Worth a Watch
Summary
Only the Brave is a surprisingly heartfelt war drama with excellent performances from the impressive cast. The battles are small scale due to budget restrictions but it still manages to be a compelling tale of war and it affects not only the soldiers but their loved ones.
Plot: A searing portrait of war and prejudice, ‘Only the Brave’ takes you on a haunting journey into the hearts and minds of the forgotten heroes of WWII – the Japanese-American 100th/442nd. In 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, overnight Japanese Americans were put into internment camps for the duration of the war. Determined to prove their loyalty, 1400 Japanese Americans successfully petitioned the government to serve becoming the 100th Infantry Battalion. They were sent to North Africa, Italy and finally France were they performed an impossibly-dangerous rescue of the Texas 36th Division. During their two years of combat these men received an unparalleled 21 Medals of Honor, 9,486 Purple Hearts, 8 Presidential Citations, 53 Distinguished Service Crosses, 588 Silver Stars and 5,200 Bronze stars – making them the most decorated unit of their size in American military history.
Review: Only the Brave may star Mark Dacascos but it is no relation to his movie Only the Strong from 1991; this is more of a war drama than an action picture but there are still plenty of smaller scale battles.
As the synopsis says above, Only the Brave tells the story of a group Japanese-American 100th/442nd soldiers who are determined to prove their loyalty after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. It’s surprisingly moving and each character is explored with their own backstory with excellent performances from the rather excellent cast. Not only do we have Mark Dacascos but we also have the criminally underrated Jason Scott Lee, Yuji Okumoto, Pat Morita and Jeff Fahey.
It is more of a character piece interspersed with a few battles but it’s never boring and it’s refreshing to see this story told which isn’t something we see often.
The budget clearly isn’t huge, but director Lane Nishikawa knows how to keep things compelling while using sound to convey the sense of chaos and terror these soldiers went through. It captures the horrors of war and how it impacts not only the people who fight but their loved ones who also have to live with the consequences.
Overall, I’m not sure I would watch Only the Brave all that often but it’s a solidly made war picture and the cast alone makes it worth checking out.