To End All Wars
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Movie Reviews of To End All Wars
Movie Review: Redemption, Forgiveness, Brutality
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never heard of this film. I picked it up because it looked to be an interesting war movie. On closer inspection, I became suspicious and suspected an apology and justification for Japanese war crimes. Just moments into it, I flipped the otehr way and thought it would be an acurate (as to the horrors of the Japanese treatment of prisoners) but shallow, depicting all Japanese as monsters and all allies as saints. Neither suspicion was well founded.
The brutality and horror of the Japanese treatment of POWs is graphically protrayed here. Some survivors who have seen it have horrified me by indicating that the movie pulled some of its punches and the reality was even worse. The thought that that could be true is utterly terrifying but does not detract from this film's ability to realistically protray that brutality. The film also protrays some virtues on some Japanese. The ugly facts are present but so too are some acts of humanity.
Neither were all the allied parts played as some sort of supermen. They had their good points and their bad. On balance, they WERE the good guys. That does not stop them from having the same assortment of humanity, with all its goods and ills, that any large gathering could be expected to have.
The story of the movie is fairly simple. Prisoners from the 93rd Regiment, the Argylle and Sutherland Highlanders, are forced to labor on a military railway by their Japanese captors. With them is a single American officer. The movie depicts the story of their mistreatment and their efforts to survive the horrors. Part of their approach in maintaining a degree of civilization amidst the barbarity is to run a "school". The school teaches such subjects as philosophy, music, drama, ethics and even Christian doctrine. They utilize whatever knowledge is possessed by the POWs. Some are skeptical but others thrive. The school gives hope. It is also apparent that the labors of the teachers bear fruit, especially with the concept of forgiveness. In the end, it is the ideas of forgiveness and redemption in the midst of suffering and brutality which are the point of the film.
It seems that some commentators take exception to the Christian message protrayed. Too bad. The story is taken from the account of a serving officer who became a chaplain at Princeton after the war. His story is a Christian one. I have no doubt that someone of a different faith would have couched his message in different imagry but that would have been a different story, not this one.
This is a powerful film. It cannot properly be calle entertainment (I hope) but it is still worthwhile. This graphic violence and suffering is difficult to take sometimes but the message is worth the effort. It is a work of excellence.
Movie Review: Very Intense Film.
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my Amazon friends initially recommended this film to me and after reading Ernest Gordon's powerful memoir "To End all Wars", I decided to give the film a try. Rarely has a film surpassed my expectations as much as this one did.
"To End all Wars" is a fictionalized portrayal of the true story of Scottish Captain (and later chaplin at Princeton) Ernest Gordon's coming to faith while a POW working on the infamously brutal Thai Burma Railway built for the Japanes in WWII. The film's subject matter alone gave it the potential to be a solid personalized War film. Afterall I liked David Lean's even more fictionalized "Bridge on the River Kwai" set during the construction of the same railway. In terms of drama though, "To End all Wars" blows Lean's film out of the water.
The acting is solid from about every member of the cast. Robert Carlyle gives a very memorable performance as a Scottish officer though frankly this film is full of excellent acting on both the Allied and Japanese sides. While not possessing a huge budget compared to many major films, the cinematography gives a surprisingly epic feeling to the film as well as captures both the natural beauty and inhuman brutality depicted. The film's musical score is very well composed and very appropriate. Especially at the film's conclusion, photographs and footage of the real Ernest Gordon and historical locations add a special historical quality to the picture (one interesting photograph appears to be the real Bridge on the River Kwai after being bomber by Allied aircraft [note: the River apparently had a different name at the time]).
What really caught my attention with "To End all Wars" was the film's graphic intensity and moral message. This is a film which like Saving Private Ryan tries to capture the hellish nature of war. In the midst of appaling work conditions and cruelty from their Japanese guards, charachters choose whether to forgive or hate. The film is generally from a Christian perspective and contains a strong religious allegory in one of the characters, though I think other reviewers were correct in noting that the filmakers played down some of the book's religious message. "To End all Wars" has a great deal of violence and cursing. However, neither is exploitative and are simply necessary gritty historical realities. At times, I came close to tears, not a common occurance for me in most films.
Overall, "To End all Wars" is a very powerful and well-made film. It is also a film which brings important topics about faith and humanity. I strongly recommend it though I caution viewers that it is realistically brutal and intense.
Movie Review: The Pity of War
Summary: 5 Stars
TO END ALL WARS is one of the most powerful films about the ability of the human heart tot survive and be transformed under the most adverse conditions. The pity, here, is that this exceptionally moving film never made it to the theaters, probably because it was made and ready to release as we plunged into the war in Iraq - and if ever there could be a time when stories such as this should be related to the public, that time is emphatically now.About another war (WW II), this story is taken from the book by the man who experienced it - Ernest Gordon: the subject deals with truth and as directed by David L. Cunningham it becomes biographically factual as well as timeless in message. A Scottish regiment has been captured by the Japanese and along with other Allied Forces, this band of brothers is kept in a prisoner of war camp in Thailand for the purpose of building a railway from Thailand to Burma. They are led by a sturdy Scotsman (James Cosmo)who early in the story meets his death for his conviction that his men should resist the enemy. His leadership role is taken over by the major (Robert Carlyle) who maintains a sense of military duty despite the torrid conditions under which he and his boys live. Ernest Gordon (Ciaran McMenamin) and Dusty (Mark Strong) care for the mental stability of the prisoners by teaching the men the Bible, Plato, and Shakespeare. The leaders of the Japanese (Sakae Kimura and Masayuki Yui) speak to the prisoners through the Oxford-educated translator Takashi Nagare (Yugo Saso) who we feel early on has more compassion for the prisoners' plight than would be appropriate for an enemy. There is a Yankee (Kiefer Sutherland) who quietly runs a black market, is caught and is severely tortured as his fellow prisoners look on. The railway is ultimately completed by the prisoners and as they begin their celebration (and graduation form Gordon's humanistic studies) the Allied Forces planes fly over and the beginning of the end is at hand. How these prisoners and their captors culminate this experience speaks very heavily about the sanctity of the human spirit and soul and though the ending is not expected, it is deeply moving.
