The Great Raid, John Dahl’s gritty war drama based on true events, is getting lots of buzz among moviegoers. In making the epic story of one of the most spectacular rescue missions in American history, Dahl -- who’s directed such films as Rounders and Joy Ride -- faced quite a challenge. During his interview, he talks candidly about his reasons for making the movie, casting choices and the filmmaking process.

Q. This is a totally different genre than you are used to working on. Why did you want to do this film?

Dahl: My father was in the Philippines during World War II. My cousin died on the first day of the war, and I kind of didn’t know what that meant. We had a friend at our church, Ben Steele, whom my father told me was in the Bataan Death March. So when I heard about this movie, I had an instant connection and thought it was a great opportunity to learn more about what my father had gone through and what he had experienced.

Q. Why have we never heard these stories before?

Dahl: As my mother explained, I think we’ve felt guilty about this. We interned people in the U.S. and dropped an atomic bomb. Some ask was that a great thing to do? It’s easy to look back now and second-guess, and there’s a lot of strong emotions on both sides. War is painful.

Q.  Did you learn anything surprising during this journey?

Dahl: Just how heroic soldiers are. I asked myself if there was a conflict today where men would storm a wall of bullets knowing they would die -- like they did in WWII where everyone knew it was an important day, a moment in history and they all had a small role to play in it -- would future generations have the stomach for something that WWII generations did without hesitation? Now that I’ve met so many military men and women, I know they do. I just don’t know if the public does.

Q. Unlike your previous films, this was a five-month shoot with a $60 million budget. How different were the directing duties?

Dahl: It was a massive production, but if you’ve been in the business as long as I have, there’s something exciting about a big production, and I was fortunate to have great help. The directing job was not much different. The process of making a film is the same; it’s the story that changes. Even with the difference in budget, there are always the same pressures, especially not enough time.

Q. I understand you interviewed some of the survivors from the real camp.

Dahl: Yes. We started the process of interviewing as a way of learning about it. I had an interesting experience after we shot the film. I was interviewing Herb Ott, a veterinarian who was at the camp for 2 to 3 years and served as one of the camp doctors. I relayed a story I’d heard about the raid and a doctor who was with a group by the front gate and waiting to leave. When shrapnel hit a soldier, the doctor stayed behind with him and 14 other guys instead of being evacuated. When Herb told me he was that doctor, I got to ask him why he did that. He replied, ‘because that was my job.’ That’s the remarkable sentiment that you hear about these WWII veterans.

Q. You had an amazing cast for this film, didn’t you?

Dahl: Yes, I was fortunate on that as well. Benjamin Bratt wasn’t the obvious choice (for Lieutenant Colonel Henry A. Mucci) in the beginning, but now it’s hard to imagine anybody else being the Colonel in this movie. He really threw himself into it with heart and soul and developed the persona of a true leader.

James Franco brought a great intenseness to his role (Captain Robert Prince). It was probably one of the most fun things we experienced during the filmmaking to see James go from actor to Captain in a course of a couple of weeks.

Joseph Fiennes’ commitment to play his part (prisoner Major Gibson) was extraordinary. He even went on a grueling 1000 calorie a day diet to portray Gibson realistically.

Q. And you put the actors through a boot camp and had a military advisor on the set?

Dahl: We made the boot camp a part of making the movie. The entire organization did a fantastic job. We sent 120 cast members to a special 10-day training session in Queensland, Australia, under the command of the legendary Captain Dale Dye (advisor on Platoon), a retired Marine Captain and a military advisor. We had to know how to best portray the military, and that means Dale Dye.

Q. Not everything in the film is true, correct?

Dahl: We tried to stay true at least to the military part of the story. But we take some dramatic license. The Joseph Fiennes’ character is fictitious, as were some of the Japanese leaders. The aid worker Margaret was based on a real person but was not in love with a soldier in the camp. Palawan happened almost a month before the rescue, but we sort of show the same officers there. That didn't happen. They did execute 10 men for every one that escaped. That was the traditional camp policy. There were escapes at the beginning, and they did kill people that way. They didn’t do it like that at the end, but we were looking for ways to increase the stakes in the story.

Q. Did you show the film to some of the real survivors?

Dahl: As many as we could. The men are aging. We showed it in Cincinnati at the 60th reunion of the Defenders of Bataan and about 25 survivors attended. We showed it to another 19 in New Mexico and another 18 in California.

Q. Have you heard comments about making such a movie at this time with a real war going on?

Dahl:  Of course. You can draw some interesting parallels, an enemy that’s suicidal. We had never seen kamikaze pilots before WWII. Very few Japanese soldiers surrendered. It was a shame and embarrassment to surrender. We tried not to approach our story with any particular agenda rather than just tell what happened. I think it’s important that people know what happened to these men. They survived the Death March but then got captured and spent the war in a POW camp. For me, it was an honor and a privilege to tell this story.

(Read Diana Saenger’s reviews of classic films at http://classicfilm.about.com )