To End All Wars
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Movie Reviews of To End All Wars
Movie Review: An Excellent Film and A Profound Journey
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film at a test screening quite a while ago and have been waiting for it to be released. I've told all my friends and family that they must see this film as soon as it is available. I don't understand why it didn't come out in a theatrical release, the quality is so much higher than all the films playing at my local theatre. Please support filmmakers who dare to make meaningful films and support this movie.The film follows a group of allied POWs and the atrocities they face in a brutal detention camp. The film doesn't scrimp on depicting the conditions and there are some squemish moments, but it is well worth it. Eventually the men have to decide to work together if they are going to survive. In the midst of the most awful kind of evil they explore the meaning of life, and justice and learn from the teachings of Plato and Jesus.
The flim is ultimately an exploration of forgiveness and reconciliation. This film asks questions that our world needs to hear today: At what price mercy? Who is my brother?
To End All Wars is a profound journey that I urge you to take -- it's one you won't forget.
Movie Review: A true story that the studio heads refused to distribute
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a true story about transformation and transcendence that took place in the hell of a Japanese POW camp in Burma during the second world war. It is also the personal story of Ernest Gordon, the narrator and author of the book,"Through the Valley of the Kwai" (reprinted as "To End All Wars"), upon which the movie is based. Ernest, who was a personal friend and mentor and who deeply touched my own life, went on to become the Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University for 25 years. He later actively opposed the Vietnam war and was a friend and supporter of the Rev. Martin Luther King. He changed so many lives during his lifetime and this is the story the the experiences that changed his. It is a story about forgiveness and love in the face of evil, and the studio heads who saw this film, some of whom wept, were afraid to give it a theatrical distribution because of patriotic fervor over the war in Iraq. It is a story that dares to suggest that God calls us not to violence and war but to love and forgiveness and sacrifice for one another.Movie Review: Why the Christian leaders did not get behing it?
Summary: 5 Stars
The Director, David C., brought us a piece of history with all the quality and mastery of great directors. The filming was impecable and the shots done in way that made us feel like we were there. The characters well defined, almost like a documentary but with energy of an action movie. The violence was never done just for impact but where it was right.
Why the Christian leaders did not get their churches behind this movie, as they did behind "The Passion" is puzzling to me. This was a real story of a God who did not stop at the cross. This was a movie that shows us that Jesus indeed lives. I just hope that every Christian sees this movie and realizes that there are no winners in wars.
To end all wars is a movie to have in anyone's special collection as a reminder that amidst tragedy and injustice some can still find the source of strength and inspiration to go beyond their human capability and soar into the halls of true heroes.
Wainer Guimaraes
Pastor
Movie Review: Character and Honor
Summary: 5 Stars
Top notch acting through a difficult subject. The loss of hope through capture, torture and betrayal in the face of brutal circumstances is the crucible in which true honor and self sacrifice rise to the surface. This prisoner of war movie, slated to release too close to 9/11, finally reached the public without fan fare and is one of the most powerful depictions of honor and true humility available today.
When some of the prisoners are inspired to teach and study and redeem the time by sharing their gifts and talents, hope finds its way into the hearts of the prisoners once again. They now have something to live for, to look forward to at the end of the work day, and their "awakening" causes their captors to permit expansion (espeacially since their productivity increases). Ultimately, their honorable ways are admired (even if privately) by their enemies, who lack the compassion necessary to be truly honorable themselves.
Movie Review: Superb film
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a deeply moving, thoughtful film.Gene Veith, writing in World Magazine, said it is "one of the powerful cinematic expositions of the Christian faith.... Whereas Chariots of Fire, for all of its virtues, never got around to mentioning the gospel, To End All Wars amounts to a sustained meditation on the core of Christianity."
Eric Metaxas, writing in Books & Culture, says: To End All Wars is a powerful film that tells the absolutely harrowing tale of a group of Allied POWs conscripted by the Japanese to build the Burma-Siam railway during World War II. Based on a true story told by Ernest Gordon in his book, In the Valley of the Kwai, this movie is bloody, violent, and profound, portraying a raw, full-throated Christianity of the sort that hasn't been much in evidence since, say, Dostoesvsky. It is emphatically not the cinematic equivalent of a Thomas Kinkade painting."
Highly recommended!