Wednesday, September 21, 2005

To End All Wars/Miracle on the River Kwai

So, I told myself that I was going to start keeping a journal of things I was watching, but since lately its been mostly t.v. shows and old Jimmy Stewart movies, I haven't really felt like following through.
Tonight I watched a movie called "To End All Wars," which is based on the book "Miracle on the River Kwai" by Ernest Gordon. David Cunningham directed this. He is the son of Loren Cunningham...wait...is he the son or grandson? I can't remember. In any case, Loren Cunningham is the founder of Youth With A Mission, and ultimately, that is where I learned about this film. When I was in Montana three years ago, there was talk about it being made. So I remember it recently and hunted it down.
It was great.
The movie is set in WWII and it's about a group of POW's who worked on the Berma-Siam railroad, crossing the river Kwai, which was called the railway of death.
It was a little slow...the ending kind of dragged, but not in a way that really detracted, I just kept expecting it to end. If its a little hard to get into in the beginning (there is a lot of narration), it makes up for it later on. It's not super high action or anything, but there is a lot of interesting content. Really about sacrifice and dignity, and cultural differences, etc. Gospel strong. There are really a couple of deeply moving points in the last quarter of this movie. Not bad for David's debut film.
In any case, I wasn't planning on writing reviews in here, but I figured since Joe shares all of his, it can't hurt to throw one in once in awhile!!! Plus, since I just watched it, it was fresh there in my brain. =)
I really need to go to my bed now, where I will be forced to look at French vocabulary, and read Philosophy for an hour before I can give in to sleep.
It might be a long hour....

2 comments:

Joe said...

I think "To End All Wars" has been in my Netflix for a while. Haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

Have you seen Bridge on the River Kwai? I imagine it is about the same event.

Joe said...

I finally saw this. Good movie.