Toendallwars

[Bobtheduck]

I wrote about this in another thread, and um... I want to give my feelings on it...

In my opinion, this is the first christian movie to be completely honest and not be so stuck on themselves they forgot there is a real world out there and people that don't follow the bible. The message is one of forgiveness and reconciliation and has a very powerful "type" of Jesus (type is a theological term that means something like "example" or something... It means that in real life, someone inadvertantly acted out something that was part of the whole of something else)

I urge every one of you (over 18, of course) to pick up this movie when it receives a domestic release. IF you are in the UK or Australia, it's allready been released as a prerelease and will receive nationwide distrobution in October... If you're in the US, like me, the release in the States is unknown. If you have a DVD player that's multi-region or a computer DVD-rom, you should be able to bid for one of them on ebay (they have australian and UK regions right now, both PAL I believe). It is the single most powerful movie I've ever seen (even though I haven't seen all of it) Every time I saw a new moment, it amazed me. No, i wasn't in it and no I don't know anyone who was (I know Kiefer Sutherland by name and a couple movies and 24 on tv only) so this isn't some kind of ad. It's important to me because this is the direction I think Christian media should be going.

I think it is even the first Christian movie to receive an award that wasn't "christian." I may be wrong. In any case, it won the Toronto Film festival award... And it garnered attetion of some big people like Speilburg (who is now producing movies instead of directing) who offered David Cunningham a directing job... (I'm not sure if he took it, but...)

In any case, you should watch it if you have a chance.

[Technomancer]

what's it about?

[Bobtheduck]

what's it about?

It's about prisoners in a Japanese prison camp in world war II. It's a true story, and it's about forgiveness and reconciliation. If you follow my link http://www.argyllfilms.com you can see a trailer and get more info including pics. A group of scottish soldiers are captured by the Japanese and forced along with thousands of other Brittish, American, Aussie, and probably Chinese soldiers to work on building a railroad into india. This event was made popular in the movie "Bridge on the river Kwai"

as for "objectionable content"

It's loaded with swearing and (understandable because of the time the events happened in) racial slurs. Not just towards the japanese, but also towards americans and English people... There is a lot of violence, some gore, and... Naked man butt (all of which merely add up to a very realistic portrayal of what happened there)

The person who wrote the story and actually experienced it, Ernest Gordon, is a Christian. The director is a Christian and I think the screenplay writer is most likely a Christian. I'm beginning to think not many of the Actors were Christians though. I'm pretty sure Kiefer isn't and Robert Carlyle probably isn't either.

Despite the content that rattled some christians, this movie is the best Christian Movie ever made and it's one of the best movies period. And it is probably the best war movie made too, but I may find opposition to that in the case of "Schindler's List" but the message of Forgiveness and Reconciliation is much higher than that of compassion, because you can't have reconciliation without compassion, and it is compassion for someone who has harmed you, not just for someone who meant nothing for you.

[Technomancer]

As a movie how does it stack up against the original 'Bridge on the River Kwai'?

[Bobtheduck]

As a movie how does it stack up against the original 'Bridge on the River Kwai'?

It's more like a modern war movie, so they sorta exist in different Genres. Besides that, TEAW is a little closer to the true story. "Bridge" is a fictional account of the historical event. That means that they took the historical backing of the true event and made thier own story to it much like Saving Private Ryan, while TEAW was specific events that really happened (though they had to leave out a couple people because of cast constraints...)

As for whether it's a better movie, it really depends on your tastes, but as for the message, the message in TEAW is definaltey more important. It is one of the primary tenents of Christianity (forgiveness and reconcilation)

Many fans of classics don't like newer movies and the reality they portray. There is a certain class to the old movies, even if they are a bit more fantasy (even the "true stories") than many modern movies. So it really depends on where you stand there.

It's possible that the cost of the two movies was about the same (well, almost... I'm really just guessing) because TEAW was put together with a very low budget (11 million, I believe). However, what they did with this budget was amazing. The acting, for the most part, was first rate. It was very moving from one end to another. I'd reccommend it to everyone over 18.

[Rashiir]

The real question is: Does it have a good catchy theme like "Bridge"?

[Bobtheduck]

Naw... The theme for TEAW isn't catchy... It's "moving"

[Bobtheduck]

Hmm... back to the whole "swearing" argument a while back, a pastor got up after a showing of it, and was really upset over the language... Jack Hafer gave his standard well rehearsed answer "This isn't a Christian movie" though that is such a farce... If I had been there, I would have had some good stuff to say to that pastor... Man, thin skinned Christians... So delicate, they cry out in pain because there's a pea under their matress... (by they, I mean thin skinned Christians, not all Christians... I'm not that thin skinned, though I do get offended by the thin skinned... I guess it's like being intolerant of the intolerant... pretty hypocritical)

[madphilb]

There are several "slants" or views to things like movies. Some people take the attiude that we shouldn't watch anything that isn't acceptable for children to watch, a friend of mine is somewhat like that (the funny thing is, one of her favoriate shows, CSI, was listed by one of those "family" orginizations as being one of the worst shows because of the content, i.e. - gore, subject matter, etc).

I have a lot of respect for Jack Hafer (I think I'm thinking of the right person), but that doesn't mean I agree with his view on everything.

The problem with language is that it's somewhat dynamic and changes (not to mention that what is considered an acceptable standard in scociety changes).

This sounds like one of those "must see" movies (I'll have to keep an eye out for it).... IMHO "Shindler's List" is a must see movie, yet it's got a R rating for several reasons. The movie wouldn't have quite had it's impact had it been toned down from what it was.

I don't know that it's so much thin skinned as personal conviction, however I think we need to not loose sight of the forest amongst the trees (or something like that )

PHIL