The movie is called "To End All Wars", (2001) based on the book, "Miracle on the River Kwai"....by Ernest Gordon. I believe the director's name was David Cunningham.
Its kinda a similar story like Bridge on the River Kwai, which I have not seen in a very long time. About all I remember is the men were very brave, the bad bridge scene and the whistling. I put in my queue to watch again.
It was during WWII. A regimen of Scottish men were taken prisoner by the Japanese, along with one American. In the movie he was the only actor I could name, Kiefer Sutherland.
They were forced to build the railroad of death in Burma. That alone tells you this is not going to go well.
I have seen lots of WWII movies, but mostly it was the Germans doing the killing. What made this so disturbing was the brutality. Not that it wasn't in the movies where Germans are killing. This was just so up close and personal. In the German areas, its quite common to see some people slapped around and see fifty shot and killed in minutes. We see much less death in this movie. But we frequently see the person beaten or tortured for long periods of time. For the ones that did survive, they probably are glad they made it through, but they may not have thought that at the time. I guess the greater amount of suffering is what increases the brutality in my mind.
Is watching 50 people suffer for 30 seconds and die more or less brutal than watching 1 person beaten almost to death for 10 minutes, or tortured almost to death for 2 days?
My favorite character in the movie dies an especially horrible death. What makes it even worse, is that it happened 2 weeks before the end of the war.
Is it a good movie? Not sure. Do I recommend it? Not sure, you should know what you are in for. But yes, it is worth seeing. Esp. since it is a part of our history not enough people are aware of. Just be forewarned. It was not that long ago, this was in the 1940's. Its not ancient history.
