Anyone saw the movie? Man, we watched it last night and I'm still bothered by it. LaRita just sat there and cried through about half of it, while trying not to watch. Its based on a true story, is very brutal and intense! I just couldn’t stop watching it and now I can’t get it out of my head. I’d have to say its one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while.

Have not seen it but now you have sparked my interest. Can you give the basics? Plot, actors, time frame in which it was filmed, is it out on video, etc.

Try this link:

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808406290&cf=info&intl=us

Without giving away to much heres one review.
"Cinema patrons at a Hollywood screening stayed glued to their seats as credits rolled; the emotional power of the film was so intense that the credits and the music were needed for filmviewers to decelerate emotionally so that they could leave the theater without breaking out into tears. Directed by David L. Cunningham, To End All Wars has been nominated by the Political Film Society for three awards--as an exposé on how the Burma Railroad was built and how prisoners survived transformed, as an eloquent plea to have human rights respected in wartime, and as a peace editorial to remember World War II as the war to end all world wars."

It's a more factual version of "The Bridge on the River Quai," and is about the total cruelty inflicted by the Japanese on mostly-Scottish POWs. It's a very good movie. Much better than River Quai. They have been showing it on the cable channels.

Anyone who moans about Harry Truman dropping the bomb on Hiroshima should see it. That was very bad too, I suppose. But then again, the USS Arizona is the oldest ship on active duty with the US Navy. She cannot be decommissioned because whe has a full crew on board.

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Originally posted by Indy:
and is about the total cruelty inflicted by the Japanese on mostly-Scottish POWs.

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Just wondering where you got this from. I know a battalion of Argylls were captured at Singapore, but the majority of Japanese PoWs were British (90%English/Welsh 10%Scots) and Australian.

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Originally posted by Deerdogs:

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Originally posted by Indy:
and is about the total cruelty inflicted by the Japanese on mostly-Scottish POWs.

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Just wondering where you got this from. I know a battalion of Argylls were captured at Singapore, but the majority of Japanese PoWs were British (90%English/Welsh 10%Scots) and Australian.

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Bloody right. A lot of Australians were murdered by the Japanese on the Burmese railway.

If you go to the military war cemetary in Thailand where the WW2 war graves are from this crime you will see the numbers. What is usually missed in movies and books but recorded there is that hundreds of thousands of Thais and other Asians were also murdered and worked to death by the Japanese on the railway.

There is a good review page at this link:

http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/to_end_all_wars.htm

Thanks for bringing up this movie as it looks worthwhile to watch.

If you are interested in reading a true story of the Thai-Burma railway as an eye witness account,I recommend "Behind Bamboo-Hell on the Burma Railway"written by Rohan Rivett.Rivett was working as a radio broadcaster/journalist during the fall of Singapore in 1942.Americans will find interest in the USS Houston survivors who were also on the rail line.

I recommend to read the terrific campaign of the English General Orde Charles Wingate in Burma.
One of his maxim (for hunting use) “ Jungle is neutralâ€.
I wonder where Australians were not slaughtered? When I was a boy in Verdun, I played capped with a hat from a killed WWI Australian soldier.

Jean

Our government wasn't very smart in WW2. They sent tens of thousands of troops to help the British defend Singapore only to have the cowardly British General surrender with hardly a shot fired. The Japs came from inland rather than a sea attack which he expected so he just gave up. They surrendered only for most to die in POW and work camps.

'Weary' Dunlop was a famous character whom was a surgeon in the 'hospital' on the Burma railway. He also was an artist and managed to sketch and save (from the Japs) many sketchs of scenes from the time. Now hanging in the National War Museum.

Later we had a change in government and a gov't with some sense and spine who pulled troops out of protecting Egypt for the British back to protecting Northern Australia and fighting in New Guinea. I have read taking Jap prisoners of war wasn't a popular hobby by this time.

An Uncle of mine was beheaded by the Japs in NG after being captured.

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We have a 'town' called Verdun not far from here and another called Sedan, and many others named after battles and towns in France from WW1.


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Edited: Just wanted to say, a lot of British lives were wasted too by that fool of a general.

What worse NitroX is our goverment was still trading with the Japs as it was all happening.

My grandfather who fought in the region obviously has a great dislike for the japs but said they were brave men and doughty fighters, just with a different war religion.

He rates the North QLD Aussies as the best soldiers there purely since they grew up in the same tropical country back home.Bascially the same natural advantage a ghurka has in his back yard.

Followed by the Brits, Japs and then yanks.

His views on the last were-
"We all needed the Americans help,"Especially with only 6 million people in Australia there was no way to meet the japs alone"
"However, the individual American was not a fighting man".

I would say, going off what I have seen in modern times the yanks would now be the bravest we have.

The rest of us are so headfucked by the UN we can't risk all the paperwork involved if someone gets shot.

Karl.

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Originally posted by jbderunz:
I recommend to read the terrific campaign of the English General Orde Charles Wingate in Burma.
One of his maxim (for hunting use) “ Jungle is neutralâ€.

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The Jungle is Neutral is a book written by Fred Spencer Chapman, a british officer who lived rough for 3/4? years behind Jap lines in Burma, having avoided capture at Singapore. It is a very good read.
Unfortunatly he commited suicide after the war.

Wingate was a brilliant maverick but was apparently a bit mad. Killed in an aircrash.

I have a book written by an Aussie PoW somewhere. Amazing read. Those guys had some balls.

NitroX: Actually, it was the Aussie General, Sir Claude Auckinlec (SP) that really stopped Rommel before El Alamein together with the New Zealand boys. It was after the defeat of the Germans in N Africa that the Aussies and Kiwis went back to SW Asia where Mountbatten was C in C. jorge

Interesting thread, but if no one minds terribly, can those using it dispense with the 'Japs' terminology? What they did was reprehensible and in many ways inhuman, and history recognizes that, but enough with the racial slurs already, huh? It's offensive to many, myself included.

It never ceases to amaze me how Japanese are still today referred to by many as 'Japs', but one never hears the Germans called 'Krauts'...

Anyway, cheers, and sounds like one not to miss.

Kamo Gari