To End All Wars - The real hell

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Movie
German title To End All Wars - The real hell
Original title To End All Wars
Country of production USA , UK , Thailand
original language English , Japanese
Publishing year 2001
length 125 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director David L. Cunningham
script Brian Godawa
production Jack oats
music John Cameron
camera Greg Gardiner
cut Masahiro Hirakubo
occupation

To End All Wars - The true hell (Original: To End All Wars , German alternative title: Gefangen in der Hölle , also To End All Wars - The true hell on the River Kwai and For an end of all wars ) is an American British-Thai war drama by director David L. Cunningham . It is a film adaptation of the book Im Tal des Kwai (Original title: Miracle on the River Kwai , previously Through the valley of the Kwai , 1962) by Ernest Gordon . Gordon was a Japanese prisoner of war in a Thai prisoner-of-war camp during World War II . With his work he processed the experiences of the construction of the so-called death railway .

action

The film is about a group of Scottish , English and American officers who were in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in the jungle of Thailand under the leadership of Japanese troops from February 1942 : humiliation, cruel punishment for disobeying the rules and inhumanly hard work with insufficient food for innumerable deaths from exhaustion or innumerable illnesses. When Lt. Col. Stuart McLean revolted against the brutal methods of the camp leaders who deliberately ignored the rules of the Geneva Convention, he is shot, so that command is passed to Major Campbell. Escape through the jungle is impossible. And yet there is hope in this place of inhumanity and despair: the charismatic Captain Ernest Gordon knows how to give the battered men the will to survive through his jungle university , and Dusty Miller, who has established a church in the open air, inspires them to Christian charity , for example by giving the sick Gordon his rations and nursing him back to health. Major Campbell, however, plans a riot to get revenge on the overseers. The black marketeer Lt. Jim "Yankee" Reardon, who makes it clear to the men that there is no point in escaping. The university bothers him too, as it distracts the men from the insurrection plan. Therefore, he reveals the black market and the secret meetings of the university. As a result, Yankee is severely punished and the university banned. The ban is lifted as work on the railroad progresses faster as Gordon's and Dusty's influence mitigates the prisoners' hatred of the Japanese. The railway line was completed on October 16, 1943, six months ahead of schedule. When a shovel is mistakenly reported stolen, Yankee takes the blame to avoid collective punishment and is crippled by Supervisor Ito before the missed shovel is discovered. The university is organizing a Shakespeare performance and holding a ceremony to award diplomas and give a concert. Meanwhile, when a small group of prisoners led by Major Campbell failed to rebel, the uninvolved Dusty took the punishment for Campbell after the execution of the others involved - knowing full well the barbaric consequences his appeal to the Bushido Code would have for him - and will be crucified. After an Allied bombing raid, Gordon helps injured Japanese soldiers who have left their posts in another camp, although Ito despises the fugitives and wants to deny them entry. Gordon even befriends one of the guards, the translator Takashi Nagase. The camp was finally liberated on August 15, 1945. Campbell and Gordon have one last argument about revenge or forgiveness, because Campbell wants to kill the brutal superintendent Ito, but he uses the distraction to commit Seppuku .

epilogue

The Allied Cemetery in Kanchanaburi

The film ends with two scenes from today. One shows the meeting between Ernest Gordon and the former imperial translator Takashi Nagase on February 4, 2000 in the cemetery of the "Railway of Death" in Kanchanaburi in what is now Thailand, 55 years after Japan's unconditional surrender. Both men dedicated their lives to religion after the war. The other shows a parade of veterans from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to mark their honor on July 5, 1999 by Queen Elizabeth in Scotland .

Awards

  • In 2001 David L. Cunningham was nominated for Best Feature Film at the Hawaii International Film Festival
  • In 2002 at the Heartland Film Festival , Jack Hafer won the Crystal Heart Award
  • In 2002 David L. Cunningham won the Grand Prize for Dramatic Feature at the same festival
  • In 2003 the film was nominated in the following categories by the Political Film Society , USA: Exposé, Peace and Human Rights

Soundtrack

  1. Moya Brennan  - Mo Mhiann (Healing Heart)
  2. Moya Brennan  - I Will Go (Campbell's Theme)
  3. Moya Brennan  - La Na Cruinne (End Of Time)
  4. John Cameron  - Find The Place
  5. John Newton  - Amazing Grace
  6. Edward Elgar  - Pomp And Circumstance
  7. Johann Sebastian Bach  - Jesus, Joy Of Man's Desiring
  8. George M. Cohan  - Yankee Doodle Boy
  9. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky  - Swan Lake: Valse

literature

  • Ernest Gordon : In the valley of the Kwai (=  Konstanzer Taschenbuch . No. 49 ). 2nd Edition. Christliche Verlagsanstalt, Konstanz 1968 (original title: Through the valley of the Kwai . New York 1962. Translated by Hans-Georg Noack , first edition: 1964).
  • Ernest Gordon: Miracle on the River Kwai . Fount Paperbacks, 1977, ISBN 0-00-633265-X .
  • David L Cunningham, Robert Carlyle, Kiefer Sutherland, Ciarán McMenamin, Brian Godawa: To end all wars. The real hell on the River Kwai . Starmedia Home Entertainment, 2002 (war film - feature film, USA 2001, DVD video).

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