I've just seen this movie on television and just had to make a comment about it. It has been the second or third time I've watched it and it never got boring even though I knew the scenes.
To not spoil this movie for people who haven't seen it, I won't go into detail. Anyway, there has been written a lot about it on the internet. You do get to see a lot of cruel scenes in this movie but never find any scene inappropriate. Anyway, the things in this movie have really happened as it is based on a true story. It is the story of a handful of soldiers from the 93rd division of the Scottish "Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders". They had been imprisoned as POWs by the Japanese during WW II. While they were in the prison camp the Japanese decided that they had to work on a railway between Burma and Thailand. This railway, part of it being the infamous "Bridge over the River Kwai", is still best known as the "Death Railway", since approximately 150,000 POWs and native workers died during its construction.
What makes this movie so brilliant is the moving portrayal of their characters by Carlyle and Sutherland, who both deserved at least an Academy Award nomination for their efforts, in my opinion. The directing is very nicely done as well, I cannot tell of any flaw witnessed.
Being based on the true story of Ernest Gordon, one of the few survivors, this picture is simply a must-see. It shows without any restraint the way war really is and what it was like to have to suffer being a POW in this prison camp. Additionally, it also shows the only way of surviving mentally the things you were to experience there. And that is forgiving your enemy.
To not spoil this movie for people who haven't seen it, I won't go into detail. Anyway, there has been written a lot about it on the internet. You do get to see a lot of cruel scenes in this movie but never find any scene inappropriate. Anyway, the things in this movie have really happened as it is based on a true story. It is the story of a handful of soldiers from the 93rd division of the Scottish "Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders". They had been imprisoned as POWs by the Japanese during WW II. While they were in the prison camp the Japanese decided that they had to work on a railway between Burma and Thailand. This railway, part of it being the infamous "Bridge over the River Kwai", is still best known as the "Death Railway", since approximately 150,000 POWs and native workers died during its construction.
What makes this movie so brilliant is the moving portrayal of their characters by Carlyle and Sutherland, who both deserved at least an Academy Award nomination for their efforts, in my opinion. The directing is very nicely done as well, I cannot tell of any flaw witnessed.
Being based on the true story of Ernest Gordon, one of the few survivors, this picture is simply a must-see. It shows without any restraint the way war really is and what it was like to have to suffer being a POW in this prison camp. Additionally, it also shows the only way of surviving mentally the things you were to experience there. And that is forgiving your enemy.