A sturdy combination of 'blood island' prison-camp film and court-martial drama, this war atrocities drama, based on real facts, runs along familiar lines, but grips most of the way through. Bryan Brown, who once portrayed the victim of a court-martial in Breaker Morant, is the prosecuting officer who must try to convict Japanese officers from the island where 300 Australian soldiers have been found butchered and buried. But he has no witnesses, no evidence and defendants who merely insist that no massacres ever took place. There is evidence, to be sure, but certain Allied factions withhold it from the prosecutor for political reasons. In the end, a breakthrough comes, though it provides neither side with much satisfaction. Well put together, the film throws up an interesting new actress in Canadian-born Aussie Deborah Unger (since in leading Hollywood roles) and carries a 'special appearance' by Jason Donovan, who has half-a-dozen close-ups, but only one line. STAR SPOT: Russell Crowe as Lt Corbett - his first movie role.

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