Robert Carlyle (Trainstopping, The Beach), Kiefer Sutherland (24, The Lost Boys, Phone Booth), Cieran McManamin and Mark Strong shine through in Oscar worthy performances in this powerful true story of (as the tagline says) the will to survive and the courage to forgive.
Director David L. Cunningham's film, based on World War II veteran Ernest Gordon's book, is a thing of beauty. Never mind all those so-called 'American Classics' like American Beauty and The Cider House Rules. Don't get me wrong, those are excellent movies, but I just see To End All Wars as better filmmaking triumph. The film shows the true horrors that British and American soldier faced in a Japanese prison camp during WWII.
With McManamin and Strong being little-known actors, I thought that Carlyle and Sutherland would over-shadow them. But that is not the case as they act as supporting material to McManamin's breathtaking leading performance and Strong is equally as 'strong'.
But To End All Wars doesn't just have wonderful performances. Every last detail is done to perfection, especially Cunningham's direction. But, there is one thing that does puzzle me and that is if Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black and The Rock are both in IMBd's Top 250, then why isn't this?
