Product Description

Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Carlyle star in this explosive war film based on an amazing true story. Captured by the Japanese, a group of courageous soldiers are forced to build the infamous "Railway of Death" between Thailand and Burma during the height

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14898 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 2004-06-15
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Amazon.com
A Japanese P.O.W. camp during World War II becomes the battleground for the souls as well as the lives of its Scottish and British prisoners. Based on a true story, To End All Wars centers around Ernest Gordon (Ciaran McMenamin), a young soldier who wants to teach philosophy. When Gordon recovers from seeming death by illness, the other prisoners agree to become Grodon's pupils, studying Plato, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Gordon's superior officer, Ian Campbell (Robert Carlyle, Trainspotting, The Full Monty), scoffs at the increasingly pacificist bent of Gordon's teachings. Jim Reardon (Kiefer Sutherland, 24, Freeway), a lone American running a black market, is equally skeptical. But under the relentless brutality of the camp, the only way for the soldiers to survive is to find what gives their lives meaning. The strong performances of To End All Wars makes this moral conflict as vivid as any gun battle. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Edgy, sobering, magnificent!
"To End All Wars" is far and away the most gripping film I have ever seen. What begins as a prisoner-of-war story in the WWII Pacific Theatre, ends in the viewer's most private chambers of the heart and mind. People left so quietly out of the theatre that only a light rustling could be heard. Jack Cosmos delivers the single most impressive moment in acting that I have ever seen in film; an explosive moment that will leave all who see it breathless--if not catatonic. New-comer to the States, Ciaran McMenamin delivers when it comes to the raw moment that he realises he is in hell already; he takes on the manner of paranoid schizophrenic as he suddenly stumbles away from the chow line. Sutherland's acting as the lone Yank brings in a performance of steel, which later goes through a metamorphosis that must be seen. Carlisle displays a range of the most complex emotions imaginable with textured grace and flawless perfection. Mark Strong, who plays Dusty, exudes an inner dynamic and peace in the face of everything that demands hate. His very presence on screen is reassuring. There is a luminosity Strong brings to any scene that characterizes what is best about this movie.

This Indie has Academy Awards written all over it--but it must be seen in order to be nominated. I plan on seeing it several times to pick up more of Producer Hafer and Director Cunningham's subtle and oblique slants on ethics, what is true greatness and how are we to grip tightly to what we hold nearest and dearest.

Redemption, Forgiveness, Brutality
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.

Vengeance or Forgiveness?
This movie offers a strong message of characters that choose vengeance or forgiveness. Choosing vengeance and pursuing hatred destroys by the end of the movie the men who embrace them. Choosing forgiveness and displaying mercy rewards the men who exercise them.

"To End All Wars" is definitely a violent, gory, blood-and-guts war movie, but is very well done. The theme is definitely Christian in nature. It's a good film for Christian men who may be trying to understand the nature of Christ's unconditional love and substitutional death. It's definitely not a chick flick, but a great film for older male teens and men.