Movie Mondays!

We only watched two movies this weekend, To End All Wars and Funny Farm.

To End All Wars
This may be the very best POW movie I have ever seen. I'm pretty sure it is a British movie as it stars a cast of unknowns (and Kiefer Sutherland). The film is a true story about a troop of Scottish Argyles captured by the Japanese is southeast Asia and forced to build a railroad. It is based on a book by Ernest Gordon who is played by Ciarán McMenamin. McMenamin is great in this part and I hope we see much more of him in the US.

Ernest, along with some of the other POWs work to bring civility and education to the prison camp. They set up a school and many of the prisoners begin to attend. Their education focuses on philosophy and religion. As the movie plays on, we notice a change with the prisoners. They are more accepting of the Japanese and working harder. This change is noticed by the camp leaders and the classes are actually encouraged.

I have never seen a war movie that had the message of humility, of humbling oneself to others, especially your enemies. It made me happy to see religion and philosophical ideas (like those of Plato) put to use in real situations that had positive outcomes. This rarely happens in movies these days. It's not like To End All Wars was a Christian film or anything like that. There was plenty of violence and cussing. It was just nice to see a war movie with some values behind it.

Lesson: Turn the other cheek for as long as possible, or else your captors may kill you before Liberation Day.


Funny Farm
I love classic Chevy Chase and I loved this movie. If you haven't seen it, it's a classic, and you must. As usual, Chevy plays a down to earth normal guy until something happens that sends him over the edge (see every National Lampoon Vacation movie). It really is a great film!

I don't have much else to say about this movie except that it really seems to stand up really well to the tests of time. It is over 20 years old, and still as enjoyable as it was the first time I saw it. I really truly wish that Hollywood still made films like this. It's not raunchy or dirty (don't get me wrong, I love that too), and it has a character we can all relate too interacting with a bunch of quirky people. I love the way Chevy acts and overacts and how he is so genuine and caring, even to a fault. Rent or buy it!

Here is one of the only scenes I could find on You Tube (turn it up a little):


Lesson: If you buy a dog to be your friend, make sure he loves you before you let him run around on his own.