To End All Wars is based on the autobiography of Rev. Ernest Gordon, ultimately Dean of Chapel at Princeton University, but a captain of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when his battalion was forced to surrender upon the fall of Singapore in February 1941 (a couple of months after Pearl Harbor). The viewer should know in advance that events, as seen through the eyes and memory of Ernest Gordon, are filtered through the lens of the mind of a man who entered captivity as an agnostic, but who became a committed Christian by the combination of inescapable hardship and the example of two Christian soldiers who nursed him through the course of a near-fatal disease, and who routinely placed the welfare of others above their own survival.

The key characters, most worthy of reflection, were, in my opinion:

Ernest Gordon (author of the autobiography on which the film is based), played by Ciarán McMenamin.
Takashi Nagase (the Japanese Cambridge-educated interpreter), played by Yugo Saso.
Sergeant Ito (the exceedingly harsh but, in a way, noble senior sergeant among the captors), played by Sakai Kimura.
Dusty Miller (the de facto chaplain of the prisoners and, ultimately, apparently a Christ-figure), played by Mark Strong.

The characters next most worthy of attention:

Lieutenant Colonel McLean (commanding officer of the captured Argyll & Sutherland battalion –
thoroughly professional and duty-conscious – perhaps the more realistic equivalent of the Alec Guinness role in Bridge on the River Kwai), played by James Cosmo.

Major Campbell (a small, weak, emotional man, obsessed with revenge, but unable to follow through or, generally, to be responsible), played by Robert Carlyle.

The character least worthy of attention was Jim “Yankee” Reardon, played by Kiefer Sutherland (not that Kiefer Sutherland played the part poorly), roughly equivalent to the William Holden part in Bridge on the River Kwai. The American character (played by a "star") may be simply a plot device added by the screenwriter to appeal to American audiences.

It is quite plausible that there would come to be an understanding between an educated, decent, prisoner (Gordon) and an educated, decent, captor (Nagase), with neither being disloyal to his own camp. The degree to which Dusty Miller became, explicitly, a Christ-figure through actual crucifixion might be exaggerated, but I have no doubt that Miller occupied that role in Gordon's memory, and no doubt that Miller's self-sacrifice affected all (including, perhaps, Sergeant Ito).

Briefly, in addition to the illustration of Christian faith central to Gordon’s view and purpose, the film was about two value systems, each incomprehensible to the other. The military services of the U.K., the Commonwealth, and the U.S. have well-developed values regarding integrity, duty, and obligation. The value system of the Japanese military of the WWII era was that of Bushido – the code of the warrior. The Western system does not promote surrender, but recognizes a necessity of surrender when there is no further hope of either effective resistance or escape. Bushido requires fighting to the death, or at least death, when there is no further hope of either effective resistance or escape. Therefore, the very fact that the Allied forces had surrendered made them persons without honor in the Japanese eyes – made the surrendered soldiers “non-persons” unentitled to respect or consideration – useful only as expendable slaves. Both value systems are, of course, exceedingly complex, involving matters of courtesy, obligation, and requisite behaviors of subordinates, and the film supplies examples of failures on both sides (the drunken camp commander on the Japanese side, and the Campbell/Carlyle character on the Allied side).

"To End All Wars" seems to have been poorly reviewed by most secular reviewers. This may be because a number of sub-plots were never resolved, or because a number of moral and ethical dilemmas were never resolved. American films tend to tie up all the loose ends. American audiences seem to demand this. Most foreign audiences and, therefore, most foreign films seem to be tolerant of loose ends. (In this reviewer’s opinion, loose ends are typical of real life.) Although the film was poorly reviewed by most secular reviewers, it was well-reviewed by most reviewers representing Christian entities. To End All Wars is recommended by this reviewer, not as a great film, but as a good film, and an unusual one.

Film: TO END ALL WARS, 2001, Directed by David L. Cunningham, Screenplay by Brian Godawa