A WWII drama that tries hard

Involving the construction of a railroad by prisoners of war, “To End All Wars” is inevitably reminiscent of “The Bridge Over the River Kwai,” and it has a present-coda in the manner of “Saving Private Ryan.” Taking an inspirational approach to the standard brutal World War II Japanese POW drama, it is not remotely in the league of those two classics. It is solidly crafted enough from inherently powerful true-life material, however, that WWII buffs and religiously inclined audiences won’t be disappointed.

There’s potentially a much stronger film in the memoirs of Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the Chungkai camp in the Burma-Siam jungle, but his adapter, Brian Godawa, and director David L. Cunningham take a relentlessly straight-on, by-the-book approach to a story rich in possibilities for complexity and irony. The result is ultimately more grueling than rewarding.

Gordon (Cieran McMenamin), a young Scots captain, is among a small group of Allied soldiers captured in 1942 after the Japanese invasion of Singapore. In his group are defiant Maj. Ian Campbell (Robert Carlyle) and Lt. Jim Reardon (Kiefer Sutherland), a cynical Yank. The Japanese military officers in charge of the camp are fanatic emperor worshipers who see their prisoners as inferiors to be treated savagely for the slightest infraction.

Those who resist merely make everything worse, especially with the advent of the arduous construction of the “Railway of Death,” intended as a supply line for the invasion of India. Supported by the deeply spiritual Dusty Miller (Mark Strong), Gordon establishes an informal Jungle University to raise the morale of his fellow POWs, which in turn sparks an ever-expanding spiritual awakening throughout the camp that Campbell regards as a threat to his dream of escape.

The notion that a fellow prisoner could be a greater enemy than one’s casually sadistic captors is chilling and worthy of further development than it gets here.

“To End All Wars” is entirely professional but could have been a lot more rewarding.

-- Kevin Thomas

“To End All Wars.” MPAA rating: R, for strong war violence and for some language. Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes. Exclusively at Arclight Cinemas, 6360 Sunset Blvd., (323) 464-4226.