Shot on Kauai, movie’s national release is pending It was 300 thumbs up last Sunday at the local premiere of the Kaua’i-made film “To End All Wars.” Dozens of Kaua’i residents who had worked as extras and crew members attended
Shot on Kauai, movie’s national release is pending
It was 300 thumbs up last Sunday at the local premiere of the Kaua’i-made film “To End All Wars.”
Dozens of Kaua’i residents who had worked as extras and crew members attended two free showings Sunday at Waimea Theater and gave the film a rousing ovation as the credits rolled.
The one-day showing was the highlight of the three-day Kaua’i section of this year’s Hawaii International Film Festival. “To End All Wars” opened the festival in Honolulu earlier this month.
Most of the film was shot at locations in a valley near Koloa, set as a prisoner of war camp in Thailand.
The international cast includes Robert Carlyle, Jimmy Cosmo and Ciaran McMenamin of Scotland, Kiefer Sutherland from the U.S., and Japanese actors Sakae Kimura, Masayuki Yui and Yugo Saso.
The screenplay is based on “Through the Valley of Kwai,” a real-life account written by Ernest Gordon, a Scottish survivor of a slave worker camp used by the Japanese Army to build a railroad through Thailand to Burma.
About 16,000 prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese Army to build a railroad through the jungles of Thailand; a fictional account of their story was told in the Academy Award-winning film “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”
Two restored sugar cane locomotives play a key role in the Kaua’i-set scenes. Grove Farm Homestead Museum allowed the film crew to move the locomotives from their warehouse in Puhi to the Koloa end of the Wilcox Tunnel in mauka Koloa.
“I’m really happy with what I saw,” said Scott Johnson of Kapa’a, a locomotives caretaker who was disguised as a Japanese soldier when he drove the train during the filming.
Over 200 extras cast on Kaua’i play POWs in various stages of imprisonment in the film.
Perhaps the most striking Kaua’i extra visible in the film is beekeeper David Maki of Hanapepe. Maki, who plays a starved POW, said he fasted down to his gaunt figure through a mango diet he went on last spring prior to the principal location filming, which took place last year on Kaua’i from May 1 through June 27.
A stylized photo of Maki’s back is being used as a key image in promoting the film.
The number one question at the local premiere was when “To End All Wars” would make it to local theaters as a first-run film.
Director David L. Cunningham of Pray for Rain Pictures Inc. said a national release date should be announced within the next few weeks, and the film could be in theaters within several months.
He said the attack of Sept. 11 cast a pale over the North American premiere at a film festival in Toronto.
“Everyone bailed – critics, actors,” Cunningham said of the lack of celebrities and press at the showing. However, he added, the audience response was so positive that their e-mails and letters have helped to attract a distributor to back a national release.
Cunnigham praised the work of Kaua’i extras and production crew members, and the help he received from film coordinator Judy Drosd of the Kaua’i Film Commission. He said Kaua’i served well as a replacement of the jungles of Thailand.
The filming was a boost to the Kaua’i economy. The producers spent $5.5 million during the location filming, paying for 5,000 hotel room nights, plus hiring an average of 66 Kaua’i residents each filming day.
The film premiered at the Cannes International Film Market last May.
New media manager Chris Cook can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 222) and ccook@pulitzer.net