The message here is magnificent: War is absurd and cruel and insane and will always be that as long as wars recur. But when bereft of all the comforts of life, when faced with inevitable doom, the human heart is capable of forgiveness and communion. This film holds human dignity aloft and makes us all more sensitive to the fragile thread that binds us all. This is a beautifully directed, written, acted, and photographed film that hopefully will this time move from the DVD to the world theaters for mass consumption!
Movie Review: Real forgiveness
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read about "To End All Wars" in a movie review in World magazine(a Christian faith publication), and then was astonished when it was released to only a few movie theatres in the US (mostly on the West Coast), and then only for a brief period of time. I had read the book by Ernest Gordon (on which the movie was based), and coupled with the reviews (all of which were very favorable), I bought the DVD as soon as it was released, sight unseen. To this day it remains one of my favorite movies about war- both for it's uncompromising, gritty realism (in telling the true story of the Burma "Death Railway"), and more significantly, for the enduring and thought-provoking message that it so effectively communicates. All good movies about war, in my mind, have in common the ability to go beyond the action, beyond the suffering and violence, and to raise from all the ashes something profound about human nature, and man's inhumanity to man.
"To End All Wars" is a first-rate movie production: on location cinematography, compelling acting performances by all the actors, a haunting musical score, and uncompromising realism in telling a story of extreme (though all too common) brutality and suffering. This is no made-for-TV affair - the production values are A+.
The few other reviewer comments on profanity in the movie, and a "watering-down" of the overt Christian message of Gordon's book didn't bother me at all; I rather imagine this movie was not made with a fundamental church-going audience in mind. Rather, by presenting a true story and being faithful to the times and events of those times, I think this movie gains a measure of respectability for any audience, and only makes the eventual message of forgiveness all the more powerful.
For you see, this movie is, above all else, about forgiveness....REAL forgiveness, not just a word we use to appease our guilty conscience, but the "working end" of the idea- that is, forgiveness that means real action....forgiving those who persecute, hate, and even kill you. The POW's of the Death Railway camp portrayed in this film survived unimaginable physical and mental hardships, in no small measure (perhaps mainly) because of discovering faith, meaning, and ultimately salvation - amidst the worst of human conditions. The last 10-15 minutes of this film, where this message is conveyed so powerfully, are among the most gripping and memorable images I've ever seen on film.
I'd highly recommend this movie to anyone who is not uncomfortable with confronting the ugliness within the human heart, in order to find it's greatest rewards.
Movie Review: A "Best in Class"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is easily the best "prisoner of war" film I've ever seen. Indeed, it's one of the best films produced this decade in any category. To tag it as thought-provoking is an understatement (and when was the last time you watched a WWII POW camp flick that you would call thought-provoking?).
The film is strongly based on the true story of the Allied prisoners that were used by Japan as slave labor to build the 400 km "death railway" from Thailand to Burma. The conditions were intolerable and deadly.
Some of the prisoners reponded to their lot with hatred and bitterness. Some, and this is key to the film, sought out education and spiritual refreshment. Plato, Shakespeare, music, the Bible, and ethics are taught and learned. Oddly, neither Jesus nor the God of Christianity are ever specifically named, but the message regarding foregiveness, love and submission are overwhelmingly obvious to those familiar with the teachings of Jesus. The film characters are transformed by this philosophy, including the captors to some degree. This is not about religion, but rather how one lives one's life, especially under extreme adversity. An additional note on the "Jesus factor" . . . the character Dusty, played so well by Mark Strong, parallels the nature and circumstances of the biblical Jesus so well that during one climactic scene I realized that I was leaning forward in my seat with my jaw hanging open. Very, very powerful stuff (I won't give it away).
Do not be scared off at this point thinking that this is one of those "religious flicks". It is not. It's fairly gritty and realistic with Academy Award quality acting, directing, and all other production values. It is about war, hardship, duty and honor, good and evil, and cruelty and forgiveness, selfishness and self-sacrifice. There are violent scenes but I did not consider them gratuitous. And, unusual for an R-rated flick, the production team did not cook up some reason to include a woman without her shirt on. There is no nudity in the film (although after extended captivity, much of the POW clothing had become sparse rags).
Finally, special mention to the location and set. A very realistic look. As I mentioned above, all of the production values were top shelf.
Thoughtful, intelligent, and certainly entertaining. A great movie.