Monday, July 26, 2004

"To End All Wars"

Why has this film been virtually ignored by the media and film industry? It's one of the best films I've seen in a couple of years, certainly better than 90% of the shlock in your community video store. I have an actor friend from Hollywood who is now retired and continues to be
a major film buff. Recently he accidently happened across this film, about which he had heard nothing. Based on the autobiographical account of Ernest Gordon, Miracle on the River Kwai, the film at first looked like a rip-off of the classic movie, Bridge over the River Kwai (starring Alec Guinness and William Holden), about the British and American prisoners of war building a railroad through the jungles of Thailand and Burma for their Japanese captors during the Second World War. But then the story turns, and the most unpredictable drama unfolds, one whose brutality is tempered only by the redemptive depth of personal sacrifices that ensue. Directed by David L. Cunningham, the film stars Kiefer Sutherland, Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty), Ciaran McMenamin, Mark Strong, and Yugo Saso. Superb acting. Ron Reid (of Christianity Today) offers a mixed but substantial review, in which his critical remarks seem less revealing about the film than about Reid's knee-jerk reactions against his own Evangelical Protestant ethos. For a variety of reviews and clips from the official website, click here. For screenwriter Brian Godawa's commentary, click here.

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