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To End All Wars (film)

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To End All Wars is a 2001 film about four Allied POWs who endure harsh treatment from their Japanese captors during World War II while being forced to build a railroad through the Burmese jungle.

Directed by David L. Cunningham. Written by Brian Godawa and Ernest Gordon.
In war, you have to survive.taglines

Ernest Gordon

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  • Lt. Jim Reardon, Merchant Marine, one of the few Americans in the area, attached himself to the Argyles during the Allied surrender. We called him "Yanker," because he was an American - and a bit of a wanker.
  • When you surrender in war, you're stripped of your dignity as a soldier. And all you've got left is your fellow comrades, many of whom you've just met.
  • Ernest Gordon: What is the consequence of a single life weighing less than a feather? What is the final destination of hatred? When you look in the eyes of the enemy and you see yourself. At what price mercy? Who is my neighbor? How many times shall I forgive my brother? What does it mean to love ones enemies? What can a man give in exchange for ones soul? These are the questions that I faced in my prison camp; the answers changed my life forever.

Dr. Coates

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  • [examining newly arrived POWs] Relish your health now, gentlemen: it's the last you'll see of it.

Primrose

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  • [to new arrivals] Officers, try to keep your shirt *on*. It'll distinguish you from the grunts, which is about the *only* thing that's keeping us from degenerating into a bloody anarchy.

Dialogue

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Dr. Coates: [to a freshly-beaten Gordon] Ah. Looks like you didn't bow. Always bow before a guard, Korean or Jap. And *never* look 'em in the eyes when they pass you: that's pure defiance. Always look away. Rules of Bushido.
Lt. Jim Reardon: Bushido?
Dr. Coates: Yeah. Their kind of chivalry. Respect and obligation. If you don't respect them, they feel obligated to beat you. Nothing personal.
Ernest Gordon: Well, it sure as bloody hell feels personal.
Dr. Coates: Yeah, well, it works both ways. They do the same to their own.
Lt. Jim Reardon: Now there's a comfort.
Lt. Jim Reardon: Colonel, I've been watching these Nips. There's never more than a handful of 'em guarding the perimeter at any given time. And they're not watching very closely. It just doesn't make sense to me unless...
McLean: Unless what?
Dr. Coates: Well, unless every prisoner's been caught or died in a thousand miles of hostile jungle. Unless the local villagers are willing to turn in a POW for a bowl of rice. Unless - escape is impossible.
Lt. Jim "Yanker" Reardon: Take a look around you! Take a look in the eyes of these men. You tell me what you see. That's right, Ernie, they're dead already. You know it and I know it. At least with escape, you gave us one thing. Hope. Hope, Ernie. Because without that, we might as well be sitting in there with our thumbs up our ***** waitin' for the end to come! Is that what you want?
Dusty Miller: You know, a man can experience an incredible amount of pain and suffering if he has hope. When he loses his hope... that's when he dies.

Taglines

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  • In war, you have to survive.
  • In a jungle war of survival, they learned sacrifice. In a prison of brutal confinement, they found true freedom.

Cast

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