Review of To End All Wars (2001) by David G — 17 Jun 2007

This is a film set in a Japanese prison-of-war camp during the Second World War so naturally one of the main points of the film is to get over to the audience the brutality of life in one of those camps.

Whilst this is achieved adequately, director David Cunningham also adds the subtext of sacrifice and forgiveness, going out of his way to show prisoners putting themselves in harms way to protect their comrades while forgiving their captors for the horrors they are subjected to.

This topic is covered extremely well, however, scenes of brutality do not shock in the same way as similar scenes in other films do. Schindlers List is still the film to beat when it comes to the subject of the horrors of war.

Well worth a look if you like films about courage and comradeship, and the fact that the characters are played by a likeable cast including Robert Carlysle and Keifer Sutherland is a bonus.