One of the most powerful movies I've ever seen, on human spirit through the most horrendous circumstances. Based on a true story, thought provoking, a must see

This movie totally slid by me when it came out and I am usually pretty good at spotting good war movies. It was a really well crafted movie that kind of felt like a realistic version of the factually flawed movie "The Bridge over the River Kwai. No catchy whistle tunes, just the cold harshness of the non Geneva convention signing Japanese Imperial Army.The story follows a group of British soldiers as they surrendered to the Japanese and came to suffer the war as slaves in a POw camp. It illustrates the cold, in human treatment they suffered and how they survived in the face of such adversity and evil. It is a great tale, as gut-wrenching as it is, of both the evil humans do to each other and the strength that we can have to survive.The movie was filmed pretty well, and the actors, especially Robert Carlyle gave strong performances. As good as it was I still do think there was room for improvement, and it was still a somewhat sanitized version of what life in these camps were really like. Perhaps that was to get through the censors or the just didn't want to create a controversy or face a backlash for being to grotesque, such as the controversy "Saving Private Ryan," received for being to realistic in regards to it's D-Day scenes.I do think it is a movie worth watching for the history alone.Like my reviews, hate em? Comments, hate mail, or have a DVD you would like reviewed? send me an e-mail at : [email protected]

This film isn't about gun fights, things blowing up and setting up strategies but about human nature in times of war and how people can change and may not have the same views as some of the soldiers may expect. Knowing some information about WW2, the Japanese did some terrible things to other countries and the people they captured. And this film will show how terrible it was for the Japanese prisoners of war labour camp and might makes some audiences get really angry and some may find some scenes difficult to watch, by showing many types of torture. Showing the humanitarian aspects of the movie can be haunting and yet powerful and showing how brotherhood and friendship during the times of being a prisoner of war was very touching. This was a inspirational film and I found that everyone of the cast put on a great performance. If your expecting a war movie with thing blowing and and a lot of gunfire, you won't be getting it in this film, but will get so much more by showing the values of war.8.5/10

I have read about 20 of the comments from the haters and I decided to re-watch the film to try and find what they were complaining about. I honestly can not find out what is wrong about the film. The acting was way better than average and was extremely demanding. The script was good, not fantastic or anything, but hardly horrible. I wouldn't say it was a 10 star movie, but leaving hate comments of 1 star is extremely harsh and unfair. I recommend it along with the other greats of WWII films. As far as it being unrealistic... well I would say it probably never happened, but people deal with pain in different ways. They choose a much different path and I do think it is 100% believable because it has happened before. My last complaint is people complaining about violence or goriness in war movies. Honestly it's war what do you expect? I enjoyed it and I'm sure most people will.