Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.
Acting
Robert Carlyle's rage could power a small city.
Writing
Gordon's real memoir gives this brutal authenticity.
Direction
Cunningham lets silence scream louder than torture.
Director
David L. Cunningham
Ciarán McMenamin
Capt. Ernest Gordon
Robert Carlyle
Major Ian Campbell
Kiefer Sutherland
Lt. Jim 'Yanker' Reardon
Mark Strong
Dusty Miller
Yugo Saso
Takashi Nagase
Sakae Kimura
Sgt. Ito
James Cosmo
Col. Stuart McLean
Masayuki Yui
Captain Noguchi
John Gregg
Camp Doctor Coates
Shû Nakajima
Nagatomo
Pip Torrens
Lt. Foxworth
Brendan Cowell
Pte. Wallace Hamilton
Adam Sinclair
Jocko
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Ernest Gordon became Dean of Princeton Chapel; Nagase attended his 1998 funeral, having spent decades atoning.
Released two months before 9/11, its message of enemy-love became almost unwatchably relevant, then commercially radioactive.
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