Search - Only the Brave on DVD

Low budget, yes, but still powerful, moving, historical

SteppingRZA | USA | 04/20/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Only the Brave" isn't the best war movie around, nor does it have the shine or polish seen in big-budget, Hollywood movies, but it's very moving, knowing that what happened to the soldiers in the movie is based on historical fact.

"Only the Brave" is about the efforts of the 442/100 military regiment to rescue a Texas battalion that got stuck behind enemy lines during WWII. In doing so, they lost more soldiers than they ended up rescuing.

What makes this movie quite the rarity in American entertainment is that the soldiers at the center of the movie are Japanese-American. Perhaps with a bigger budget, it could have had more screen time to fully flesh out the main characters (played by Lane Nishikawa, Jason Scott Lee, Tamlyn Tomita, Mark Dacascos, Yuji Okumoto and Greg Watanabe), but it does well enough to pass on this rather underreported part of American/WWII history. While they and their families were in American internment camps, they volunteered to join the American military, to prove that they were just as American as anyone else living in the country.

Some critics have given negative reviews of this movie, but I tend to be more lenient with low-budget films. But this movie does overcome its budget restraints and delivers emotionally powerful scenes, and the film is also interesting and educational. It might be of more immediate interest to Japanese-Americans, but it deserves to be seen by those who don't know the history of Japanese-American soldiers."

Only the Brave

John Smith | East Hartford, CT United States | 06/21/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The movie's value is it captures a story that actually happened, that needs to be shared with schoolchildren that might never have known the truth. The film itself comes across without enough action to hold the audience's attention, which is too bad, because it is worthwhile information that people should know about."

A good popcorn B movie

CharlieMike | NC | 05/06/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This movie is not easy to find. It never made it into the theaters in our region, darn it.

My brother happened to see it in California and said it was worth finding the DVD. Checked ebay (ripoff prices galore) and Amazon, and again, Amazon won hands down.

It's a good B movie action flick. Have watched it twice now and am glad I bought it. It will go into the my collection."