THE MOVIE

Six hundred men entered Ambon Island POW Camp. Three years later, one hundred and twenty-three were barely left alive.

Blood Oath, also known as Prisoners of the Sun, was written by Denis Whitburn and Brian A. Williams based on the book Blood Oath (also written by Williams). Presumably the book (and this film) are based around the transcripts that Williams found inside an old shoebox in his fathers garage. The film is directed by Stephen Wallace, who is also responsible for the television show Water Rats.

The place is Tan Toey POW camp, Ambon Island, Indonesia. The time is December, 1945 following the end of World War II. Australian soldiers have just unearthed a mass grave containing the bodies (many of which have been decapitated) of 300 executed servicemen. Captain Cooper (Bryan Brown) is the chief prosecutor and he believes that the mass execution of Australian servicemen was ordered by the highly decorated Vice-Admiral Baron Takahashi (George Takei, who you might remember as Captain Sulu from Star Trek), the Japanese commander in chief on Ambon. Meanwhile, Private Jimmy Fenton (John Polson - Mission Impossible 2, The Sum of Us) is one of the POWs who managed to escape with his life, but only just. He is recovering from his injuries in an army hospital, and could hold the key to a successful prosecution.

And so the Australian War Crimes Tribunal begins. On trial are Takahashi as well as Captain Ikeuchi (Tetsu Watanabe) and Lieutenant Tanaka (Toshi Shioya). There is a far amount of politics involved. Major Beckett (Terry O'Quinn from the television show Millennium) is the American who is overseeing the trial. Anyway, back to the trial itself. Jimmy is called as a witness, and he begins to recount his stories of the beatings and torture inflicted on the prisoners. Along the way we are shown some quite horrific flashbacks of what presumably went on in these POW camps on Ambon, and the atrocities inflicted upon those Australian servicemen who were captured by the Japanese.

Blood Oath also features (a much younger looking) Russell Crowe in his feature film debut playing Lieutenant Corbett. Ex Neighbours star Jason Donovan also appears in this film as Private Talbot, as does John Clarke (from ABC’s The Games) as Mr Sheedy, a reporter for the Sydney Herald who is covering the proceedings at the Tribunal.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Blood Oath is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 widescreen and is 16:9 enhanced. This is an okay transfer, but it’s not that flash and it does have some problems. Firstly, there is quite a bit of grain to be observed during this film. This is evident right from the start of the film. The opening scenes where the soldiers are walking through the fog are particularly grainy, and the shot of Bryan Brown is terrible.

There are some scenes where things look reasonably crisp and clear, but shadow detail is quite dreadful at times, the visual quality seems to go kaput during the night time scenes, with the picture becoming terribly gritty at times. Colours on the other hand look realistic and are well saturated. Check out the bright ties that John Clarke wears and the Australian flags in the courthouse to see what I mean. I couldn’t find any glaringly bad MPEG artefacts and the layer change is not evident.

Audio:

This DVD comes with three soundtracks, all are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. There is of course your standard (default) English soundtrack, and then there are two audio commentaries (see below for further details). The default soundtrack is satisfactory, with no noticeable audio glitches. Dialogue is clearly audible at all stages of the film. There didn’t appear to be any audio synch problems either. Music by David McHugh is quite good, but it seems to be used rather sparingly.

THE EXTRAS

The Film’s Journey
This featurette basically explains how this film Blood Oath came to be. Brian A. Williams was 13 years of age when he stumbled upon photos and transcripts in his father’s garage that were related to the Australian War Crimes Tribunal in Ambon, which took place some 20 years earlier. This is quite an interesting featurette. It runs for around 27 minutes and it is presented in 1.33:1 full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound.

Behind the Scenes
This featurette is quite interesting in that it provides some amateur behind the scenes footage at Warner Brothers studios on the Gold Coast, as well as some of the scenes shot on location at Cabbage Tree Point (which doubled as Ambon). This featurette is narrated by director Stephen Wallis, who provides quite a number of technical insights into the filmmaking process. Running time is around 17 minutes.

Ambon POWs Remember
Interviews with Tom Pledger, Bob Allen, Vernon Ball and Jack Serant, some of the surviving Australian soldiers who were held at Tan Toey POW camp on Ambon Island during World War II. These ex-servicemen describe what conditions were like and remember those who were less fortunate than themselves. Running time is approximately 12 minutes.

Director’s Commentary
The first commentary track features director Stephen Wallace. Just like the Behind the Scenes featurette, Wallace again provides a some very interesting points about the filmmaking process. He discusses shooting the film, sets, lighting, rehearsals, even casting extras from the Gold Coast. He does tend to go on a bit about Russell Crowe, even though his part in this film is relatively minor.

Producer/Writer Commentary
The second commentary track features writers Brian Williams and Denis Whitburn, as well as producer Annie Bleakley. This is an interesting commentary, although not as good as the first, it deals a lot with casting, the script and the film industry in general. I could not access either of these audio commentaries on the fly, finding that both had to be selected from the special features menu. Both commentaries have an introductory section with a Blood Oath title screen (somewhat similar to what you see when the menu is loading) before the film starts.

Ray Martin Interview
This interview features both Bryan Brown and Russell Crowe. It looks as though it was filmed relatively recently, presumably since the release of Gladiator, as Russell Crowe’s Oscar win is mentioned. Visual quality is also very good, being presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. Running time is 3.42 minutes.

Music Video
The music video is Memorial Day performed by Russell Crowe’s band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why this is here? The songs relevance to the film is questionable, it’s not like the song was in the soundtrack. I guess you can’t complain about having too many extras though. It is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Running time is 5.14 minutes.

DVD-ROM Content
The DVD automatically loads a Adobe Acrobat file when you place it in your DVD-ROM drive. Here you can check out ‘A Journey From Blind Justice To Soaring Compassion’, an 8 page study guide as well as recommended reading and further viewing suggestions. Then there is a section called Supplementary Materials, which contains the following:
- Awards, reviews and articles.
- Original trial / contemporary documents and correspondence.
- Original sketch maps, Ambon 1942-45.
- Geneva Convention 1949 / Moscow 1999.
- Eulogy, John Myles Williams Q.C.
- Address to Blood Oath cast by former army prosecutor Capt. John Myles Williams.
Finally, there are a number of weblinks to be found including a link to Russell Crowe’s website (russellcrowe.com), another to the 30 Odd Foot of Grunts website (gruntland.com), another to the Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au).

Theatrical Trailer
This is a relatively short theatrical trailer, running for only 1.24 minutes. It is presented in 1.33:1 (4:3) full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound.

SUMMARY

I guess if you’re into war movies and you enjoyed Nuremberg, then Blood Oath might also appeal to you. I personally didn’t find this film very enjoyable, given the depressing subject matter, but each to their own. The visual transfer is satisfactory but this film only has a Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. The DVD also comes with some quite good extras including two audio commentaries.