To End All Wars

**Jerry** · 9th April 08, 05:09 AM

I have it on one of Charlie Zham's Cds also. It is indeed very stirring. It is on this album, whis available at Charlie's website.

http://www.charliezahm.com/albums4.html

**AL-58** · 9th April 08, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by cajunscot

Al,

John Williamson does a wonderful version of "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" on one of his CDs -- very haunting indeed.

T.

I don't believe the original Bogle version can be beat personally. I do know it's been covered hundreds of times though, to the extent that some accredit the song to "trad" ignoring the fact the writer is still alive, Eric Bogle laughs at that one himself. When it first hit the sales charts as a hit, he didn't know at all, he was working in a power station in Scotland temporarily while settling his mothers affairs after she passed. His boss came up to him one day and asked "Are you Eric Bogle..."

The Pogues have a good one too, very different. I love the Banjo solo at the start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFjToKuZQM

Al

**DWFII** · 15th April 08, 06:45 AM

Feeling a little bloody-minded today so please forgive me if I offend anyone...

I didn't like this movie at all. I was prepared to like it...I like Robert Carlyle and I generally like military films...but I thought this was so poorly done.

Not only were the cast poorly and inconsistently kitted out, there were just a number of things that seemed kind of half-a**ed to me. For instance, at the end, after how long in captivity? under brutal conditions, where knives, razors, and other sharp instruments might have been in short supply if not altogether proscribed, none of the men in the prison camp needed a shave?!! Hard to believe.

But more than that...and I cannot speak for the men who actually went through that experience...if the events were depicted as they actually happened it may have been the worst case of mass Stockholm Syndrome in recorded history!

I guess I don't believe it.

Which left me feeling like I had watched a sermon not a movie. Fine for those in the choir but that must be a pretty select group.

**macwilkin** · 15th April 08, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by DWFII

Feeling a little bloody-minded today so please forgive me if I offend anyone...

I didn't like this movie at all. I was prepared to like it...I like Robert Carlyle and I generally like military films...but I thought this was so poorly done.

Not only were the cast poorly and inconsistently kitted out, there were just a number of things that seemed kind of half-a**ed to me. For instance, at the end, after how long in captivity? under brutal conditions, where knives, razors, and other sharp instruments might have been in short supply if not altogether proscribed, none of the men in the prison camp needed a shave?!! Hard to believe.

But more than that...and I cannot speak for the men who actually went through that experience...if the events were depicted as they actually happened it may have been the worst case of mass Stockholm Syndrome in recorded history!

I guess I don't believe it.

Which left me feeling like I had watched a sermon not a movie. Fine for those in the choir but that must be a pretty select group.

The story is based on a book written by Ernest Gordon, who was a POW of the Japanese and later, a Presbyterian minister, so yes, in a way, it was a bit a of a sermon. I can see where you would be confused if you were not aware of that fact.

http://www.pauladams.org/Stories/ErnestGordon.htm

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/02/q1/0121-gordon.htm

Obviously Hollywood dramatized a good bit of the story, as they normally do, and yes, movie companies do get it wrong in terms of uniforms, consistancy, etc. But I would suggest you read Ernest Gordon's account, Through the Valley of the Kwai before you pass judgement on Mr. Gordon.

Yes, first-hand accounts written many years after the fact can be riddled with inaccuracies and details forgotten -- but until you read the book, I don't think you can pass judgement on the author's reliability.

Regards,

Todd