese during WWII. I looked on wikipedia and they were about as bad if maybe not worse than the Nazi's in terms of how they treated prisoners, seems they did scientific tests on prisoners with biological chemicals, even cannibalism!

    As for Bryan Brown I really wasn't too familiar with his career either although I knew I recognized him from somewhere. He was in 'Cocktail' but where I remember him from was the recent film 'Australia' with Hugh Jackman, he was King Carney. For the most part though he's done a lot of Australian made films.

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  13. bryan brown was in 'the thorn birds' for american tv (where he met his now wife rachel someone); he was also in 'fx' and 'fx2'.

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  14. @becks - Is his wife's last name really Someone? ;P

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  15. This film is interesting as one of the few films to focus on the Australians during the war. There are remarkably few films that even mention Australians, much less tell some of their unique stories. At one point early in the war, their continent was in the gun sights of the Japanese aggressors and might have fallen had not the Americans finally been able to divert Japanese attention to defending what they'd already taken.

    Of course the film is interesting in that it was Russell Crowe's first.

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  16. @Anonymous - 'Australia' is also a good film which has a large piece devoted to WWII and the Japanese actually attacking Australia, something not a whole lot of people were ever really familiar with either.

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  17. uhhhh, no, it's not 'someone' anymore - it's brown. actually, if my feeble brain is working correctly, she was (and maybe still is, at least professionally) rachel ward. i just couldn't remember it last night!
    another amazing film about aussies in any war is 'gallipoli', directed by peter weir.

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